I'm late this morning as I had to go help the ladies get set up at the Club. 15C at the moment. So so day yesterday weather wise. But the Liberal victory after being ruled out by all the pundits was a great finish to the day. Bowled in Scotch pairs in the am then got Erika from school to have a special picture done at the club. Here's a link to where it is posted. https://sites.google.com/site/sidneylawnbowlingclub/news

The horses were unhitched from the sleigh and I drove them with the lines feeling confident that I could soon reach shelter.  The wind was blowing from the direction that I was to take to reach Saunders’ and I headed directly into it to guide me.

The sleigh marks left by us on our way to Nelsonville over the burned ground were obliterated and even if they were not it would have been impossible to have followed them as the darkness had now set in.

The storm increased in violence as I struggled along, and the biting cold wind was blowing a terrific gale, driving the snow in dense masses and sweeping the burned prairie clear of snow and piling it up in great drifts wherever there were shrubs or trees to hold it.

The horses would plunge through the drifts and would become entangled in the lines, so I then made use of the lines to lead them.  They were unwilling to head into the storm and always endeavored to turn their backs to it and go with the storm.

When they plunged through the drifts, I was in danger of being trampled upon and I had to exert myself to keep out of their way, and being so heavily clothed it was very exhausting.  I would allow the horses to turn their backs to the wind occasionally, and I would hold onto the harness and support myself and have a short rest.  I felt so warm and sleepy that I imagined it would be pleasant to lie down in the snow, but something always prompted me to keep on.

The moisture from my breath and snow froze into my mustache and formed into a solid mass, and it would freeze onto my chin and my eyelids would freeze together with the snow so I had to rub them frequently to clear them.  The horses became hard to control, and would insist on stopping near bushes to eat them.

During all this time the wind kept up a steady roar, and I had struggling and wandering around so much I thought it was time that I should have reached Saunders’ and then I came to a small shack.  I rapped on the door but received no response.  I could hear that there was something moving inside, so I shouted to them that I was lost and had a team with me, and pleaded to be admitted but still no reply so I concluded they did not want to let me in, so traveled on, and the horses reluctantly followed me.

After some time I came to a small log stable with a few loose poles on it for a roof.  I got the horses into it and with much difficulty with my benumbed hands managed to unharness them and tied them to a pole manger.

The logs had been chinked with hay, and some of it was still clinging to the logs.  This the horses eagerly reached for and ate, and they soon had all within reach devoured and I gathered all I could get and gave them.  They spent the balance of the night in gnawing the manger poles and the logs before them.

The shack was really no shelter in a way, for the wind blew through between the logs and snow drifted over the floor.  However, it gave me a rest and I crouched down in a corner where there was a big drift outside the logs to shelter me.  The warm drowsy feeling had left me sometime before I had reached here and now I kept up a constant shivering that I could not get rid of although I was warmly clad.  I felt confident that I was in no immediate danger of freezing to death, as long as I shivered for it kept me wide awake.