Good Morning! in 2018

[WLLady]

It was impressive.....and scary....the fire was roaring and boiling and hissing. Get the hell out of the way.....
Dont let his nonchalance in the post above throw you. The flames were almost touching the barn (which is just to the right of the edge of the photo) and he was hosing the rafters and metal down from the inside because the fire was soooo hot. He saved the barn. And all the livestock. I called 911.....we managed to save the truck and car - parked between the burnt firewood and the solar panel just in time. I expect we will lose the paint on the barn metal in the next few days....
I am still shaking.....the picture of my husband standing with the water just feet away from flames.going 50 feet into the air is burnt into my brain....

I did run...for the first time after surgery. Ran to call 911 and ran to get keys, the truck and the car.....
I had said the only things that would get me running would be a bear or a fire. I am now waiting for a bear to show up.

Lost 2 sheds the outdoor furnace about 1/2 acre of grass the greenhouse and most of the garden. And the trailer coop that was to house guineas and chicks.....All the plants i had moved to the garden for safe keeping for our house renos next week...all the tools garden stuff planters seeders rototiller and generator....all the blackberries. The blueberries. Most of the asparagus that was up is burnt. Mint (hopefully that will come back). Fence posts. Ladders....they were melted into slag.....all the trellising/stakes posts for the garden shovels axes chainsaws rakes sledgehammers....etc etc all our rough cut lumber and about half of next years firewood. It looks small in the photo....but believe me there was nothing tame about that fire. It was a wall of fire.when we looked out of the barn from doing chores...like a blowtorch 30 feet wide and 50 feet tall. White flame....
Never seen anything like it....never want to again.

[labradors]

OH my goodness! I'm so sorry! At least no hoomins or critters were hurt, and material things can be replaced, but what a bummer. Do you have any clue what started it?

Linda

[WLLady]

Hot strong south wind reignited old coals in the outdoor furnace we think....and somehow it either burnt thru or out a hole or maybe birds nests in it or the chimney or something but it got loose and then spread from there. Needless to say the outdoor furnace is turning into erosion control today....all the firebrick is going into the ravine edge where we have some erosion happening. We will never be using it again. We hadnt burnt anything for over a week but its been so hot the coals likely never cooled....a neighbour that stopped by to make sure we were okay said they had a friend whose same furnace started burning out of the blue that afternoon-from the wind too and he saw it when he was driving by and they soaked it down with the hoses before it got out of hand....lucky....we cant tell with ours because it burnt through the metal and theres whole pieces of vent covers melted and gone and so we just dont know how it got out from inside....we wont ever know....but im sure thats where it started.

[Ontario Chick]

Oh Kathy, that is so scary, my heart was in my throat as I was reading it, can't even imagine.
How lucky that you didn't loose any animals.

[Happy]

So sorry to read this and glad for you that nobody was hurt.

[baronrenfrew]

wow! its times like that that make you think what really matters!

I had cousins here from Germany years ago ..and they asked why the buildings were so far apart. I said our buildings are made of wood so if the house catches fire the barn won’t go with it.

My cousins farm near Dresden is all stone 400 years old, in fact its a mini fortress. the barn, house and chicken shed connected in a u shape, and there’s steel bars on the ground floor windows.

my best to you two.

[kenya]

Oh my goodness! How scary! We had the neighbours barn burn down years ago , very scary, couldn't believe the flames and heat coming off of it. I don't blame you I'd get rid of that outdoor furnace too.

[WLLady]

So just need to load the chicken tractor (whats left of it) onto the bin..and whats left of roofing steel from the one shed. Will dump the fire wood thats all charred in the woods to rot. We had an old.stove out there to go to the dump and the glass had shattered-the tempered oven glass....and the lightbulb inside was melted and the glass cooktop was just gone. Our one aluminum ladder looked like the metal puddle the terminator made when he started melting after being frozen with nitrogen lol. Its just solid puddles of aluminum now....
There was a stray cat living in that shed. I was hoping he got out and i saw him down the road today so he made it out okay. Yeah the hoomans are okay. One of us is still shaking and having panic attacks off and on. And this is certainly not easy on my back. Sigh. The running did me in. I hope physio can put me back together again on monday. The cats dog chickens horses turkeys are all okay. Horses watched from the furthest corner of the field from it. Dog watched from the walkway. Then once all the flame was mostly out he went and said hi to each and every firefighter officer and person that showed up like any good lab should.
Horses were a bit clingy after....but mostly just looking for reassurance and apples i think.

[goatgal35]

Wow. Sorry for the loses, and very glad you're both okay and that all the critters are okay. Hugs to all.

[baronrenfrew]

...so the outdoor wood stove..when was it fired last?

some folks use them all year long for hot water.

I learned about a Garn outdoor wood - gasifier. THIS is the outdoor stove you should have. It makes the typical outdoor stoves look like junk, not to mention about 5-10% of smoke from a typical outdoor stove.