The Fire at Country Feed
I can’t believe I haven’t written about this yet. I’m sure at first I had no interest in recollecting that day, and THEN, I had no time to sit down & write about it.
FEBRUARY 12 :: It was really a pretty normal day. I had sent Tessa back to school after being home for 5 days. Right at about 12 noon, I was helping a customer & Pam was finishing up painting the LAST wall. After I was done checking out the customer, he stepped out & said something didn’t look right. Then we hear what sounds like an exhaust fan getting louder and louder. [We would learn this was was the suction created by the fire trying to suck the air from the feed store.] I run outside to see flames shooting out of the warehouse window. By that time, smoke was billowing in from the warehouse and we knew what it was.
Key things I remember:
The snow. There was a snow storm coming that day….and it began around 1 pm.
There were so many people videoing around me. It felt violating at the time, but many were shared with me later.
The out pour from the community was SO amazing. We need to bring to light more how awesome people are more.
The girls were fine when I told them what happened. Tessa wanted to make sure her bike & scooter were okay.
The day we had to get rid of all the feed in the store (over $60,000 worth) made me nauseous.
By God’s grace, it was not our home. We felt at peace pretty quickly…sitting across the street. God was in control of this. He was sitting NEXT TO ME crying WITH me also upset about this. Sure, he knew, but He was a comforter. Being Wineingers, we are used to just putting our heads down & working, so that’s what we did. We through out our FEED STORE To Do List & created the REBUILD To Do List.
After about a week, investigation was inconclusive, but we believe it was a light fixture that swung down over the pine bedding and sparked a fire. Many thought it was faulty electrical from wiring in the restaurant or uncured hay, but BOTH those were ruled out VERY quickly. We are working out of 3 shipping containers & a construction trailer across the street from our store. It works well, but doesn’t lend to back stock or inventory.
APRIL 13 :: GREAT NEWS! We are moving back in this weekend. {Crazy what can happen in 2 months!} We were planning on having a big move-in party, but we can’t have large groups, so we will move in small doses. We are still struggling with insurance on our delivery truck. It was in the warehouse during the fire. We have an end in sight, so it’s just a matter of due diligence.
God prepared us before, during & after the fire. I see Him in and out of that situation EVERY DAY. I also believe it help up prepare MAJORLY for the COVID-19 glory.
February 12- Fire
March 13- The USA began shutting down for Shelter in Place & we have to decide whether we close the store or not.
April 13- We are ready to move back & reopen! What?!
What’s next? Well, as for the restaurant, The Feed Store… it’s still going to happen, but it’s been pushed out. Now that Country Feed is up & ready, now we begin work on the warehouse so we can have storage again. Because the warehouse was our MAIN storage area for bedding & feed, we now have to keep that merchandise inside in the seating area & in the kitchen area. The warehouse will look a little different when we are done, but WAY more functional. AND, it will lead for a perfect segway to get back into opening the restaurant again.
We are not going anywhere. We promise. :)
…Now back to regular programming on the blog… that’s just one of those life-altering events that you can’t leave out even though you are SO OVER IT!