The weather here has been so annoying.
Rainy and cold for the last two days.
Couldn't do a whole heck of a lot in regards to the cleanup efforts.
Today Tim and Anthony and his brother Steve were out there most of the day cleaning up.
They have already made a pretty good sized dent.
Not finding a whole lot that can be salvaged.
Tim is already thinking about his next course of action, he is about 100 steps ahead of everyone else, as usual.
I asked him today what good does he think will come out of this?
He told me that his focus is going to change and that he will be doing a lot more writing and teaching. His scrapping will continue as well as his building the soil on this property to be the most rich, fertile soil possible.
There have been so many people coming forward with words of encouragement and wanting to help him build up his tool supply once again.
I can't tell you how much this is appreciated by our whole family.
The two older kids have taken the incident very hard, but things are beginning to get back to normal. Caleb lost a lot of his own tools and many other irreplaceable items. Two tractors that were in his care that belonged to his Grandfather, and his Great-Grandfather. He keeps telling me how much he wished he was here when the fire started so he could have gotten things out before the fire consumed them.
Sam lost all of the lawnmowers he had collected as they came into the scrapyard and he was working on rebuilding.
I am not sure what Rachel lost, she hasn't talked too much about it.
Matthew is doing well, he is very resilient. He is taking the resentment his brother and sister are feeling towards him very well. It is going to take time for their emotional wounds to heal.
Mine too, for that matter. I think I have stated before that I am really bad when under stress. I was completely frantic before Tim arrived on the scene. So frantic that Rachel had to grab me and wrap her arms around me tightly to calm me down. She wouldn't let go even when I tried to get away. I look back on it and wish to God he had made me tougher so that I could have been the one keeping everyone else calm. I feel foolish for letting my emotions get so out of control.
OK, onto the topic of the cleanup...
We are expecting the men from the Northern realm this weekend.
They were originally coming down to meet Tim and learn a little about how we do things down here, but it has kind of turned into a cleanup weekend.
So far, Tim's brothers and Father have been here to help him.
Tim has been collecting all the scrappable material he can and loading it up into the scrap trailer.
Here are a few pictures I took today.
This is what's left of our hundreds of canning jars.













While it is sad to see this part of our lives come to an end, it is exciting to see the direction Tim takes next.
We know what we lost will take a long time to regain.
We also know that what could have been lost is far worse than the material.
Our kids are safe, everything else is replaceable
Our animals are safe, our home is safe, our food is safe, our seeds are safe, our powerhouse is safe.
We didn't lose anything from our syruping operation so we will not be slowed down a bit on that this season :)
I was trying to think of something homesteady that I could blog about, instead of focusing all the energy on the fire..
Everything has been harvested and is drying in our livingroom... which makes our space very limited in there right now...
We have deer jerky drying above the woodstove..
I finished my second ragrug, and I think it is much prettier than my first one..
Matthew lost his first tooth...
My father-in-law made me the most beautiful bench for my birthday!
Note to self: change age on profile to 41 :(

Stephen got his first full time job at the Lowe's distribution center in Rockford.
I am very proud of him becoming a working man, making his own money.
We had a leaf raking day about a week before the fire. We worked all day raking leaves and carrying them to the compost piles. We had a little fun too :)




I again want to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes.
Anyone who wants to get ahold of Tim please feel free to email him at peetyuk57@yahoo.com
Or me at lori_howerter2@yahoo.com
or on my facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/lori.howerter?ref=profile
I will continue to blog about the cleanup effort in the coming week or two.
Couldn't do a whole heck of a lot in regards to the cleanup efforts.
Today Tim and Anthony and his brother Steve were out there most of the day cleaning up.
They have already made a pretty good sized dent.
Not finding a whole lot that can be salvaged.
Tim is already thinking about his next course of action, he is about 100 steps ahead of everyone else, as usual.
I asked him today what good does he think will come out of this?
He told me that his focus is going to change and that he will be doing a lot more writing and teaching. His scrapping will continue as well as his building the soil on this property to be the most rich, fertile soil possible.
There have been so many people coming forward with words of encouragement and wanting to help him build up his tool supply once again.
I can't tell you how much this is appreciated by our whole family.
The two older kids have taken the incident very hard, but things are beginning to get back to normal. Caleb lost a lot of his own tools and many other irreplaceable items. Two tractors that were in his care that belonged to his Grandfather, and his Great-Grandfather. He keeps telling me how much he wished he was here when the fire started so he could have gotten things out before the fire consumed them.
Sam lost all of the lawnmowers he had collected as they came into the scrapyard and he was working on rebuilding.
I am not sure what Rachel lost, she hasn't talked too much about it.
Matthew is doing well, he is very resilient. He is taking the resentment his brother and sister are feeling towards him very well. It is going to take time for their emotional wounds to heal.
Mine too, for that matter. I think I have stated before that I am really bad when under stress. I was completely frantic before Tim arrived on the scene. So frantic that Rachel had to grab me and wrap her arms around me tightly to calm me down. She wouldn't let go even when I tried to get away. I look back on it and wish to God he had made me tougher so that I could have been the one keeping everyone else calm. I feel foolish for letting my emotions get so out of control.
OK, onto the topic of the cleanup...
We are expecting the men from the Northern realm this weekend.
They were originally coming down to meet Tim and learn a little about how we do things down here, but it has kind of turned into a cleanup weekend.
So far, Tim's brothers and Father have been here to help him.
Tim has been collecting all the scrappable material he can and loading it up into the scrap trailer.
Here are a few pictures I took today.
This is what's left of our hundreds of canning jars.
While it is sad to see this part of our lives come to an end, it is exciting to see the direction Tim takes next.
We know what we lost will take a long time to regain.
We also know that what could have been lost is far worse than the material.
Our kids are safe, everything else is replaceable
Our animals are safe, our home is safe, our food is safe, our seeds are safe, our powerhouse is safe.
We didn't lose anything from our syruping operation so we will not be slowed down a bit on that this season :)
I was trying to think of something homesteady that I could blog about, instead of focusing all the energy on the fire..
Everything has been harvested and is drying in our livingroom... which makes our space very limited in there right now...
Note to self: change age on profile to 41 :(
Stephen got his first full time job at the Lowe's distribution center in Rockford.
I am very proud of him becoming a working man, making his own money.
We had a leaf raking day about a week before the fire. We worked all day raking leaves and carrying them to the compost piles. We had a little fun too :)
I again want to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes.
Anyone who wants to get ahold of Tim please feel free to email him at peetyuk57@yahoo.com
Or me at lori_howerter2@yahoo.com
or on my facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/lori.howerter?ref=profile
I will continue to blog about the cleanup effort in the coming week or two.
