A tent is no place to live through a Minnesota winter

"Anonymous" left a comment wishing I would expand on Esther Clara and her husband living in a tent through one Minnesota winter. Herb Ford counted himself blessed to have a good-paying job that winter. He had been promised that road construction crew members with families would live in cabins. After struggling through blizzards in their "Tin Lizzie" to the road construction site with two small children, they were issued a ragged tent for lodging, a small pot bellied stove for heat and cooking, and a metal chamber pot for their toilet. I can't imagine modern folks living like that, but Herb and Esther Clara squared their shoulders and said, "OK. We can do this." And they did. Herb and his fellow laborers worked 16 hours a day in howling winter winds, snow, and anything else Nature threw at them. Esther Clara cooked and washed with melted snow, entertained the kids, kept the chamber pot emptied and the ragged tent patched. She warmed quilts by the fire to warm Herb on his breaks and provided coffee with milk and sugar along with high calorie snacks for energy to keep him going. Herb thought building roads was an important job. It was the 1920s and America needed roads to transport people and goods across country. They survived, and decided if they could live with two kids in a tent through a Minnesota winter, they could do anything.

Could I do it? Not on my best day. Not ever. Could you do it?