The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

"The weather outside is frightful, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." Band after band of snow keeps falling and although the inches vary in our community it is clear there is at least 25 inches or more of snow on the level. Ditches are completely full, making it difficult to determine where the road is, with many guessing wrong and getting stuck including the county road crew. Coulee's are full and wildlife are finding it difficult to find food. There are hard drifts, not the soft easy to bust through kind of drifts throughout the country. And when you look across the prairie there appears to be wave after wave of snow. Roads have been completely closed at least twice in the last week while waiting for the road crew to open them up again. At the time of this writing all county roads have at least one lane plowed, but if the wind blows again they'll be closed. Darin Schuster, Chouteau County Commissioner, said the crew has been out every day with at least two of them out until 2:30 in the morning. They've worked hard at trying to get to those with emergency's first and then turning around to get at least one lane plowed for the rest. Clearing the roads is like driving to Houston everyday with the cost of $7,000-$10,000 dollars each time all roads are cleared.

Members of the Boy's Pioneer Varsity team were out and about Friday lending a hand shoveling sidewalks and driveways for the community, with help from Heather and Scott Pleninger.

As a community, we have met this challenge with good spirits, every neighbor helping neighbor, digging people out, neighbors taking their tractors down the road to help get people out, help feeding livestock. You can hear the gratitude we have for each other over and over. The weather might get tiring, as winter still has six weeks to go, but saying thanks helps go a long way!

The Pioneer's boy basketball team found themselves without a game as their Friday game was canceled because of the weather. All ten boys looking to support their community started shoveling snow wherever it was most needed at 10:00 AM. They worked all day until 5:00PM taking a small break for lunch. A thankful recipient paid for their lunch at the Mint. Over 30 homes benefited from their efforts. Darin Genereux and Scott Pleninger pitched in with snow blowers. At one time, all ten players had a shovel lined up with each other to push snow out of a driveway, and one kid said, "wow look how well things go when we work together as a team. We can really make things happen." A great quote for any team, for any community. With supporting attitudes, we can dig out of anything. One appreciative person told them," well this is a slam dunk for the team, in my books!"