Fire. Part 1

The past year has been a whirlwind.

We'll backtrack a bit.


Last summer my main goal was to make our little bitty old house into an inviting loving space. So I ransacked every single room. One by one I sorted everything. All the trash was tossed. Good things donated, stuff I "couldn't" get rid of went to the semi (our storage) & only the things we used every day were left.

August 19 was 2 days before school started. I has ALL the laundry done & convinced Beau to help me rearrange furniture. We loaded up the kids & headed 15 miles away to mow hay (I followed the tractor in the truck). Tractor gave us fits & so we went to check cows.

We were a mile back in the pasture when JP our neighbor calls us.
"Whatcha burnin?"
Nothin.
You're burnin something, I'll call you back! He says.
We then start out the pasture, shutting gates as we go.
JP calls back, nearly in tears. "I'm sorry honey, it's your house"
He then explains that the electrical wires are jumping & sparking. Roger was with him & he finds the electric shutoff at the pole & turns it off. Very dangerous! I stumble & babble through warning him that the grill had 2 brand new propane tanks. JP said they were going off bright & pretty (he is such an upbeat guy)
We let him go. Shut the last gate, and headed for "home".
The next neighbor Spence calls: "Whatcha burnin?
Beau in response "Apparently the house"
"Oh crap, we'll be right there"

The girls were nervous because they didn't know if it was the barn. Their horses were tied up. They were somewhat relieved, because no animals were lost.
Wyatt cried, named a toy, cried, named a toy & repeated the process all the way home. I couldn't help comfort them other than talking because we were driving so fast. When JP saw the house he knew it was too late to save anything.


The picture is what we saw when we pulled up. I took one with my phone. All the neighbors were there. More arrived to help as the night went on.
Crazy.
We are all ok.
Could have been much worse.
Even this many months later, my stomach still turns when thinking about that ride home.
Thankful for such amazing people.