The Snowdrifts

​During the homesteader days in Alberta which date back nearly 130 years ago, the winters, storms and temperatures were much more brutal and unforgiving than they are today. The modern farmhouse is equipped with every luxury known to man but a hundred years ago this was not the case and every night and day death was breathing down your back. Roads and stores were non existent in isolated areas. And the only place to walk was in the thick bush and underbrush.

​One of the most horrifying events that could happen to anyone on the prairies was that of a blizzard and the consequences of snowdrifts that could reach heights of twenty feet. The ultimate terror of being snowed in and the drifts getting so high that they swallowed your farmhouse was every man's dread. And when the farmhouse became covered with snow the chimney would be smothered and the smoke would begin to back up and flow into the house. It was quite the precarious situation because if you stayed in the house you would die from smoke inhalation but if you stepped outside the house you were going to freeze to death. So what did the farmers do? They walked helplessly and hopelessly looking for help, knowing that they were likely going to die.

As they walked they had a choice of walking on top of the snowdrifts and running the risk of falling through and becoming a frozen specimen like so many men before. Or they could walk in the blizzard's valleys and run the risk of getting snowed over by the blizzard. But of all the problems the most troublesome one was  of navigation in a blizzard. If only the men had a way of knowing where they were and had something to offer them guidance to get to the nearby town for shelter many of these men would have survived. 

Then one night a man named Maksym Dump braved his way through a formidable snow storm and unfortunately while walking on a snowdrift Maksym slipped under one of the drifts and was unable to dig his way out as he kept sinking deeper into the drift. Within minutes he suffocated. 

A year later a man named Pavlo Furr left his farmhouse during a blizzard in the hope of finding the nearest town. He started his walk into the white darkness of the blizzard. Soon Pavlo became confused and after an hour of walking he ended up right back at his farmhouse. Frustrated he set out again but this time he heard a voice calling his name from the blizzard, then seconds later he saw a face. It was his friend Maksym Dump who had died a year ago in a blizzard. Pavlo was shocked that it was his friend's voice and his face in the form of a blizzard. He spoke, "Pavlo, it's me your good friend, Maksym. Yes, I'm dead, but I have been reincarnated as a blizzard. I will guide you and any other men trying to make their way to the nearest town for safety."