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Never A Dull Moment–INDEED!

I can’t believe I’ve not written in two months–and then again, I can!  I had a friend tell me I better change the name of my blog!   Too many "not dull moments" around here! 

 

 

Shortly after my last entry, I finally succumbed to the respiratory stuff that was floating around.  Thankfully none of us had it really bad, but just enough to make us feel miserable and like doing nothing!   And it was the very day I was going to make my elderberry syrup, too!  

 

 

When we finally were all getting better, we were planning to go to a friend’s house on a certain Thursday.  In God’s providence, we changed it to Friday.   On March 13, it had warmed up nicely and the little girls were playing outside.   Bekah runs in the house and says, "The barn’s on fire!"   Running outside, I saw it certainly WAS on fire!  I ran back in and….you know those horrible dreams where you can’t dial 911?!   I was living one of them!!!!   Took three tries to calm myself  enough to hit the right numbers! 

 

 

The girls were already getting the goats out.   We have 40 rabbits all in cages and deeper in the barn.  We just couldn’t risk children to get them out.   Thankfully we live close to town, and the fire department was here in no time.  My husband says another 5 minutes or so and it would have went through the roof, meaning we would have lost the battle and the barn.  And our barn is close to the house! 

 

And we were almost out of town for the day.   God’s Providence!

 

 

And we can’t see that part of the barn well from the kitchen window…but little girls were playing outside.  God’s Providence!

 

 

And my neighbor was going by taking her children to play practice, but got out to help us get the goats into the side lot.   God’s Providence!

 

 

The inside looks worse.  It went up, burning a good portion of the higher loft (that we didn’t use much, thankfully!), and started going towards the back of the barn, too, where the camper is stored!  And the tractor was in there.  And the lawnmower!  And all the bikes.  Oh.  And the bunnies! 

 

 

We lost most of our hay, but thankfully, only one goat eventually died (a week later, probably from pneumonia because we had to move them to a draftier part of the barn).    It could have been much, much worse!  No structural damage, and the insurance is paying enough to get the repairs done–hopefully next week, dh will start on that with his helper.

 

 

I’d post pictures here, but I need to figure out how to upload them smaller!  I’m using up too much space!  (I’m soooo not computer savvy!  )

 

 

Thankfully, all the other things that have taken my time lately have not been that dramatic!!!  Just the usual "trying to get our life back to normal" things.  Whatever normal is!!!

 

We bought this place primarily because of the barn.   It is a neat old barn with a gambrel roof and has the world’s famous barn swing in there!  Well, it’s famous in these parts, anyways!     So many memories…my girls built their "town" that became quite the "curriculum" for a few years!  (They had a monetary system–acorns, a museum, grocery store, water works, restaurants, visitor’s center and many other businesses!   They also had a weekly "newspaper"!)   The same daughter who ran to tell me it was on fire fell from the loft almost 4 years ago, getting her a Samaritan helicopter ride to a hospital 1 1/2 hours away.  (No lasting effects from the head injury, praise God!)    It would have been sad to lose it for the memories as well as the aesthetic value it adds to our home.   We’d never be able to replace it exactly, but my husband said we’d build the biggest one we could if it came to that!   Otherwise we would just become another farmhouse in a cornfield.   Thank the Lord He spared it!

 

And to think if it had happened at night…our home and very lives could have been in jeopardy!

 

 

God’s Providence!

 

 

What started it?  Baby goats knocking their heat lamp around, caught the OSB on fire (dh had put it up to help block the wind), then the hay.   If we’d had hay up in that loft….

 

 

Needless to say, we’ll be doing something a bit different for the winter babies next year!!!

 

 

Life never ceases to afford all kinds of learning opportunities!

 

 

Did I tell you that we will be having "Richardson Fire Safety Awareness" week soon?! 

 

 

Thankful for His protection!

 

 

Trisch

2 Responses to “Never A Dull Moment–INDEED!”

  1. Anonymous says:

    We're praising the Lord with you for His protection through all of that. Destiny especially sympathized with you- she said it was one of her nightmares that the barn would catch on fire. I had never really thought about that as much- I'm not in our barn much. : )

    Glad to see you updated, too. : ) Although I completely see why you hadn't been able to do it yet(even if your barn hadn't caught on fire). God bless you guys! Love in Christ ~DB : )

  2. cofeeiv says:

    I enjoyed stumbling on your blog.

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