A loss in '052

Sometimes you don't know how much something means to you until it is no longer there. Sitting at the farm on Christmas Day and looking out the window towards the rubble that was the big barn, it is impossible to describe to you how different it looks and how the farm doesn't quite seem like the farm without that barn.
We don't know for sure what started the fire, all we know is that when Jimmer (Jim Myers) showed up at 4:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning to take the salt truck out to work, the barn was on fire and he called 911. 16 minutes later the fire trucks were here, South County, Athens, Leonidas and East Leroy Fire Departments came, and worked hard on Christmas Eve Day to save our other barns from catching fire. At one point when the doors blew off the barn, the fireball was so huge it burned up the firefighters hoses, and even parts of the firetruck itself.
While the firefighters fought the flames, the whole town showed up, many friends and relatives stopped by with well wishes, food, coffee and hugs and help.
I'm sure we will never remember every little thing that was lost in the fire, but we know some things that are irreplaceable like the planter that Trevor built when he was young, our bikes and tricycles from our childhood, our pedal John Deere Tractor and wagon and dad's toolbox his parents got him for graduation.
Mainly though, the loss is in the barn itself, it was a part of the farm, built into the side of the hill where over t the years it housed cattle, sheep, chickens, kittens and many memories.