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Fire News & Recovery

For years, except in the deeper snows of winter, we've tried to take a walk in our woods every day. Of course we don't always do it and we'd not done so since the fire. So very nice to connect with all the bigger things then our current personal problems—the wildflowers in bloom, damn—no morel mushrooms yet and what kind of animal makes that poop. The images are not as beautiful as it really was and it smelled so good. We resolved to continue our old pattern of walking (most) every day. Click on an image to enlarge. From top left clockwise:

Jay with "Big Oak"
We love this tree, biggest White Oak on our property. Two people can not quite reach around it to hold hands. No, Jay is not 18" tall, this is a BIG tree.

Springs
One of the things we also love are the springs. This one is a ways from the house and flows right through some mature White Pines. One of our favorite places.

Spring Wildflowers
This is the beautiful Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) not yet open for the day's business.

Ken White Pines
Not nearly as big as the White Oak but so majestic, they are our favorite tree. We've planted hundreds over the last nine years. They grow very fast, we are fully intending to enjoy their mature grace.

Back to work

Today will be our first full day in the trailer and I'm digging back into my day job, I'm so behind. Jay is shipping pumpkin seed oil orders and in a bit we're going to take our first woods walk since the fire. Big news from yesterday, we met with Tim Fuller with Sala Architects and he has agreed to design our new home! Will post more on this later, we could not be more happy with him. Here's some of his work, http://www.salaarc.com/projects/tfc97084.html. We're in very good hands.

I was planning on making some very snarky comments (and still may) about decor in our new place but, no, not tonight. We are so very tired after this long day and so grateful to have a home again. We finished loading in our stuff about 9:00 PM and are just eating our first meal at 11:00 PM.

Home.

Of all times. A bear got into the beehive last night and broke it apart. Jay went over this morning in his suite but they were really angry, swarmed him, he got 20-30 bites and had to run out. Cleaning crew is here today and we're moving in. Have put out the word for help with some local experienced keepers.

Grieving

A tough day today, in pain and sobbing this morning. I've always thought that the heart parcels out grief in batches that you can handle. Three weeks out and blammo, there's a new load. We're packing up our stuff here at the motel and will check out in the morning. Tomorrow night at the farm.

Cleaned the carpet for the third time today and the waste water is still dirty. I'm done.

April 17, 2010

Ken's Carpet Cleaning

Really good day today, stayed at the farm until 8:15. We've now cleared the very last hurdle for the trailer, all that is left is to clean it, then move-in Monday afternoon. Our general contractor, Lee Theorin, did a great job with the outflow hook-up today, everything else—electric, LP, heat, water, phone and  wireless are all installed. Life is about to get so much easier for us.

I love to clean carpets and I am really, really good at it. Heidi Jacobson's team of cleaning gals are going to make the trailer sparkle on Monday but I wanted to do the carpets myself. If my career in the natural products industry fell apart, I might just start Ken's Carpet Cleaning. I find it relaxing, love to see the dirt in the waste water and if I was not doing it for myself, there are many opportunities for smug, self-righteous feelings when cleaning up other people's stuff.

I cleaned them yesterday, again today and will do them a third time Sunday morning, they really needed it. Jay's dad and sister, Eric and Amy, also share this same predilection and as we like to say, "we clean until the waste water is clear".

Photo tour of the trailer next week with more cutting-edge design tips! Just you wait.

April 16, 2010

Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil is back in business!

Our first shipments since the fire. Dear friends drove an hour north to Spooner, WI to pick up 700 bottles of oil that were fortunately still at Botanic Oil Innovations, the good people that press our seeds. We got a new batch of labels this week and set up temporary shipping here in Menomonie at the Comfort Inn.

So glad to be filling orders again and shipping these beauties out!

April 16, 2010

Sorry 'bout your house, that'll be $3,000

We had  no idea but out here with volunteer fire departments you are billed for the service. First off, they were awesome and due to their very hard work and quick response, we've been able to salvage some important treasures. We are so very grateful.  The bill came with the detailed 911 call log that has allowed us to piece together the events of that morning. Looks like we were only in the house about 12 minutes from the time of Jay waking to see the flames in the attic. Amazing. Insurance only covers $500 of the bill, our local friends should be aware of this and add this to their list of emergency preparations.
 

April 14, 2010

Ok, as seen in the post below we now have water to the trailer. Spent most of the day at the farm with some good results. Click on any picture to see a larger shot. Starting top left:

Bees
We got our new bee suits and  went over to do our first spring clean. Got rid of the winter tar paper that provided heat and insulation and added a new brooder box. So many of our local friend's bee hives are gone due to Colony Collapse Disorder, we're grateful to have our first hive thriving.

Whooping Cranes!
Oh, it is just a speck in this picture, even when you click and enlarge it you can't really see it—right of the cloud in the center, but we HEARD it. It took me a while to find the camera and take the shot, they were circling above our old house. Distinctive calls and beautiful birds. Always makes you feel special when you hear or see one.

Ken's Glass Portfolio
Biggest YES of the  day. Ken's years from 1975 to 1985 are again recorded. I  hated the idea of losing this part of my life. My portfolio was burned but many pictures are fine. Will be scanning and posting to the internet for future  preservation. This is a shot  from the inside of a real estate office on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. You had to have more money than God to walk in the door and the store front I made make that pretty clear. It was, and  is, stunning. Door handles cut by Lenox Crystal, at the time, late  80's, state-of-the-art interactive displays.

Precious Book that was Mom's
A vintage Sunset Western Garden Book  from 1940. It was my mom's complete with handwritten notes about things she liked. Can't believe I have it still. I am a happy man, the  two most important  things from my office: this book and my glass portfolio.

April 14, 2010

Today was our First Good Day

Well at least a day without despair and that's good enough right now. Big news is that the water got connected to the trailer. A nice thing has been to meet some very cool contractors. Anybody in our area, if you have a well or water problem, call Steve Schaefer, Pure Water Pump Service, in Menomonie, 715.235.4420.

Steve would just not give up, he was determined to get us water today. Under adverse conditions, he wouldn't  leave until he knew that water ran in the trailer. It was raining, all three of us were soaked. To top it off he was funny too, we had a great afternoon and feel like we have a new friend..

PS - do to foreshortening, Kitty in the shot below is not 50 lbs. She looks big but is actually a small cat, usually around  9 lbs.

April 13, 2010

 

Yesterday was hard and we felt so low driving north to the farm this morning. Things seemed to lift during the day. We were there at 8:00 AM to meet our phone company to transfer home & Ken's office phones, DSL and set up wireless. (Why can't they be more specific than 8:00 to noon?). Nice guy shows up at 11:00 AM.

When we arrived it was pounding rain, thundering and the sound just deafening in the metal-roofed machine shed where Kitty hangs. She was freaked. Yowling and very unhappy. We understand cats do not like abrupt, forced change but thought that we'd all be more comfortable waiting in the trailer. We grabbed her and set up camp. Very wary at first, but soon she was in our laps, purring and seemed content.

It was nice for all of us. The trailer is a mess and needs some deep cleaning but it is actually not unpleasant. Views are spectacular. We are going to be just fine.

We're going to be just fine.

April 13, 2010

 

Big news today for the many fans of the orange-walled, sunflower-bordered, purple-curtained bedroom. Most likely the same creative team, with that exquisite sense of color, were the culprits that had painted Ken's new office purple.

I was taking pictures to record the condition of the trailer and realized somebody else had thought that purple tone a step too far.

April 11, 2010

On Sunday we hit the Laundromat and the gym in the morning and went to the farm in the afternoon. We were just intending to take it easy, pet the cat and read home design books. Decided to go back into the house which is increasingly becoming a nasty, toxic and dangerous mess. Did some excavation and found a few more things that might be salvaged. We will decide much later if we actually keep them.

This one's a keeper. My dad's bathrobe. He died wearing this and I wore it for many years. It is threadbare but precious. It was right next to an exterior wall.

So glad to have it still.

We still can't believe it. Did this really happen? Today AB Electric installed electricity to our trailer, pole barn and machine shed. Just about every day next week something is getting installed. We plan to move in next Saturday.

Click on any picture on the left to see a larger version.
Clockwise from top left:

House long shot
Standing in the exact same spot from where I shot the bees in the bottom left picture, this is the long view to our old house. Sigh.

House close shot
Standing in the same spot, this is a telephoto view of the house.

Eee-lec-trici-tee!
So good to see lights on in the barn! Another milestone toward our new life.

Bees
It's hard to see in this small picture but we walked through our fields to the hive and it's doing just great. Lots of activity. Tomorrow we will remove the winter tar paper, spring clean and add another brooder box.

April 10, 2010

We were in much better spirits today and ready to take on the work of excavating in our house and were well rewarded with some real treasures.

Click on any picture on  the left to see a larger version.
Clockwise from top left:

Knitted Stuff
My mom was a prolific knitter and we were able to salvage bits of almost everything she had made me. The afghan in the foreground was on the bed the night of the fire and although dirty, it might just be fine. Other afghans and sweaters are in bits and we'll need my sister-in-law, Kathy Seguine's creativity, to make into our treasure of tomorrow.

Got Oil!
Fortunately we had 712 bottles of Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil still at our bottler, Botanic Oil Innovations, in Spooner, WI. We had just about sold out of the first 400 bottles and look, the last six of that batch survived.

Glass Art
Some of our friends may not know this, but a long time ago (1975-1985), in a land far, far away (Laguna Beach), Ken was a glass artist. Started from nothing but ended up doing storefronts on Rodeo Drive, art pieces in trendy restaurants and worked with LA architects and designers of note. I had long ago lost my main portfolio and had never kept much of my own work.

This was from a piece that was my main exhibit at the Laguna Festival of the Arts ("Festering of the Arts" as we locals liked to joke) in the late 1980's. It consisted of  nine (3x3) glass pyramids made of stacked, fused window glass, that was sandblasted and mounted on a wooden pedestal.

In our new house, we will build an area that both of us may use to make stuff again.

The Plate
As I had mentioned in a previous post, both my parents were crafty. I had a copper enameled plate made by my mom hanging in my office. Just for ducks, I excavated and wonder of wonders, it was there! Damaged, but I still have this important memento from my mom.

April 9, 2010 PM, We were sad...

It was a tough day at the farm, met with our very nice insurance gal, Jan Robinson, then with Bill Haub to work on the hook-ups for the stove and heater in the trailer. We intended to go into the house to get the sweaters but were just overwhelmed with tired and sad feelings. Today was not the day, we went back to the motel in Menomonie. We continue to watch each other's backs and be easy.

Just don't get it, we paid big bucks for this 20 quart All Clad stock pot, and the thing just MELTS. It must have been upside down during the fire, that projection lower right is a drip of aluminum. Buyers beware!

We loved this huge pot. Made our own meat stocks from the chickens that we raised and the bones from the white Charlet cattle raised by our across-the-road friends & neighbors Jim & Jill Huber. They rent land from us and we get wonderful beef. It is a great deal.

No big canning plans this year (especially in this pot). We will again in 2011, raising and preserving our own food is one of the reasons we are here

There are some people in the Gilbertson-Seguine household that are hopeless for knowing the vaguest sense of north, south and the other 3 directions (don't tell Jay, he doesn't know there aren't 5 directions).

You always wanted to think the house was aligned north, south, but it was not. It was actually a northeast, southwest alignment because of it's placement on our slope.

We had the north, south discussion too many times and I finally painted a compass out on the patio. The concrete was badly cracked and this was on the largest single in-tact chunk.

Lee Theorin, our general contractor, has already said he thought that when our home is demolished and hauled away, we should be able to save this and incorporate it at the new house.

This is my silhouette taking this picture.

Tulips seem perkily unaware that a major disaster has just happened. Here and in many places around the house, they are sprouting for a happy spring.

Tulips are so very evil.

Ok, no surprise here, the most commented on image we've EVER had on Facebook was regarding that very peppy orange paint/purple curtain combo in the trailer master bedroom. Here is Sam Dodge's work from yesterday. Much calmer, I could sleep in this.

Today we're heading to the farm this morning and have an important mission. The bedroom of the house was one of the least damaged areas. Yesterday Jay realized that there are at least bits of some of the very precious sweaters and afghans that Ken's mother had knit.

We will get what we can and Ken's sweet sister-in-law, Kathy Seguine, has agreed to make them into something. She loved my mom very much, they were knitting buds and she even still has some of mom's yarn.

Mom always knit with acrylic because "it will last forever" and always said that whenever I wore or used anything she made I would be surrounded by her love.

We're gonna find that stuff!

This is our new view facing south,  it's lovely and we could only partially see this from the old (burned) house. For our friends that have been to the farm, it is just beyond the outdoor chicken  pen. One point we need to make is that although the mobile home was delivered yesterday, we're a week or so away from moving in, there is a lot of work to do and we're living in a motel until then.

Here's the day's accomplishments:

• Arturo with AB Electric in Prairie Farm, WI installed a temporary electrical meter & panel, then  measured and ordered 350 feet of wire to the trailer. He'll bring electric to the trailer on Saturday.
• Dunn County Energy was here, they will connect electricity to this panel tomorrow.
• The LP tank was moved and installed by Lakeland Coop, thanks Rick and the other nice guy.
• Friend and neighbor Sam Dodge worked on some of the minor repairs that need to be done on the trailer (MOBILE HOME!) before move in.
• Met with well/septic expert and got some very good news. He's 99% sure that we'll be able to use the well and septic from the old house for the new house. The dude just saved us about $20,000, and we won't legally be required to do a mound system for waste water.

Ok, this is an easy one for snarkiness. When you have the thought to decorate your own bedroom with sunflower borders, yellow/orange texturized paint and purple curtains, JUST SAY NO. Trust us on this one. Friend Sam Dodge painted it all over today in the standard Navaho White. We will sell the trailer back after we're moved in to the new house.

Get a look at this. Top of the line, 13" All Clad sauté pan, melted. All Clad fuses stainless steel to copper with an aluminum exterior. Just looked it up on Wikipedia, aluminum melts at 1220 degrees. It was so very hot in places.

Inexplicably, we found a box of un-melted candles today. UN-MELTED!  So kids. All Clad melts. Candles fine.

What?!?

No, not just yet but we're taking positive steps. We voted today (lost our house, not our citizenship) it felt really good, we love to vote. Went to the gym last night. Ken is working more and beginning to actually be effective (beyond arranging paperclips). So much to do right now. Jay just isn't able to write yet and is taking on the job of managing the process of getting everything done with the trailer set-up. The mobile home (NOT trailer, watch it folks...) is used and pretty worn but will be just FINE. Due to the placement, some of the views are new to us and spectacular, we will enjoy them.

Found a big, 13" All Clad frying pan out in the patio area today. It had actually melted. Will post a picture tomorrow. It must have been so very hot in the kitchen.

Of course the morning was not without some hurdles. Town & Country from Eau Claire brought the rig up through our pumpkin field then through the garden. The soil was far softer than we had all thought and it just sank in. Uh Oh. What to do, what to do?

Well, what you do when you live in a close-knit community is drive over to Jeremy Segebrecht's place (he services our tractor, his wife Becky works with Kelly Hoff and does our taxes) and he calls his father-in-law Jeff Karlsrude. Jeff drives over on the big 130 HP tractor and makes short work of pulling the whole rig out.

Such nice guys, we were in a spot, really needed help and they made us laugh while they did it. Thanks!

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, for the first time, we accepted some help. We will be asking for much, much more in the coming weeks, months and year. Our good and nearby friend, Kate Stout, has agreed to be the coordinator for people wanting to come to our aid. Contact her by email, kstout@chibardun.net, on Facebook or by phone (715) 455-1569.

The goal for the day was to clear a pathway from the patio doors, through the kitchen to the basement stairs then to remove the two feet of insulation and crud on the stairs. As the fire started in the attic, the floor to the house is still solid and stuff in the basement was pretty much in-tact.

We think our friends were a little surprised to see just how much we can (jar actually) the food we grow in the summer. It provides the bulk of the food we eat during the winter and we still had 100+ cans left of vegetables, chicken and fun things like jam and maple sap.

All the cans were removed, packed in boxes and the community will clean them up and take them to our next door neighbors, Jim and Kathy Potter, for storage. We'll just use their place as our pantry this next year.

We will also be removing the almost brand new water heater, pressure tank and water softener from the basement.

It was hard for us to face our friends, the first time since the fire. We are so very fortunate to have some competent, hard working, take charge type people to help us out on this first day. Big, big thanks to John & Connie Huber, Jim Hare and Becky Glass and Paul Fischer.

As you can see, we are fortunate to have gorgeous weather. This is the earliest spring in memory and the days are warm and beautiful. Quite the contrast to the house.

We've got some really talented friends. Today we asked Mark Given and Carrie Maloney to come over and take some shots. We've posted more on Facebook and will post more here tomorrow.

Ken was able to salvage a precious memento, a copper enamel switch plate made by his mom. I actually thought I was giving a half-smile. We are  both so very sad, no way around that.

The plate is from the living room and had melted. Copper enamel work uses a base of copper then glass that is fused to it. Some of our friends may not know but Ken was a glass artist for some years. Glass get's soft about 1,000 degrees, it was very hot in this spot but yet just feet away we had medications in plastic bottles survived.

Gorgeous, windy day today. It is a little unnerving, the house bangs and flaps in the wind.

When you have a farm and you also have chickens you end up getting many, many chicken themed gifts at Christmas. People, and especially kids, just love chicks. We've never been shy about exploiting this either. Ordered baby chicks to be delivered just before big family events. Works like a charm, chicks are kid magnets!

Jay's friend Bonnie Lindner sent these two beautiful metal 1960s era roosters. We had them out on our patio and Jay was very pleased to find the one on the left today in the rubble.

We can't believe it was a week ago that Ken worked late (8:30 or so) we watched a stupid video with popcorn (The Hangover) watched some news over the internet then went to bed to be awakened around 2:40 AM. We learned from the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram that our 911 call came in at 2:49 AM.

Is this all a dream? Did this really happen?

Today Ken tried to work and Jay spent the day rooting in the rubble. We were both there late in the afternoon and the cat did her first walk through the house.

The one on the right is for Ken's brother and sister, Ed and Janet. Lookie! Mom's vase! Both our parents were creative, crafty type people, they knit, did wood work, leather work, needle work, on and on, always making things. Dad built mom a kiln in our garage in suburban LA, mom made this vase. Who knew that one day we would live in a place where real, actual deer are frequently in the background. (and major pests for pumpkins, damn deer!)

Over the last few years we've evolved one our favorite events, a family tradition where the Gilbertson clan spends a weekend at our place. Like all good marketers we've developed a logo and tee-shirts for each year. Here are the 2007, 2008 and partial 2009 posters. 2010 is off but we all know, 2011 is gonna be a blow out! Reservations suggested!

One of our big goals with the new house is that we have facilities so that Ken's family can join in too.

Well, certainly not like actually funny but strange. Things burnt beyond recognition and then there is the bedroom looking in need of a cleaning but pretty much everything is in place. The fire investigator okayed us to do some light excavation for possessions and Jay already found a few things. Weirdly we have an entire case of un-scorched tortilla chips and a bottle of Aveda Confixor (hair product, Jay, not Ken) in perfect shape. How can that be? Our only thought is if some how one of the CDs of Jay's current manuscript might be ok in his office. It was one of the hardest hit rooms but under 3 feet of insulation and stuff, maybe there might be one? We'll have to wait for the ok from the investigators to dig and see.

Cranky?
I'll show 'ya cranky!  Hopefully not too bad but we are both so stretched. Ken's #1 goal right now is to get back to work, have had a few hours today and yesterday, on Friday hopefully most of the day.

No way we can possibly keep up on the emails and Facebook good wishes. Please just know we are grateful and are humbled by all the love.

Met with the fire investigator today. Super nice guy. He's investigating the cause of the fire, not us, and it could last for a couple of weeks. He did give us permission to root around in some rooms for stuff, and we found things! The fire started in the attic and things in the basement are in relatively good shape. We grow and can/freeze/dry as much of our own food as we can and most of the stuff in the basement will be fine. This includes our honey from Jay's first year as a beekeeper. Those are some very precious calories. We'll be bringing the stuff up then asking friends and neighbors to clean it up and store it for us.

Kitty is living out in a storage building that used to house our chicken coop. She can't get enough of us when we are there.

Big day today. We obtained a mobile home yesterday for our temporary digs, meeting this morning with their logistic team about how to move it up our dead-end, dirt road street, then meeting with the insurance investigators and then our contractor.

This is Jay's computer CPU that we were wrestling with during our final seconds in the house. We had diligently screwed in all the cables and with windows exploding, burning ceiling dropping on us we just had to abandon it. It is our biggest loss with 40,000 words of Jay's newest manuscript gone.

My company IT guy in LA told me about firms that rescue hard drives after fires and our good friend, Mary Flanagan, www.mfwoolens.com called to tell us the same. We said, "really?" thinking that ours would be far too gone.

It was. All kinds of strange stuff that we don't even know what it was is fused to the case. PC Doctor in Menomonie confirmed that the drive is burned, corroded and bent. No hope at all. Jay is not freaked and although we have not had much time to consider, he'll get it all back.

Good news today from our insurance adjuster, the  mobile home is a go! We go to Eau Claire in the morning to purchase, we'll be as comfortable as we can be during the construction of our new home.

We've set up this page to share with our friends, family and supporters, the loss of our home. At 2:30 AM Saturday, March 27 we awoke to find the attic of our house engulfed in flames. Our beautiful farm is remote and we knew it would be at least 45 minutes for the amazing local volunteer firefighters to respond. We knew right away, all was lost.

For our pumpkin seed oil customers, the good news is that the bulk of the oil was stored off-site and all of our barns and farm equipment are fine. We will continue with the planned expansions of the business in 2010.

Also good news is that we are both ALIVE and more grateful than ever for every good thing in our life, our amazing community and friends and family that have always stood with us. We are so very rich in spirit.

One further bit of strangeness is about to happen. Of course we farm acres and acres of pumpkins. We also have a very large garden and have grown most of the vegetables and fruit we eat year 'round. We also love flowers and  have major beds around the house. Last fall, for the first time, we splurged and planted hundreds of tulips around the house. Just yesterday we noticed that they are sprouting! We're going to have hundreds of very happy yellow and red tulips blooming around the charred wreckage of our home.

Very artsy-fartsy, will post pictures later.

Family! What else is there?

We're going to move in a mobile home brought on to the farm for the next six months or so as we construct our new home.

Kitty is going to love it.

We're both so very grateful to be alive. So grateful to live in this most wonderful, supportive and loving community of Prairie Farm, Wisconsin. We're just overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.

We are also so fortunate and know we'll be fine.

As we drove away from the fire about noon on Saturday, Jay asked me if this was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Well, no it is not. Nothing can compare to the loss of family and friends. All this was just stuff.

We're born, born, born, born to be ALIVE!

Ken Seguine & Jay Gilbertson