One week

It's been a week.  I'm ready to share some current photos of the place.  (Click to view bigger versions)

I have shared the fire photos with family and close friends and will not be posting them here.  I am only putting these ones up so we can follow the progress of our transformation as we get things cleaned up and eventually put up new buildings.  I don't want to dwell on the fire and the heartbreaking photos of things on fire.

 Some positives: We hadn't spent much time sorting out the shop yet.  Sherman is done with using most of his tools.  The tractor, tiller, and hoops we lost were insured.  The buildings were insured.  The house was spared.  The buildings needed a lot of cleaning up and sorting.  They are making new tractors every day.  The combine wasn't inside.  The firefighters stopped the fire on the East side and saved our favourite International farm truck, car trailer, Jim's grain vac, and another tractor(s).  The yard light burned down and now we can see the stars more clearly at night.  The grass is already re-growing.  There is nowhere for the skunks and rats to hide.

 The barn: it was beautiful, but way beyond our needs and would have been very expensive to get fixed up- needed a new roof and other repairs.  There was 2' of manure and straw that needed to be shovelled out (still burning now, a week later!).  We only had 2 hens.  We had decided against having pigs.  Anything we had built inside was from recycled materials.  The wiring was sketchy at the best of times.  Our view has opened up.  The little grain bins that burned were junk anyhow, home to skunks. 

I laugh at this one, because this winter I traded 12 of these feeders with my friends Lydia and Wian, good thing they got them when they did!  Some of these may be useable still.  The pig food bin survived!  The staunchons in the barn were not something we ever would have used and were in the way.  The fuel tanks were far enough away to still be ok.  We lost a canoe that we never had time to use and a few canvasses that I probably wouldn't have finished painting anyhow.  My paint and brushes were in the house.  The paddles and lifejackets were in the garage!  We can get another canoe and more canvasses.  The leaves are out already, and the grass is growing back almost too quickly!  We jokingly call our farm "Wood Tick Farm" because of the vast abundance we have.  Eat that, ticks!

And so, life goes on.  Each day that passes things get a little easier.  With every week, we are closer to a different future for the farm, one that we get to shape.  The sun still rises and sets each day, and it hasn't gotten any less beautiful watching it from the protected cove of Myrah Farm.  This little piece of prairie paradise is continually growing and evolving, and we are focusing on all that we do have instead of lamenting the loss.  We can DO this, and we can't do anything to change what happened.

Our thoughts are continually with the folks in Fort McMurray.  We are fortunate we didn't lose our home and could stay here the whole time that this happened.  There is a hazy smoke in the air the past 2 days from the massive fires out West.  Our experience is a little raw so we have avoided the reports and photos, but it resonates very deeply with us and we are thinking of everyone involved in that devastation.  Ours was not a devastation.  Some buildings burned down and no one was hurt.  A minor setback, which will allow us to grow as people and remind us how many people support us.