Hay Fire

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

When Andrew and I were at the farm show this week we watched the hay baling demonstration. Rakes, mowers and balers paraded before us creating long windrows, wide swathes and tight bales for us to inspect. It was quite the show to watch each big machine moving in a line across the field. A special feature at the demo was the drawing to win 500.00 off equipment from the vendors represented.

Andrew and I dropped our names into the bucket but not without considering what a blessing and a curse it would be to win. 500.00 is grand but coming up with the many thousands it takes to buy the nice equipment represented overshadows the discount. There were only 50-75 people there so the odds of us winning were high enough that I cringed through the drawing. We didn't win. Even though our baler burned yesterday it's still good we didn't win. Used is cheaper than discounted new.

I was doing limeade cost calculations for Luke's wedding when he came tearing into the driveway. Sensing the emergency with the way his tires slid I ran out the door. "Fire to the south" he yelled. Looking up I could see the sky was full of dark billows. Too close, too close. He sped off and I filled the back of the suburban with buckets and towels. Baling hay is very high risk for fires, at the farm show hay demo there was a fire truck on the ready. Bearings go out and things get hot. I couldn't find the number for our local volunteer fire department so I left mom to figure it out. The fire was really close to my uncles house and really close to the field corn. The fire department showed up just in time to save the corn. Really, it was so so close. We were fighting with all our might but couldn't hold the line back. One water jug burned, the taillights and some plastic parts on the back of our new (to us) tractor melted, and Andrews shirt was ruined but other than that the only loss was the baler. A terrible loss but it could have been so much worse.