This past week was definately not in my top 10! On Monday, I came out of our house to get in my truck to go meet Mike in town. I looked over and noticed that my fence by one of our barns was on fire! When I ran around the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. Our barn was burned to the ground with just a few support beams still smoldering.
It looks so out of place to walk among the charred ruins and have life springing forth all around it. I was in shock and mildly traumatized...something I have never experienced in all of the traumatic experiences I have been through. I am usually so calm about it all. I was calm in the midst of it all while it was happening, but it was afterward that it set in. Well I guess you are waiting for the story so here it goes...
Earlier that morning, Josh and I had been doing chores and it was such a beautiful day that he didn't want to go in so I decided to clean up some of the area. I put some of the feed sacks and boxes in the 55 gallon burn barrel and burned them. I made sure the fire was out, and sprayed around it before going inside. Sometime during the day, a march wind kicked up and must have found some warm ashes deep down in the barrel and must have blown them into life. The fire started smoldering in the surrounding ground until it made it to the barn. The rest is history! A couple hours after we had come inside, I had the thought a couple of times that I should go check to make sure the fire was out. I kept pushing the thought away and checked out the window several times to reassure myself. Well from our house, you cant see the barn because the shop blocks the view, and so I didn't see the smoke.
After I saw the fire, I grabbed some shovels and the hose and began spraying the hot spots. The hose had terrible water pressure because it was old and had holes. As I was spraying the remaining fire, the nearby power pole fell down and because the wires were live and I was spraying water, I ran to the breaker box and flipped off the power, before there was a chance to be electrocuted. With the power off, our well shut off too, and so did our water supply. The wind kept blowing and fanning the fire further. Mike called and had headed into town unexpectedly, I told him what was happening, and he started home. One of our friends called for help.
In five minutes, I heard some sirens and looked over to see firemen coming around the corner and firetruck after firetruck coming to our farm. I have never been so grateful to see such hero's at any other time in my life. Our farm is the boundary for 5 volunteer fire districts and so we had at least a couple of trucks from each district show up! At least we know we are covered! After being sick to the stomach from the smoke and the thought of the bill we would receive, I found out that taxes cover the expense of the trucks and the firefighters are volunteer! I wanted to hug them all, I was so relieved. They were all so well trained and efficient. Because many of the fires they respond to are in the country, they have huge temporary tarp pools that they set up and they pump water from them as the water trucks fill them up again and again.
Some of our casualties included our two pregnant sows that probably died from the smoke inhalation. The irony about the whole situation is that we had a quote done on home insurance the week before, but we were in Denver so we hadn't followed through and had it put in force. I guess if you look on the bright side, Mike is in the scrap metal business so getting rid of all the junk metal will be no problem at all!
Moral of the story, dont procrastinate buying fire insurance, drown the ashes, and most importantly listen to the spirit!
It looks so out of place to walk among the charred ruins and have life springing forth all around it. I was in shock and mildly traumatized...something I have never experienced in all of the traumatic experiences I have been through. I am usually so calm about it all. I was calm in the midst of it all while it was happening, but it was afterward that it set in. Well I guess you are waiting for the story so here it goes... 
Earlier that morning, Josh and I had been doing chores and it was such a beautiful day that he didn't want to go in so I decided to clean up some of the area. I put some of the feed sacks and boxes in the 55 gallon burn barrel and burned them. I made sure the fire was out, and sprayed around it before going inside. Sometime during the day, a march wind kicked up and must have found some warm ashes deep down in the barrel and must have blown them into life. The fire started smoldering in the surrounding ground until it made it to the barn. The rest is history! A couple hours after we had come inside, I had the thought a couple of times that I should go check to make sure the fire was out. I kept pushing the thought away and checked out the window several times to reassure myself. Well from our house, you cant see the barn because the shop blocks the view, and so I didn't see the smoke. 
After I saw the fire, I grabbed some shovels and the hose and began spraying the hot spots. The hose had terrible water pressure because it was old and had holes. As I was spraying the remaining fire, the nearby power pole fell down and because the wires were live and I was spraying water, I ran to the breaker box and flipped off the power, before there was a chance to be electrocuted. With the power off, our well shut off too, and so did our water supply. The wind kept blowing and fanning the fire further. Mike called and had headed into town unexpectedly, I told him what was happening, and he started home. One of our friends called for help.
In five minutes, I heard some sirens and looked over to see firemen coming around the corner and firetruck after firetruck coming to our farm. I have never been so grateful to see such hero's at any other time in my life. Our farm is the boundary for 5 volunteer fire districts and so we had at least a couple of trucks from each district show up! At least we know we are covered! After being sick to the stomach from the smoke and the thought of the bill we would receive, I found out that taxes cover the expense of the trucks and the firefighters are volunteer! I wanted to hug them all, I was so relieved. They were all so well trained and efficient. Because many of the fires they respond to are in the country, they have huge temporary tarp pools that they set up and they pump water from them as the water trucks fill them up again and again.
Some of our casualties included our two pregnant sows that probably died from the smoke inhalation. The irony about the whole situation is that we had a quote done on home insurance the week before, but we were in Denver so we hadn't followed through and had it put in force. I guess if you look on the bright side, Mike is in the scrap metal business so getting rid of all the junk metal will be no problem at all!
Moral of the story, dont procrastinate buying fire insurance, drown the ashes, and most importantly listen to the spirit! 
Oh my gosh!! I am so sorry to hear about this! How scary!! Is there anything you need? I feel so bad! You're so brave I would have been a MESS!!
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