BURIED UNCLE HIB TODAY

Uncle Hib died Tuesday of this week (4/13/2010).  Last night was the visitation and today was the funeral.  As far as days go, outside of being windy, it was a gorgeous day.  There was talk of farming among the people standing around last night and today. 

Last night on the way to the visitation we got re-routed by what turned out to be a bad accident.  When we were re-routed, it had been about 2 hours since the accident occurred.  When we finished we were able to travel back on that road.  It was then probably 4 1/2 hours since the accident and we followed the semi back into town.  Here is a link if you are curious:

http://www.muscatinejournal.com/news/local/article_cda56ba0-48ca-11df-b6c0-001cc4c03286.html

Today when we came back from the funeral Randy and I could see a plume of smoke in the distance.  Ever the 'ambulance chaser' (or firetruck in this case) I asked if we could PLEASE drive that way - and surprisingly Randy said "YES!".  (If I had been driving ... there would have been no doubt in my mind - we would have gone!)

So when we drove up we could see a barn ablaze.  We parked and watched for a few minutes before we realized that the fire department hadn't yet arrived.  After taking a few pictures and going around the corner to the other side of the farmstead is when it actually sank in.  NO FIRE DEPARTMENT?  We could see that another structure had flames on it by that time. 

We turned around, still gawking and staring, and a tractor pulling a piece of farm equipment was near us.  Randy asked the farmer if he knew if the fire department had been called (I was attempting to dial 911 by that time myself).  The farmer said that YES, he personally called the fire department over 20 minutes before that.

The wind was strong and steady and pieces of roofing and other debris were blowing off the fire into the field across the road and there were several good sized ground fires there that were picking up some momentum.  It looked as if it was a good possibility that given enough time and continued wind that most if not all of the buildings there could go.

Finally a sheriff showed up and then a couple of firetrucks from Wilton.  They had to, of course, haul their own water and it wasn't long before one of them scooted off down the road back toward Wilton, presumably to refill at which point the second truck pulled into that truck's vacated position and started hosing the fire.  Eventually Fruitland came too.

It was very exciting to watch, though I'm sure when the farmer and family arrived it was less exciting by a long shot.  There were some animals either in a building or lot near the buildings that someone apparently let out, we hadn't been able to see them until they went racing wildly across the field.  Probably 20 or so cows and horses.  They ran and ran all the way across the field and around and back sort of near the farmstead.  I think they were terrified judging from the running they did.

We got quite a few shots of the fire.  The sad thing is that this farm, a Dickey farm, is the same place where not that many years ago an explosion occurred in the house and took the lives of I think 2 people who were in the house.  Something makes me think that the explosion took place in a modular home that had replaced a home that had burned out before that.  (I might be making that part up in my head -- but I am sure about the explosion.)  That's a lot for one farmstead.

Anyway - that was my day today.