Happy Fire in Wellman Iowa! With Cats and Horseshoe Crabs!

Just when I thought it was boring in Wellman, (and it IS by the way!)  A very cool fire broke out, leveling some poor farmer’s barn.   And Cheryl and I had a front row seat, so to say,  while we were on our usual afternoon stroll down a country road.  I guess the first thing was the HUGE black cloud of smoke I noticed from one of the farms we pass regularly.   It was like a mushroom cloud!  Now,  That didn’t really bug me, as people burn garbage here in Iowa all the time.  And even large clouds of smoke is not uncommon.  However,  the black smoke continued and before we got back to town,  the fire trucks finally were mobilized.   There were no hydrants there, so they had to bring this large tanker truck.

 

The funny thing about it was that the entire town suddenly came out to drive down this little dirt road we take our walk on.  It usually does not have any traffic.  However,  as the fire raged, the road was so packed, the fire trucks had to weave through the “auto obstacles” that were parked along the road.  I guess in a town as boring as this, a local fire is a form of entertainment. 

The entire thing was under control after about an hour.  It took about 20 minutes for the fire guys to arrive!   I guess that is impressive, as everyone here is a volunteer firefighter. But then again, all you had to do was look out your window to see the huge cloud!   I remember a few days ago,  One of the Casies clerks was talking about how “if the clouds of smoke aren’t black, then it probably is not a house fire”.  Reassuring living in a town where house fires are almost as common as bear mauling's in Alaska.  ( about one or two a year!)

In other news, since it has been so long since I have blogged.  The cats have been enjoying the summer.  Hiro wakes us up every morning by pulling several of Cheryl’s books off the shelves.  We usually end up putting the “thunder jacket” on him to settle him down.  He actually likes it!

 

 

And then there are the horseshoe crabs.  I thought they turned out pretty good with the cardstock wet-folded.  I have actually been selling a few things out of my Etsy shop as of late.   Very cool!  And, in case I don’t get to blog again,  we are starting another project at ACT next week.

Origami Horseshoe Crabs VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

  Back to work it seems.   At the very least we have been working on stockings these days trying to fill in the gaps in our supply.  If everything goes well, we should remain employed until the Christmas season kicks off and our stocking stock will be at capacity.  in the mean time, I’ll try to keep folding things and perhaps make a sale or two on Etsy.  We shall see.