Sunday, October 7, 2012

Annual Journey South and Viewing the Ashes

After being home just long enough to unpack and watch the first Presidential Debate with friends at the condo. Our hand-wringing at first turned to cheering by the end. Go Mitt!  I also met my sister for lunch for a quick catch-up and then we packed up and took off for our annual pilgrimage to Southern Utah. This year we took not only the horses but also some furniture for our (near) future barn with a small apartment above to replace our little cabin that burned down in June.

The harsh morning sun doesn’t do the colors justice but the horses were probably a bit sad to leave the gorgeous and brilliant yellows and golds of autumn in our neighborhood. 

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I drove my car so we could leave the truck down there after a week at the Annual World Senior Games where dad plans to gather in his usual gaggle of medals!

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It was a sad sight when we pulled up to the ashes. It was totally disorienting because all the giant cottonwoods were gone along with the house. That house across the gully (which was also totally melted across the back by the fire) had hardly been visible. The scouts had come and cut the trees down to stumps, sawed it up and delivered it to the widows in the ward for the winter.

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This grand old tree is at least a hundred years old. Even though it is dead, they couldn’t bring themselves to cut it down…

 

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It took a long time to figure out what the black blobs were:  This is the remains of the washer, dryer and water heater.

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Kitchen stove and oven…

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Part of Jonah and Aja’s food storage:

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Cast iron coffee table stand…

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For some reason the little playhouse must have had a fire-proof pad on the bottom. This is what was left of that…

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Here is Jonah’s bike and the lawnmower…

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Well, sad but life goes on. We are still waiting for insurance money on the contents. Rick/Dad was emotionally attached to some of the nice things in the house but really just “stuff”. But Jonah and Aja lost almost all of their worldly treasures. Some cash will soften the blow but can never replace their losses. For a picture of the cabin that they loved (they lived there for six months while building a house in St. George and made so many improvements) and Aja’s feelings about their loses click here. We are so sorry for their losses!

The lush growth on the berm around the house was completely wiped out but it stopped exactly at the road coming into the house and totally missed our almost worthless barn on the other side of road. Too bad! 

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The new barn is actually a very nice kit! The horses are going to be so happy about their new digs! It will be delivered on Monday and we have a great young man who is going to put it together for us. It will have with even better view of the extraordinary five fingers of the Kolob and spectacular views on the valley on the other side. Stay tuned for photos on that!

Upward and Onward!

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