I’ll start by saying that through our misery, we have still been very blessed. There have been so many fires, just recently, that left families with absolutely nothing. My heart and my prayers go out to them daily. Our barn fire, while devastating to our family, still does not even compare to what these other families are going through.
Fire, for me, is a huge fear anyway. It terrifies me. I don’t even like being nearby when my husband uses our torch. My youngest son, Mason, once caught our family cabin on fire and since that point, it is a very overwhelming source of anxiety for me. Nevertheless, it still happened.
Waking up to a Barn Fire
In early January, my daughter, Paxton, woke up at about 5:30 in the morning to begin her day. When she stumbled past the back glass door (she’s not really a morning person), she noticed flames out back. We woke up to banging on our bedroom door and yelling to call 911. …what a wake-up call!
Jumping into Action
Throwing on whatever clothing was nearby, we ran out to see how bad it was and if anything could possibly be salvaged. I should mention here that our barn was also our workshop and our storage facility while we were remodeling our home. ….kind of a do-it-all building. All of our animals, of course, were housed there and that was the first thing on our minds.
When we got down to the barn, we could see that the whole structure was engulfed. We ran around to the pens where a few of the animals were trying desperately to get away from the flames. We began trying to scoop up whatever animals we could as fast as we could. Sadly, we lost a lot of them. I even had to shoot one of our pot-belly pigs during the rescue because he was suffering so badly.
I’ll admit that during this process my anxiety level was through the roof and it didn’t help that my daughter, 17, jumped inside the burning pens to pick up animals and hand them over to me. All I could think was “get out of there!!!” I was very proud of her bravery and quick action.
The local volunteer fire department responded, however, it was so far gone that all they could do was knock down the walls that were still standing and just let it go. As we stood there, watching everything go up in flames, I believe we were just in shock. Not many words were spoken, and a few tears were shed, but mostly just shock; thinking about everything, how could this happen, running over in our heads what all was in there, remembering things that we would no longer have.
The Losses
We were able to save three of our milk goats, one pot-belly pig, and one full-size pig. All in all, we ended up losing about 75 animals in this horrific barn fire; pigs, pot-bellies, goats, and chickens. Of the ones that we were able to save, all were injured and one ended up dying the next day.
Certainly we lost tools and the like but also all of our storage items, the worst of which being items that cannot be replaced; an antique chair handed down from my great-grandmother, all of our Christmas decorations to include handmade ornaments that the children have crafted over the years. These things certainly brought tears, but the knowledge that my family was safe brought me back to reality.
The Reactions of our Children
Our barn fire brought a great deal of distress to all of us in different ways. Logan, 10, and Mason, 7, woke up shortly after the whole process began and their reactions were so different. Logan is a serious animal lover and a total softy and his reaction was to stand at the back door, tears in his eyes. His only words were, “Oh momma, all those animals!” Mason, much more logical and less emotional, was also in tears, but his words were, “…All that work that y’all did!”
Blessings out of the Flames
Our barn fire was a horrible moment in our lives, but God continues to bless us. Our family is safe, the fire was contained and didn’t make it to our house. We didn’t lose all of our animals and we did have insurance. We even made a discovery that afternoon, that one chicken, a rooster, survived the fire. The boys decided that he was clearly a Matrix chicken and thus named him Neo. He now gets a lifetime pass on this Farmstead.
Life does go on. We began, the next day, with clean up and the rebuilding process. Thankful that we were able to do so. My next post will go into detail about the rebuilding that we were able to do…and boy was there a lot!
Until next time,
God Bless
NEVER MISS A THING!!
MORE WAYS TO CONNECT
We also, as a homesteading family, have three additional blogs that might interest you.A Life on the Farm focuses on the more personal side of the homesteading life. We discuss subjects like family, parenting, relationships, homeschooling, cooking, canning and so much more.
Farm Raised Familyis basically a hub for everything under the Two Oaks Farmstead umbrella. You can learn a great deal about all parts of the farmstead there. TheFarm Raised Family blogfocuses on financial matters such as budgeting, saving, and more and on current events affecting families.
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Farm Life and Freedomis the new podcast we are in the process of launching! It is going to be so much fun! You could also check in with our Farm Life and Family Youtube Channel.
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