Red Sky and lots of Smoke means......

Well we have had one hell of a week, we were resting on our laurels thinking things would calm down after the hay was in.  How wrong we were.  The week started of quite nicely, the weather wasn't too bad, the cottage guests were all settled in, all the animals were well and munching away on their grass.  I was even seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the accounts.  Then we got to Thursday, Steve went to work in the morning and I spent most of the day doing the accounts and watching the Alpacas just incase one of the three decided to give birth.  I was just finishing when Steve rang to say I better get home as there was a bit of a disaster happening, the Dutch Barn at home was on fire.  Steve had seen the smoke on his way home and had worked out that it must have been either our neighbours or our property but could see exactly where it was.  He was nearly home before he could see it was on our farm.  Not knowing if it was the house or the farm buildings he tried to get home quickly, not day when you have got holiday makers stopping to look at ponies etc.  As he got nearer he could see it was the barn and yes it was the barn where we put all of his brothers hay last week.  By the time I got there there was three fire engines in the road, the barn was well alight and bits of roof flying off everywhere.

Steves brother had been up in the field when he heard the transformer which is on a pole opposite the barn explode apparently a neighbour saw the flames shoot up into the sky.  A short while later the barn was on fire.

So at the moment it is a bit of a mess here, we have a generator as we have no electric supply, we have a large pile of socking wet scorched hay in the yard.  The remains of the tractor, baler and who knows what else are still in what remains of the still smouldering barn.

Friday there was a steady stream of men in suits, electricity men etc  I did feel sorry for the guy who just happened to be in the area checking the electric poles, I said you better come and check this one then, his face was a picture when he walked round the corner and saw the barn still smoking and his electric pole black and charred.

The rest of the weekend has past in a whirl, change overs in the cottages, we discovered a leaking tap in one and a TV bracket broken in the other, on the plus side we have been out for dinner at friends for the last three evenings so it's not all bad. I really hope next week is better