Well, it's been a while since I updated this blog. Seems like there have been a million things happening and I know with this update, I'm still missing a lot. At this point we have a functional cabin; beds, functional bathrooms and kitchen, and furnished to the point where we can sit down on chairs or a couch. We are getting there. It will take a while before the cabin is appropriately furnished. I think we have a great start but we'll need to go through a season to get into an appropriate rhythm.
These 31 pictures are from this past week. I've added captions where I thought they were appropriate.
Here's our washer and the dryer is in the entry. These are a full size stackable washer and dryer thanks to Bob and Verna Norland.
This is to show you our water softener and above and to the left is our water filter. The filter is thanks to Peggy and Floyd. Peggy also asked that Brad Glad install the filter and it seemed fitting that he installed the softener as well. This has made a nice change for showers, drinking water and coffee.
Sue has painted the kitchen floor and the main bathroom downstairs with this paint. We may not need it to last 20 years but it makes a great difference as compared to the cement.
The kitchen looking into the mudroom.
We cleared off this area to make room to host the firefighters with hot dogs, Polish dogs, chips, water, pop, and beer. We planned for 50 firefighters and about 15 showed up so we have lots of this stuff leftover for MEA or deer hunting.
The old Cabin Thursday Morning
The Bunkhouse Thursday morning
We had the Lancaster, Lake Bronson, and Hallock Fire Departments. Here you see them filling a canvas tank from the tankers for the water they needed to help fight the fire.
One of the tankers from Lancaster
They called this thing the Evinrude. It was placed on the pond. This charged an 1 1/2" line and ran the whole time they were fighting the fire. There was still lots of water in the pond when they finished.
Here they are going in with gasoline to start the process.
Throughout the process the firefighters were controlling the fire and providing protection to the power lines, the power meters and adjacent structures; the outhouse and the garage.
It didn't take long for this fire to get going.
You can see Chuck Olsonowski spraying down the outhouse. They also spent a lot of time spraying the trees; the oak trees on the right side of this picture and the Popple trees on the north side of the cabin/bunkhouse. They did tell us that these trees could get damaged.
More fire control and protecting trees/buildings.
The firefighters did a great job backing each other up.
Here's the cabin fire getting started.
Here two firefighters are controlling a small grass fire on the west and north side of the cabin.
This is Terry Kukowski (TK) who was instrumental in getting cooperation from Lake Bronson and Hallock and getting this coordinated so fast . . . like two days!
The cabin fully engulfed (I always wanted to use the word, "engulfed")
More engulfment.
I should know the name of this firefighter. He was in the old cabin with an SCBA during the early stages of the fire when they had a "rollover" fire which started the ceiling on fire and some of it landed on him. He and 2-3 other firefighters had to run out of the cabin. Here he was relating the experience to us. He was pretty, "amped". Buy the way, during this time Floyd was close to the old cabin and was ready to jump in and help if he thought he was needed.
You can see it was quite a job to protect the power line and the power meters. You can't see it but there's a water curtain to protect the meters. The only evidence of any damage was a slight wrinkling of the plastic around the yard light. We still don't know what happened to the webcam. As you can see in this picture, it was on the southwest corner of the garage and didn't show any physical indication of damage. Chris will be checking it out.
Some of the firefighters taking a break. They are a great and competent group.
Once all the walls were pushed into the middle the fire was left to burn itself out.
This is what it looked like Friday morning. The cement was still warm and there were still embers but you can see how complete the burn was. You can also see what a difference it makes to the property.
These 31 pictures are from this past week. I've added captions where I thought they were appropriate.
Here's our washer and the dryer is in the entry. These are a full size stackable washer and dryer thanks to Bob and Verna Norland.
This is to show you our water softener and above and to the left is our water filter. The filter is thanks to Peggy and Floyd. Peggy also asked that Brad Glad install the filter and it seemed fitting that he installed the softener as well. This has made a nice change for showers, drinking water and coffee.
Sue has painted the kitchen floor and the main bathroom downstairs with this paint. We may not need it to last 20 years but it makes a great difference as compared to the cement.
The kitchen looking into the mudroom.
We cleared off this area to make room to host the firefighters with hot dogs, Polish dogs, chips, water, pop, and beer. We planned for 50 firefighters and about 15 showed up so we have lots of this stuff leftover for MEA or deer hunting.
The old Cabin Thursday Morning
The Bunkhouse Thursday morning
We had the Lancaster, Lake Bronson, and Hallock Fire Departments. Here you see them filling a canvas tank from the tankers for the water they needed to help fight the fire.
One of the tankers from Lancaster
They called this thing the Evinrude. It was placed on the pond. This charged an 1 1/2" line and ran the whole time they were fighting the fire. There was still lots of water in the pond when they finished.
Here they are going in with gasoline to start the process.
Throughout the process the firefighters were controlling the fire and providing protection to the power lines, the power meters and adjacent structures; the outhouse and the garage.
It didn't take long for this fire to get going.
You can see Chuck Olsonowski spraying down the outhouse. They also spent a lot of time spraying the trees; the oak trees on the right side of this picture and the Popple trees on the north side of the cabin/bunkhouse. They did tell us that these trees could get damaged.
More fire control and protecting trees/buildings.
The firefighters did a great job backing each other up.
Here's the cabin fire getting started.
Here two firefighters are controlling a small grass fire on the west and north side of the cabin.
This is Terry Kukowski (TK) who was instrumental in getting cooperation from Lake Bronson and Hallock and getting this coordinated so fast . . . like two days!
The cabin fully engulfed (I always wanted to use the word, "engulfed")
More engulfment.
I should know the name of this firefighter. He was in the old cabin with an SCBA during the early stages of the fire when they had a "rollover" fire which started the ceiling on fire and some of it landed on him. He and 2-3 other firefighters had to run out of the cabin. Here he was relating the experience to us. He was pretty, "amped". Buy the way, during this time Floyd was close to the old cabin and was ready to jump in and help if he thought he was needed.
You can see it was quite a job to protect the power line and the power meters. You can't see it but there's a water curtain to protect the meters. The only evidence of any damage was a slight wrinkling of the plastic around the yard light. We still don't know what happened to the webcam. As you can see in this picture, it was on the southwest corner of the garage and didn't show any physical indication of damage. Chris will be checking it out.
Some of the firefighters taking a break. They are a great and competent group.
Once all the walls were pushed into the middle the fire was left to burn itself out.
This is what it looked like Friday morning. The cement was still warm and there were still embers but you can see how complete the burn was. You can also see what a difference it makes to the property.
Thanks to all of the partners for their support of this activity.
Bob
