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Fire News, Recovery & Rebuild

September 3, 2010

Holding Pattern

Pictures do not enlarge

By yesterday afternoon, the basement was dry again. Jay clambered in to inspect up close. He's standing on the sheets of Styrofoam insulation that are the base for the concrete floor. Called the concrete guy to ok pouring the floor Friday morning. Then a dramatic quick rainstorm with another 3/4" of rain. Basement totally flooded again. We were up and down all night long checking the pumps to make sure it was ok for the concrete this morning.

Turns out concrete man didn't reserve with the company that makes the stuff and can't get any. He's off for the weekend so next Tuesday is the next pour date. Sigh.

Hard to see but the cat came to check out the new house with us yesterday afternoon. She's been pretty freaked out with all the large equipment and noise so it is good that she's starting to get comfortable with what will be her new house too.

'Yall have a GREAT holiday weekend!

September 1, 2010

Problemas.

Sorry for the lack of posts, was in LA all last week for my "day job" and was crazy-busy. The concrete foundations are finished and waterproofed and the next step is to pour the basement floors but we've been bedeviled by rain. 1" rain, the basement floods, we muck and pump it out, then 2" rain, then last night 3/4" rain, lather, rinse repeat. Things are on hold until it's poured and then the construction can start.

Last week we were absolutely shocked to get a major, unexpected curveball regarding financing. Hope to have it resolved next week but it has been the most stress since the fire.

August 20, 2010

Click on pictures to enlarge

Oh this is so cool, they are pouring the concrete for the foundation, basement and garage walls right now. The "This Mud's for You" crew is back with six concrete trucks lined down the driveway. The concrete is pumped into a huge boom that directs it into the forms.

Check out the second picture, the guy in the middle in the gray controls the boom with a joystick. Where are my nephews when I need them?

August 16, 2010

1.	2,
3.	4.
5.	6.
7.	8.

Here's a quick review of the last few days, images do not enlarge.

1. A Great Start
Ok, so last Tuesday, 8/10/10, they poured the footings that support the foundation and house. Yeah! That night a freak 4" of rain in a couple of hours. Blammo!

2. Lake! This is Gonna be our House
We awoke to just a few inches of the rebar (steel rods) poking up from the lake in our basement. Ruh-Roh.

3. Everybody Got to Work
Craig Wirth, the excavation guy, answered the phone when we called him that morning, "How bad is it?". Pumps were brought in, muck shoveled. Everybody knows we have a timeline before winter.

4. Basement Protected
Drainage tiles were laid, construction felt was placed over the dirt between the concrete footings and 8" to 14" of gravel filled the basement.

5. More Rain!
We had more unwelcome rain Friday night. Partially filled some of the spaces with new mini-lakes. We spent Sunday, August 15, 2010 pumping and digging out the muck. We want construction to proceed chop, chop.

6. Monday, August 16, 2010
Delivery of the ICF, insulating concrete forms, that will create the walls of our basement. This is supposed to be the state-of-the-art for strong, well insulated walls.

7. Legos for Men
Basically, all these two sided Styrofoam blocks fit together with steel rebar running vertical and horizontally. Concrete will be pumped in between the forms. Solid, efficient construction.

8. The Forms for the Basement Walls are Up
Tomorrow the forms for the garage concrete poured walls will be set. Today was a really dramatic day for us to see how the new house will lay out,.

UP IT GOES!

August 10, 2010

The footing and foundation framing is in, we just passed our first inspection and the cement truck is on the way. We're going to be serving wine in the basement this afternoon!

We are so very impressed with the high level of knowledge and skill of all the contractors that are involved in building our home. Thanks guys.

August 6, 2010

That is Jay, arms up inviting all our friends over to our new basement. First day of real progress on our new home. The Wirth Brothers did their usual outstanding job and we can actually see the rooms as laid out on the construction plans.

Ready, set GO!

Today we got our permit to start construction. Finally. Friday, the excellent Wirth Brothers will come with the big equipment to grade and dig our basement, concrete should happen next week. Of course there are some little last minute ruffles. Got a call tonight from a very unhappy customer of the firm we've selected to do the geothermal HVAC work. Because of this we are doing some more background checking on the firm. Today is a big turning point, we really are going to be building a new house and we couldn't be happier about it. Onward!

Everything takes so   l  o   n    g  . . .

Still waiting to hear back on some of the significant bids we need to have before applying for the building permit. Everybody, HURRY! We gotta get this thing going. We're doing fun stuff too, everyday making decisions on surface materials, fixtures, colors. Hopefully the rest of the bids will be in today or tomorrow.

The construction plans are all out now with the contractors who will do electrical, plumbing, HVAC, lumber, windows and such. We should get bids by the end of this week. Then we can apply for a permit, THEN we can get going.

We're done with some big hurdles. Our terrific insurance company, Rural Insurance, has accepted Jay's massive inventory list of our personal possessions. Ken then submitted the 30+ pages of documentation required for our 2010 organic certification.

We cleaned up and burned some brush piles over the weekend. It was our first fire since THE fire. No big deal at all, it was good to have this old eye sore gone. As a native Californian, I will never get over how strange it seems to just go out and burn stuff in your yard!

Updates on our terrific 2010 pumpkin season on the latest news page.

Jay was seriously ill last week with a bug bite, most likely spider. On Sunday, 7/4/2010 he was bit and by midweek, his doctor was talking hospital. We were shocked how quickly things seemed to get out of control but everything is fine now. We had to cancel the architect's visit last Thursday but today had a conference call and finished up the last decisions. Tim Fuller, SALA Architects will come out on Thursday, his first visit since the old house has been removed. He'll bring the detailed construction plans we need to get bids from sub-contractors that will allow us to get a permit and get going.

Placement of wood stove
To maximize our wonderful views we have lots of windows but placing the wood stove was a problem due to codes. Here's the final solution. We had to eliminate one window that would have been to the right of the wood stove.

View if you were 8 ft tall
Here you are standing just above the 12' kitchen island looking through the living room, oops, "Gathering Room" as it has now been renamed to the 14' x 36' screened porch beyond.

First look at some interior shots. We're way into the fun stuff now. Click to embiggen any image, from the top left...

Party in comfort
One of our favorite things in the whole house is a TWELVE foot island in the kitchen. It is exactly where everyone wants to be at a party and we're making it comfortable. It will be lined with barstools and have a foot rail.

View from front entry
Things have gotten moved around from this design. The fridge will go on the far end of the wall, the two wall ovens go at this end of the wall, the range will only be a cooktop in the center. Window above kitchen sink and dishwasher to its right.

View toward the living room
This is the kitchen side of the island, the entry door is to the left, straight ahead is the door to the screened porch. On the right, midway is an eating nook.

Decor
From the beginning, we've been pretty clear about what we wanted, especially in the kitchen. This Armstrong Floor ad has many of the elements. Our  floors are all red oak, the cabinets will be painted dark blue green. Laminate counters are a cream color. Sink is white, walls pale yellow, island top will be a thick, beveled piece of wood with gold stain and very dramatic grain. Appliances all Kitchen Aid in brushed stainless. Cabinet hardware in stainless. Lassie stays in the ad, not the house.

Yep, but it is gone, gone, gone. What a  gorgeous day to say our last goodbye. 70 degrees, dry, crystalline sky. Wisconsin can be so beautiful. We continue to feel inspired at having the mess removed. That is Jay in the picture hooking up electricity to the water pressure tank standing on an island of left-over concrete that houses the well from the old house that will service the new house.

The view from the trailer is much improved!

It is all gone. Here's another quickie video of the concrete being loaded into trucks and hauled away.

The Wirth Brothers are back at it, removing all the concrete. They just expertly cut and moved a hand-painted compass that was part of the patio. Will have pictures later. Really appreciate their efforts to salvage this momento.

A quickie video from yesterday with Craig Wirth expertly using the backhoe to take down the old burned house.

What a fun day. Demo went great. We were not exactly sure how we would feel but it turned out to be fun watching the big ass (technical term) equipment crunch up and make the old mess go away. We wished we could have had our nephews with us, Joseph, Eric & Reed—you would have loved it. Early on in the demo Jay made the comment that everything is all just temporary. So true.

 Pictures from top left and numbered on bottom right, click on any image to enlarge.

1. Step One
Jay, the house electrician wanna-be disconnected the juice that ran to the well and pressure tank. He then removed the line to be hooked up again at the end of the day. Early on, Jay made the comment that it is all just temporary. So true.

2. Wirth Brothers
These guys are great. It was our first time to actually meet them. No wonder they are busy, professional, competent & nice. They had just started digging into the house in this shot.

3. One Wing Gone
An entire side of the house had been removed. It was not like the view of the old place was painful, it was just ugly, but it was so very fun to see it go.

4. Big Ass Backhoe
It was huge. Look at those gapping jaws about to bite into the remains of our garage.

5. Crunchity Crunch
After the structure was down, Craig Wirth just kept pounding, smashing and pulverizing the house. The smaller bits fit more tightly in the huge trucks that carted it to the appropriate dumps.

6. Look Ma, No House
Tomorrow they will come back with bull dozers and remove all the concrete. The old house is gone, we are thrilled and know we are so fortunate about to get the house of our dreams. Go!

Demo  in the Morning

It was exactly 3 months ago today our home burned to the ground. Tomorrow is a big day for us, the demo happens! The old wreck is going to be properly sorted and hauled away. Everything done according to the new Wisconsin laws that regulate this type of disposal.

This week Jay finished the monumental task of listing everything in the house. His spreadsheet had over 1,350 individual types of items. He did an amazing job and with this task complete, is able to begin his writing once more.

We met with Tim Fuller at SALA architects on Friday and we are basically done with the planning that will determine foundation and walls. It is now full speed ahead on the formal construction plans. We just love, love the house.

Tomorrow will have demo pictures and video and the latest images of the new house.

Ok to Demo

After 6 experts from the opposing insurance companies spent 6 hours combing through the wreckage, gathering evidence and interviewing us, we got permission to demo last Monday. Now we just need to get Wirth Brothers in here with their big equipment to make it all go away. They are well-regarded locally and in-demand. Hope we can get on their schedule for next week. House plans ready to go to the "CAD" stage for construction drawings. It won't be long.

We sure hope so. We're now 11 weeks out from the fire. Monday morning there is a meeting with the insurance companies and their respective investigators. We may be given permission to demo after that.

It will be so good to have it gone and get going on our new home.

It is official, the committee came by and we do indeed have the most beautiful peony bouquet in the world.

If the my career in the natural products industry, pumpkin seed oil and Ken's Karpet Kleaning don't work out, I'm going to grow peonies.

I love'em.

We had a great, 2 hour meeting with Tim Fuller last Wednesday where he presented this latest round of revisions. We've made many changes you'll see on the next round. Click to enlarge any image, from the top left:

View from driveway
Note upstairs walk out porch from Ken's office, breezeway greenhouse and windows in upstairs roof

View from driveway
This side of the wraparound porch is now 14ft deep for tables and dining.

View from hill behind house
The door off  our bedroom will be eliminated and this deck now has a door from the kitchen pantry. The windows are in the kitchen, dining area and gathering room.

Floor plan level 1
We are very excited about the huge 11 ft island in the kitchen. The place to be for parties.
 

It has been over nine weeks since the fire and unfortunately the house is still standing  while we await permission to demo. Check it out, WEEDS are now sprouting in the insulation inside the house.

Tomorrow we head into The Cities again to meet with Tim Fuller at SALA for another round of revisions on the house, will post some updated images tomorrow.

 We like to Garden

The old wreck of a house is still up. Hoping to get permission from the insurance companies to demo later this week. We like to garden and have always enjoyed keeping things neat and trim. The house is so ugly on its own and now all the former gardens and lawns are big weedy messes. It is hard for us to look at although check out the interesting pattern made from the remaining rafters in Jay's old office. It catches my eye every afternoon.

In contrast, the garden shed. We have a charming, small detached garage where we store garden equipment. We're keeping it weeded and are planting out vines and flowers. Makes us feel good. These are ferns we had transplanted from our woods.

Tim Fuller of SALA Architects walked me through the many adjustments needed on the amazing Google SketchUp software to produce clear images. You should now be able to get a better look. Went to Minneapolis yesterday (first time in years to be in our old haunts in Northeast). We met with Tim and gave our many requested revisions. Everything about this talented guy is easy. What a pleasure to work with him. We should have the updated design by next mid-week.

We did "big city" stuff you certainly can't do in Prairie Farm or even Eau Claire. Got very cool replacement eye glasses at IWARE from our friend, Kevin Cunningham. Got cool shoes at DSW but ran out of time to buy new office chairs for us both.

Pumpkins are about to take a big chunk of our time, we plan on getting 10,000 seedlings going on Sunday.

Click on any picture to enlarge. From top left:

"Tra, la, la, la, la, la, laaah!"
[Idiot tulips]

Not What We Planed but Delicious
Sunday we went out to harvest morel mushrooms, only found two but one of our spring favs, fiddlehead fern fronds, where unfurling. We did them Asian style with sesame oil, fish sauce and soy.

There will NEVER be Another Weed on Our Farm
Yah, right. In February we attended an all day course on weed management for organic farms. This is the recommended cultivator, just got delivered today and we still have to assemble its parts. Odd, the barn in the background suddenly sank 15' at the rear when it was delivered! Just kidding, the weeder was actually angled down in front.

Mmmm...Insulation for Dinner
The old house, so very sad now and still standing. New insurance investigation starts tomorrow. Hopefully very soon we get the word we can demo. This is a shot of our beloved Jen Air convection range that for some reason, has a piece of pink insulation on the rack of the oven. Hungry?

Click on the image for a larger version. This is for our friends and family that have been here to see where we plan on building. Basically the screened porch and house are on top of the old garage. I've labeled rooms in the old place with the label just to the right of what it describes. Hope this helps seeing what we're thinking.

Will be speaking with Tim Fuller at SALA tomorrow to figure out how to get more crisp images.

Tonight we're going step-by-step, room-by-room and making notes on what we do and don't like. We like lots!

It's Sunday.

What a fun day yesterday! Our architect, Tim Fuller of Sala Architects came out to present two schemes for the new house. He also introduced us to Google SketchUp software that allows amazing 3-D interactive modeling. I need to spend some time with it but we will be able to post any view, inside and out of the house. Sorry, these images are not very good, will get better ones up soon.

Here is the "spa" with the previously mentioned eyesore removed. It's so nice now that sometimes we just float around all day barking orders into our new voice-activated laptops. We are the masters of our 70's trailer.

Well, not exactly, but it is defiantly an improvement in the bathroom. For some reason this shot makes it almost look pleasant. For the guys that immediately specified with the architect that the new house was to have no bathtubs, this spa thingy is a huge waste of space. What to do with it? Storage, cat box, planter, wine fermentation?

Things are indeed getting better and better. Yesterday Ken took the day off and we went power shopping in Eau Claire. Jay had his annual dermatologist appointment and got a hair cut from Jan at Starr's Sister Salon (life goes on...) then we hit the mall. Bedding, linens, cookware, office supplies—lots of things to make life easier every day. Having so little, it is astonishing to see how much we buy.

Finished the day off at Shanghai Bistro and had sushi. So much better than ALL the other many other sushi places in Prairie Farm.

Above the "spa" in the bath of the "master bedroom" was this gem. About 6" between this and the outside window. Lots of crap had collected. Dirt, dust and a decade's worth of Asian Beetles (local folks will understand). Eeww.

We removed the yellowed glass (they must have been smokers) and to our great surprise, it is of amazing worth!

It was appraised as being Louis "Comfortable" Tiffany and it's value is an astounding $-12,000!

Let the Ebay frenzy begin!

We think we're doing fine (but  what  do we know?). Sometimes we still grieve, we think frequently of that night and are moving on too. We continue to make the trailer our home, more pleasant, clean and visually appealing. Having zippo, we buy lots and lots of stuff. A few things are permanent replacements. New Dyson Ball vacuum (sign us up to do the commercial—nice!) and we got a new, quality bed delivered yesterday. Jay continues to work on "the list" of every single thing in the old house. Ken is now set up in his office and functioning well at his job.

We live in a wonderful community and have so many kind and supportive friends. People have been  very helpful and we're just about ready to start being social again

Some big events this week. We should see the preliminary plans for the new house and the demolition and removal of the old house may happen at the end of the week. It will be good and sad to have it gone forever.

Today, weather permitting, we plan on weeding some of the garden beds away from the old house. It is good to take care of things.

Having your house burn down is not a good thing emotionally or financially, even when your insurance company is A+. Dealing with sad, dirty kitchen wallpaper in your new trailer's kitchen is just beyond the pale. Click on the pictures to enlarge but do so at your own risk. The sadness of the wallpaper increases with size.

No Offense to the Good Folks of North Dakota
Neighbor, friend and poet Sam Dodge described this as being reminiscent of a depressed North Dakota housewife who's husband is at the bar. We agreed.

We Believe in Yellow Kitchens
Not that many things that we really believe in besides love but yellow kitchens just seem right. Much less depressing now.

We had planned on cleaning, weeding and tending the property this last weekend. We did, but had a couple of distractions that I'll deal with below. Click on any picture to enlarge. From top left:

Wild Plums
The Japanese would be proud. Jay takes extra good care pruning some of the wild plums on the hill above our trailer. Not this year, but they are excellent to add zip to canned apple sauce.

1,400 Foot Long Strips as Seen from the Tractor
Ken continued to prep the contour strips for this year's pumpkins. We expect to plant 5,000 plants ourselves with many more planted by local friends and farmers. What a gorgeous day and spring we are having.

Toad Love
Well, you can't really see them but there are hundreds (thousands?) of toads in our pond that are amorous and singing their hearts out right now. It is so beautiful, we look forward to it every year. They migrate to the pond to sing, mate and lay eggs, then leave. Later we'll have a bejillion teeny toads making their march into the hills. We don't walk in the area when this happens. Toads are cool.

Does this Purple Make my Face Look Fat?
Ok, we are just really grateful to have a place to live and I'd decided to skip all the easy, snarky jokes about the decor in our older trailer. This weekend it really misbehaved—the plumbing malfunctioned and backed up into the bathtub. We're using a portapotty outside so it wasn't that bad, but still. We got it fixed ourselves after a day and a half of consultations with plumbing friends and because it ate into my weekend, I get to make fun of the trailer!

Iridescent purple wisteria wallpaper border? Yup.
Purple walls in bathroom? Yup
Bald man with fat face? You betcha.

A mix of emotions these last few days. Click on any picture to enlarge. From top left:

Ok, Cue the Eagle...
Tuesday with our architect couldn't have been better. Tim Fuller of Sala Architects pulls up, we walk out of the trailer to meet him and as we three approach the old house, an eagle flies low over us. It will be dropped in the movie version, just not believable. I was in heaven in the afternoon, got to play Tim's assistant and help measure for site elevations. Love to measure.

Digging
Demo of the old house is scheduled in two weeks, insurance permitting. Jay continues to methodically excavate and it is always amazing to see what things survived.

Maybe we Over Reacted?
I'm from a temperate climate, LA, where not much happens weather wise and even a slight sprinkle can generate, "Storm Watch 2010!" headlines on the news. The upper Midwest is the Super Bowl of weather, anything can and does happen. Early in the evening, I'm out rotovating the cool contour strips where this year's pumpkins will go and Jay appears having run all the way from the trailer. There was an alert on the radio, severe weather with 60 mph winds, hail and possible tornados heading to Dunn County. I came in, we checked radar and a angry looking red/purple splot looked like it was heading our way. Normally in severe weather you head to your basement. We thought, "oh no, what if...?" We actually packed up our valuables into a suitcase, stored it in the car that we pulled into the barn, made plans to run to the basement in the old house and then sat and watched the storm on radar.

All clear!
The center passed just to our south, with no damage. Nice evening, smells like spring.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for our mention and link in yesterday's paper!  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/dining/28oils.html

Back to our regularly scheduled chronicle of woe tomorrow.

Just now realized that today is the one month anniversary but too busy this morning for reflection. Big day! Mr. Tim Fuller of Sala Architects is on his way to spend the better part of today with us. We'll be helping carrying his transits and such as he does elevations, takes pictures and gets to know our land. Will report back this evening.

Sunday was a nice day. We took a break from setting up the trailer, doing our insurance chores and work and did normal things. Jay mowed (and mowed and mowed), I had to gently remind him that we no longer needed to keep things neat and trim around the old house.

I put on cages on the peonies and delphiniums and then used the tractor to make the first contour strip on our new pumpkin field. A few days before the fire the Dunn County conservation agent helped us map out strips on this field to prevent erosion. I'll be putting in more on Wednesday, they will look really cool too.

Ok, after the heaviness of the morning it was good to have a little tractor project in the late afternoon. The trailer is parked right in back of what used to be our outdoor chicken area. Doing what chickens do, for years they've been digging hollows to take "dirt baths" It is exactly where you want to walk through when you park in the driveway.

With rain on the way it seemed good timing. I rotovated and smoothed out the area and planted grass seed.

We've way scaled back our garden plans for 2010 but will do a few things. Dirt is always good therapy.

A sad day for us yesterday. Rain was coming and we decided the time was right to excavate Jay's office in hopes that we might find one of the many back-up CDs of his current manuscript.  There was just nothing in his desk area, things simply disappeared. Click on any image to enlarge. From top left:

Dirty Work
It's toxic too, at least now we're wearing masks. With small garden tools we painstakingly sifted through the 3-4 feet of debris then shoveled stuff out the window.

Oh, Here's the Cutlery
Jay's great-grandmother's silver plate was stored on top of his bookcases. A few pieces may be salvageable.

This is It
We were committed to take it to the floor. The fire was very hot in here, it was the last room we were in that night before we fled the house. Just a few charred mementos. Surprisingly we found a few of our own old cards to each other.

Disappointment
We had hoped. I had even planned out the shot of Jay holding up a shinny CD, but no.

Normally our website bumps along getting a few hundred requests per day. As you can see, all that changed after the fire March 27th.

We would like to ask our new and old visitors to help us build our business. Please think of your  foodie, gourmet friends that like new tastes and send them a link to our website, www.hayriver.net.

We don't want sympathy purchases, we want real customers. It will help us financially now and help build a sustainable business that will in turn benefit our community.

Thanks for all your good wishes and help us grow our business!

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