Getting 'er Done

With deepest thanks to Justin who spent the weekend dragging out the debris and sorting it into piles for recycling or disposal.

Barn Fire Update--Moving Ahead

After a very long wait, we have finally received a check from our insurance company for the loss of the barn. We have held off clearing away any of the debris, fearful the insurance people might want to challenge our claim. But they didn't and now we can move forward.

We want to get all the rubble removed and start by restoring the basement on which the new barn/workshop will be built.  It will involve pouring a concrete floor and probably building a new concrete block wall within the old one. 

And we are going ahead with Easter Party plans -- even though the new building can't possibly be ready by then, we'll work something out. Forty-some years of community tradition is at stake!

This was brought home to me only yesterday when we received a card with a generous check from neighbors who have always come to the party and want to see it continue. 

Our first impulse was to return the check with thanks -- but their wish that we accept the gift 'in the spirit which it was given' made us reconsider.

And accept it as a pledge toward the Easter Party and our very special community. 

May Its Memory Be a Blessing

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The insurance will fall far short of replacing the barn as it was. We are talking about a simple one story frame building in the same footprint -- big enough for a shop and the iconic Easter Party. Eventually.

It's All Just Stuff

Photo Claui Skemp

Our big barn was completely destroyed early Sunday morning. Once a tobacco barn, it was converted years ago to John's wood-working shop. It was also the site of the Easter Party.

The good news is that friends, here helping Justin work on his house, who were staying in the barn got out safely.  And that the wonderful crews of the Walnut and Big Pine Volunteer Fire Departments were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby buildings or to the woods. And that we have insurance.

As we watched, we thought of California and the real devastation there . . .

The fire may have started with the wood stove, which was in use. The shop was full of flammable stuff -- propane tanks, varnishes and solvents, lumber, etc.,etc. etc. so the fire took hold quickly

Thank goodness our friends awakened in time and were able to escape out a back door

Morning came and we were thankful the fire had remained contained. It's likely to smolder for several days, the VFD guys said. 

We are all a little numb, but after viewing the remains this morning, the guys went back to work on fitting new windows in Justin and Claui's house. 

I mean, what better way to move forward?

Besides, it's all just stuff.

First Fire

They were givin' cold weather for last night, as my older neighbors say, and the temperatures were dropping. In the garden, I picked the last of my tomatoes, peppers, chard, and lettuce, then harvested a few more mushrooms. That done, I hauled my bounty to the house and lit the first fire of the season.

We always hold off as long as possible, shutting the windows a grudging one at a time and adding another layer of clothes rather than admit that the house is pretty chilly. The dogs and cats let us know it's time by curling up on pillows or, in the case of the cats, under a lamp.

There's a kerosene heater but with the price of fuel and the fact that we have lots of trees on the place, we are making an effort to heat mostly with wood as we did for years. It's more trouble and it makes a mess -- but people with six dogs and two cats are already used to that.

And the pleasure of watching the flames touches some core of primal delight. During this season as the hours of dark lengthen, and the air outside grows cold, the pleasure of a warm place by the fire is a pleasure we share with our earliest ancestors.

What a miracle it must have seemed to those early folk who learned how to capture and keep fire! And what a joy it still is!

As is the sight of a nice wood pile with its promise of warmth to come.

And while we're on the subject of heat -- Miss Susie Hutchins, the black and white kitty, was in search of warmth last night and when I left my laptop open and running while I attended to my printer, she curled up on the keyboard.

I returned and shooed her away to find that she had somehow activated Google desktop and now I had a little window that gave the high and low temperatures for the day -- in San Francisco.

I wonder what she's planning?