Well, the best thing I can say about today’s steer-hauling task is that it’s over. 5 hours later.

We loaded our wonderfully compliant steers, two of them, into a borrowed horse trailer during the snowstorm last night so we’d be able to get off to a quick start bright and early this morning. Black Earth Meats, their final destination, is 40 minutes to the north via some quite curvy, hilly, back-country roads and we figured we’d need to take the drive slow and easy. We expected to encounter some drifting on the ridge roads today, but figured the roads would be pretty much cleared by 9 am or so. Even though we live out in the country, we find the roads get cleared quickly because the milk trucks absolutely must get through to the dairy farmers and the cheese factories.

Ah, not so today! I found the roads plowed, but already re-coated in a thin slick of snow. Just 15 minutes out of my driveway, I found myself slipping backwards down a very steep long hill on County A outside of Daleyville. Our farm truck on iced pavement was simply no match for the heavy trailer loaded with two thousand pounds of beef. For literally 20 minutes, I alternately gunned the engine in four-wheel-drive-low and furiouly braked to keep from sliding down, or worse yet, jack-knifing in the low ditch. By some miracle I had an idea to try pulling sideways rather than straight up to gain momentum and then perhaps find purchase on the gravelly shoulder. It worked. I crawled up the shoulder to the top of the hill and commenced crawling to the next town where some mechanics full-of-grace plugged me into their full schedule – truck, trailer, steers and all – and installed snow tires.

When I asked the head mechanic about my choices for tires, he said that the snow/mud tires they had in stock were good enough for any snowy days but the kind on which you should probably stay home. I got his point, but I was pretty stuck. Getting another appointment at a butcher was impossible for another month, and by then I might be facing an even worse day.

After another few hours of slightly-less-harrowing driving, I delivered the steers to their fate and headed home. Via a different route than didn’t involve that same steep hill. Tonight I’m sore in the arms, back and neck from gripping the steering wheel so tight! But a warm pumpkin curry dinner and a beer has fortified me somewhat, and I’m further cheered by the prospect of some delicious steak in a week or so.