MENOMINEE — Larry Linsmeier found himself in quite the pickle when the power went out on Tuesday.
Most people have groceries to worry about — he had cows.
“Two days and they can start drying up,” said Linsmeier, owner of Linsmeier’s Livestock Farm, underneath the drone of a generator and a tractor.
The 40 cows are milked twice a day — and have been for 15 years.
Any less, and you lose your business.
But others were without power, too. Over 20,000 people in Menominee and Marinette counties watched their lights go out and their water stop running that night.
That’s about when Nick Theuerkauf, whose family owns Elmbrook Farms down the road, entered the picture. He and his family hooked up one of his spare generators — connected to a running tractor — so the farm could milk the cows and pump water for their troughs.
“If we wouldn’t have had power to run the bulk tank, that milk could’ve spoiled in there,” Linsmeier said.
The milk streams into pails and is hand-poured into storage — the 400-gallon bulk tank — then delivered daily to farms in Neenah and Lena.
The partnership worked out — Theuerkauf doesn’t have cattle, and the ground isn’t ready for planting yet.
“All I’m going to do is power my shop,” Theuerkauf said of the farm that’s been running since 1888. “That stuff can sit and wait; the animals can’t.”
Plus, in the county, people can often go without power longer than the hospitals, restaurants and other southern city dwellers who may have higher priority.
Wisconsin Public Service said the vast majority of customers impacted by last week’s storms had power restored by Friday night.
“Our crews are finding significant damage from the storm — including more than 1,500 reports of damaged utility poles, downed power lines, and large trees and tree limbs falling onto our electric equipment,” said Matt Cullen, a spokesperson for WEC Energy Group. “We have an army of field crews, including technicians from across Wisconsin and hundreds of extra workers from across the Midwest working nonstop on our restoration efforts.”
Theuerkauf, talking on a sunny Friday morning, said those past two and a half days were the longest the area had gone without power.
At 75 years old, Linsemeier agreed.
“This is the most damage I’ve ever seen with the poles and the wires and the snow,” Linsmeier said.
He said he wasn’t sure when the power would return, but the radio that droned on in the shop’s background had mentioned Saturday night.
Crew were working on the road on Saturday and power was restored by around 6 p.m., Linsmeier said.
Linsmeier Road, which bears his family’s name, was blocked by a drooping power line so low someone could hang clothes on it.
The top of the pole snapped from the bottom and reskewered itself into the ground like a toothpick in an appetizer.
At least three electrical lines were laid across the main thoroughfare, the result of the heavy snow and strong winds that continued to whip across the 280 acres surrounding the dairy farm, making it impassible.
Country roads, take me home — or not.
“I’ve never seen snow take out power lines,” said Carol, his wife.
“Neither one of us experienced nothing like this before,” Larry said.
Luckily, they redirected some trucks bringing a load of cattle through some backroads to get weighed at the farm last Tuesday.
The Theuerkaufs, with a few more generators to spare, had spent the better part of three days running to and from their neighbors and families to ensure they had power.
“Most of the younger farmers have a generator of their own,” Larry said.
His house across the street was down to 50 degrees.
“I sleep with my jacket on,” Carol said.
Larry, who has lived in that house his whole life, said the farm was established in 1903 and he has seen a lot of coming and going, including the days when he used to run a livestock auction for beef cattle — the biggest around.
He and his wife are both optimistic.
“It could be worse,” Carol said.
“We owe Nick a lot,” Larry said.
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