Todd Miller went out on Saturday to check the cattle on his farm and ranch north of Sylvia, near the Reno/Stafford county line. He found himself plodding through snow nearly up to his waist.
“I’m not in a drift,” Miller told his friend, Michael Pearce, who is also the Eagle’s outdoors writer. “I’d say we got at least 2 feet, maybe as much as 30 inches. The good thing is that it didn’t drift. I guess it was too wet and heavy to blow. My word, if this would have drifted like a lot of snows it’d have been a mess.”
“We have cows walking and dragging their bellies in the snow,” he added. “It’s the most snow I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”
Todd’s father, Bud Miller, is in his 80s and was raised in the same area. He’s seen bigger drifts, “but never this much snow just sitting there flat,” Todd said. “That’s what all of the old farmers are telling me…bigger drifts, but they’ve never seen regular snow this deep.”
Official reports of 28 inches came from places not far from Miller’s ranch, and snowfall of a foot or more was widespread in western and central Kansas.
As of noon on Monday, Miller said about half of the snow had melted. And one more thing: At this time last week Miller was worried because his wheat fields really needed moisture.
That’s no longer a concern.