Dust and cobwebs...

If you've never had the opportunity to cut open a new bale of hay and breath in the scent of sunshine the dry grass releases, you probably can't grasp the effort that putting up quality hay requires. You also may not know that if the hay is baled before it's completely dry, the inside grass can begin to ferment. As long as there's no oxygen, fermentation can be a good thing. It cooks the sugar in the grass to a wonderful caramelized feed that smells a little like warm chewy oatmeal blended with brown sugar that cattle love on a cold winter morning. But, if oxygen gets into that fermenting grass, it can, and usually does, cook hot enough to burst into flames.

For those of you who've never seen a barn fire, this one happened on our farm a little over a year ago. Typical of farm life, equipment had been giving us trouble, and Mother Nature had refused to cooperate all week. The baler wasn't tying knots tightly, and it had drizzled several days in a row. A big rain was forecast for later in the week, but the weatherman wasn't sure what day. Frustrated, we chose to bale a field of hay despite the concerns we had that maybe it wasn't quite dry. To compound our errors, despite knowing the last few bales were damp, we stacked them all the way to the peak of the shed...a peak that was covered from end to end with dust and cobwebs.

On this particular morning, an ember had eaten its way through the interior of the bale until it reached the air outside. With that first breath of oxygen, it flared upwards towards the peak, consuming the dust and cobwebs as it raced down the center of the shed. Thankfully, a neighbor driving home from church saw a plume of smoke from the topmost bales and called 9-1-1. This is what the firemen on the first truck saw when they arrived. Before it was extinguished, nine fire companies had responded. Neighbors from all around had dropped everything and come to hand out water, move equipment, and share their lawn chairs for exhausted firemen to take a breather.

Looking back, we've counted our blessings time and again. We're thankful no one was hurt...thankful the fire didn't spread to our son's poultry houses just a few feet away...thankful we saved over half of the hay, despite it's being soaked by the fire hoses...thankful we didn't lose a single piece of equipment...thankful for good neighbors who came to help. The list goes on....

It's hard to believe that something as destructive as that fire resulted from a little frustration and a whole lot of dust and cobwebs. Maybe it's time to clear away some of the dust and cobwebs in our lives so there's nothing left to flame up when the frustration gets too intense.