Putting out Fires

Here I am at the end , or nearly the end of another month. I have intended to post something each week, but time just seems to constantly slip away from me, and sitting down at 10 pm for 30-45 minutes of computer time is just not always easy. This one will take some time.

These last couple of weeks have been no exception to that rule, just exceptional in how crazy. I hope that I do not come across as a complainer when I write this type of stuff. I like to think I have a fairly level head about it all, but sometimes it seems like life just bursts out into little fires. You know, those events, chores, accidents, assignments, whatever, that have to be dealt with NOW. Like a small kitchen fire, they flare up and require immediate attention, so as to keep them small. If we fail to act, or act incorrectly, we may create a much bigger problem. Kind of like throwing water on a grease fire.

Well, this past week has really felt like that. As you all may know, when we sell chickens, the process takes about 24 hours start to finish. They split us up this time, which was actually nice. Over 2 days, we got to deal with the process more during the late evening hours when I am home. It still HAS to be dealt with, but it is not as frantic a feeling. Things have to be done on a schedule, since the processing of Hundreds of thousands of birds has to meet all the health and safety guidelines, not to mention just the practical aspect of running that many birds.

Then, when they are gone, we start the process of preparing the houses for the next flock. We usually get about 2 weeks to get everything cleaned out, repaired, and "reset". Well, this time had that "fire" feeling, because as of day 9 being out, we had not heard word one from our field-man. Not a thing about the last flock, not a thing about new birds, potential scheduling, NOTHING!

Then several things flared up at once. I got a call from Michelle Wednesday afternoon , day 10(April 15th), that our friend Leonard Powers had died. You may recall I posted some thoughts about him and his dedication back in the early part of the year, and maybe as far back as November. I tried to stay in touch with his children, as they arranged the funeral service, because his dear wife Charlotte is suffering from Alzheimer's, and is little help in this type of thing. There are moments we (the family and I) think she may not even be aware of Leonard's passing.

This one would not have been much, but the children were not real interested in having their Dad's religion be a big part of his memorial service. My challenge was to try to guide them in such a way that Dad and Mom's religious views would be honored, without pushing the family into things they did not want. We all know a funeral is just a "goodbye" meeting for those of us left behind, but I was saddened by the disregard for a parent's faith. Let this fire simmer, it will be out by Monday, probably.

Thursday morning (day 10), we finally hear from our field-man. He matter-of-factly informs Bob (my father-in-law, for those who don't know the family), that we need to do 2 refits to the chicken houses before we get new birds, oh, and "by-the-way", you get chicks on Monday (during the funeral time slot?). Don't 2 small, simmering fires build into something big pretty easily?

Well, the chicken houses are never really a small simmer. Our first major refit was lights. We had to run a new set of lights in each of 3 houses. So Bob and I, along with one of my boys each night, spent Thursday and Friday night until about 10 pm, standing in the tractor bucket (don't try this at home) running 500 feet of new cable per house, then going back and attaching light sockets.

Friday afternoon I hear from the Powers family. The funeral is Monday, 10 am. We still haven't heard what time chicks will be delivered, but either way, I will be occupied. This means I will need to prepare for a substitute for Monday. We also found out that our chicks would be delivered on "Monday AND Tuesday", but we don't know what time.

Refit #2 is new curtain material for our oldest house. Short explanation. House 1, as we call it, is very old, referred to as "half-house"curtains. These are heavy duty rip-stop curtains, that cover half the house. They can be raised and lowered on a system of winches and pulleys to open up the house for ventilation, or close it up to maintain heat, etc. Our goal, to replace about 200 feet of this. This was our Saturday morning, hoping all the time that the rainclouds would just stay friendly. They did!

Next fire in a major positive way, but still requires attention! Saturday evening, We had a baptism at the chapel. This is a wonderful event, and this was such a spiritually powerful meeting. Many happy tears were shed. As the Branch President, I felt compelled to be there for a convert baptism, no matter what needed to take place in the chicken houses. They will still be "open" at midnight if I need them to be.

Sunday is always a busy day, getting to church, taking care of those responsibilities, visiting and counseling with various church members about a variety of things. I am enjoying this "turn" more than my first time as Branch President. My Dad understands why. The "fires" I helped deal with then are mostly out, or simmering under the watchful control of those whose fires they truly are. I guess I get to be kind of "volunteer fireman" when those flare out of their owners' control.

Sunday evening, out of necessity, spent in the chicken houses, putting down feeders and water lines, checking systems, doing some minor repairs to cable and pulley systems for one of the houses. Nothing major, but still immediate. We still don't know what time chicks will arrive on Monday!

Monday arrives, we finally hear that chicks will be delivered about 11 am, funeral starts at 10, in Batesville, which is a 40 minute drive from our house. The family of Brother Powers made some concessions that allowed his faith to be a larger part of the service, although still "muted", but all of the significant church protocols were met, and it was a beautiful and touching service.

Get home from the cemetary around 2 pm, Michelle asks me to go with her to the school for an IEP meeting for Ian. Not bad, just needed. Afterwards, we all go to get the last 2 houses ready for chicks Tuesday at 8 am (we finally got some info from our useless field-man...........no wait, it came from the driver who brought chicks earlier!).

Now for the real fire! After running the last lights in House 4, we dropped feeders and water, and did all the standard checks. Starting up heaters, running feeders, flushing vitamins into the water/medication system, etc. As the feeders cranked up, Ian yelled from about halfway down the house..."Dad, this heater's burning!" I gave the double thumbs up, because we DID want to raise the temps to about 90 degrees. :) Ian hollers back, over the din of the rattling feed augers, "NO, DAD, IT'S BURNING ON THE OUTSIDE!!" Just about that moment, a flaming glob of plastic fell from the ceiling, setting the floor covering on fire. Rice hulls don't burn well, but with some petroleum accelerant, they do burn!

Adrenelin kicks in faster than braincells. My first thought was to find a ladder, to shut off the valve to the diesel fuel line, because I can just envision this fire igniting back up into the entire fuel line. while I ran for a ladder, Bob and Michelle got to the main shut-off valve, and also slammed off every breaker in the electrical box except lights.

I then had the kids run a bucket brigade from the end of the house (closest "aimable" water source), and I threw the water up to the ceiling (nearly 20 feet), hoping to splash enough around to put out the growing flames. As the insulation started to burn, I started to worry, but the kids kept water coming. The smoke stayed hung up in the rafters, so I kept throwing H2O, hoping that the fire dept. would arrive soon. The diesel lines had burned away, but by this time the plastic control boxes, and all the electrical cable was burning off. Lots of different fuels to feed the flames. Every throw made progress, but every interval, the flames would regain a bit.

I was just getting worn out, and told the kids "2 more buckets, and then we run for it!" The smoke was almost down to our heads, and we could hear sirens in the distance. The last bucket I threw splashed every direction except down, I think, and doused the last flame. We ran for clear air.

The fire dept. came and sprayed about 15 gallons on one spot of smoldering dust, and then we all visited for several minutes (local volunteer force). I am tired of dealing with fires! I really could use a few days without them. I know they tend to keep life interesting, and I can definitely say that my life...our lives, are not dull. But I would sure like to deal with dull for just a couple of days. Is that too much to ask?