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I was suppose to sleep in this morning since we did not get to bed until after midnight, but I couldn't sleep any more with the smoke clinging to me. If I even licked my lips, I tasted the bitterness of the smoke. I spent three hours outside, at my husbands side, watching our barn and his shop burn to the ground last night. I can't even believe I had to write that last statement. When we moved to our homestead just six months ago my husband, a contractor by trade, was so exicted about the barn and the attached shop. All of his tools were inside for both the farm and his construction work. A trailer. The kids' toys were inside because they were earning them back after some bad behavior. Everyone's bikes, the lawnmower, all the garden tools, the BBQ, the outdoor furniture, wood for repairs and projects, and all of our firewood. Eightteen chicks perished in the fire also. We are suspicious that the start of the fire may be related to the chicks. They had a heat lamp on them and there was an extension cord connecting them to an old electrical outlet. It went up fast and by the time my husband saw it, there was nothing he could do. Nothing could be saved. We tried to spray water on the house and nearby fruit trees, but we had lost all water pressure. We watched it burn for what seemed like forever before the fire engines even arrived. We were blessed and protected by the Lord that nothing else caught fire. After watching it burn for awhile, and being grateful for what was not lost, my husband said, "when we re-build I am going to move it east a little so I can put in that road around it I was wanting." I looked at him and said, "we are cut from the same cloth honey, I too was thinking about how we should build the new barn." So we move on, happy we are all alright, grateful it was not worse, and blessed to share what can be learned from what feels like a tragedy. First, especially if you live in a rural area area, consider joining the volunteer fire department. My husband had the application but had not turned it in yet. Our local volunteer fire department is in danger of closing if they don't have more volunteers and yours may be also. Second, consider not storing your tools and more valuable homesteading items in buildings that have hay or wood. These items make the fire burn hot and hay makes it burn fast. If you are reliant on those items, if they are not all lost you will be very grateful. Third, consider having the ability to dose a small fire on your own. Even if my husband had caught it when it was much smaller, we had no water in reserve that we had easy access to. Perhaps when we rebuild we will put in a raised tank that can hold 1000 gallons. This by no means is a substitute for a fire department - they put 21,000 gallons of water on that barn last night. I'll update if we find out the cause, but fourth, put the chicks away from main structures if they have heat lamps on them. We have another small animal shed that we could have put them in that would not have been such a huge loss.
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