Advantages of a Small Town

A couple days ago my brother called me because he had heard (from my dad's scanner) that there was a structure fire near our house. I looked outside, in all directions, and could not see a thing. Assuming that they got the wrong address, I went about doing my stuff. About 30 minutes later Dennis noticed that there was smoke coming from the hay barn across the field from us (about 1/2 mile) and there was a squeeze taking the hay out.

For those of you unfamiliar with haying, if the hay in the barn is baled just a bit too wet (not dried enough, or too much dew) it can start to smolder. It can do that for days without anyone noticing because it is deep inside a very large hay barn. Soon there is enough of it smoldering that the hay catches on fire. I have seen a few hay barns completely engulfed in flames. They just combust from the inside. This is especially bad at night because no one is around to notice those first signs of smoke coming out of a hay stack. This is bad for many obvious reasons, but also the money that is lost when that hay is destroyed can be quite remarkable.

Well, this is what was happening in the neighbors barn. The volunteer fire department made it to the scene and so did 5 or 6 guys with their squeezes. (Large forklift-type vehicle, specifically used for loading hay on trucks, in barns or wherever you want to put it). A little dance began to take shape. The men driving the squeezes started on the outside, and were pulling cubes of hay out of the barn. If there was a hot spot the firefighters sprayed it and then the guys went back in for another cube. From a distance, it looked like a well choreographed display, but, no, just skilled neighbors helping out a fellow farmer. In the end there was very little damage to the hay, considering it was on fire and no damage to the barn or any other building.

The main point of this blog, is that it warmed my heart to see the small town spirit in action. Not one of those people helping got paid, not one of them received anything more than "thank you." But, that was enough. I thanked God for great neighbors, and I thanked Him for allowing me to live "out in the middle of nowhere." I have no doubt that if one day it were our barn, we would have plenty of people there to help. Sometimes people talk negatively about living in small towns and everybody knows your business. That does have some drawbacks at times, but in cases like this, I am sure the owner of the hay was pretty happy that everyone was involved in his business.