MORRIS, Minn. — Babies were due to arrive and nurse midwife Paige Hardy had to make sure she was there for the delivery at Stevens Community Medical Center in Morris during this week’s blizzard.
Hardy and her husband, Rich, set up the couple’s Ice Castle fish house in a parking lot at the University of Minnesota Morris on Wednesday to make sure Hardy could cover her on-call shift from 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday. Rich Hardy works at the university and got permission to park the house on campus.
Hardy lives in Chokio, about 14 miles from Morris.
“I have driven too many times on bad roads,” Hardy said. “It’s scary. I have moms that are due.”
Rather than take a chance to drive during a blizzard or stay in a motel, the Hardys decided to bring the ice fishing house to Morris. The university parking lot is just a few blocks from the hospital.
“It’s easier to do it this way. It’s less stressful,” Hardy said. No family wants a stressed nurse midwife at delivery, Hardy said with a laugh.
The couple bought the ice fishing house after they spent several days ice fishing in a primitive house on Lake of the Woods in far northern Minnesota. Hardy said she appreciates the isolation and quiet of ice fishing but never again wanted to fish in a portable or primitive ice fishing house.
While its primary use is for winter ice fishing, the couple camps in the house during the summer.
“We actually drove it to Pennsylvania one summer — I don’t recommend that — for a family reunion,” Hardy said. “We had people come out of the woodwork to come look at it. They asked what the holes were in the bottom and we explained that you drill holes for ice fishing. They thought we were crazy.”
But that was in the summer in Pennsylvania. While Hardy has been able to joke about ice fishing in the parking lot during the blizzard, saying she “broke the auger breaking through the concrete,” she takes comfort knowing she can make it to work during a blizzard.
