11-21-13 Catch Up

Soooooo.

It’s been quite a week.

For everyone, I think.

But first - - - -

back to Friday night, when Jesse camped out at the Koch cabin after we sang at Hopedale Nursing Home. He & Lucas went coon hunting, as Kate previously mentioned, and I guess it’s kind of unusual to get this many at one time, but they did. Jesse said at one point there were four coons in one tree, and they got them all. A friend emailed these px to Jesse who forwarded them to me.

Saturday morning.

Saturday was pretty normal around here, as Kate reported in her post.

Sunday was pretty normal, except unusually warm, and everyone knows about the tornadoes that devastated so many homes in the area.

Sunday evening we hosted a singing here, and once again we thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the space we have since we added on last year. We simply didn’t have room to host a singing before the addition. The singing and fellowship was a wonderful blessing to us, and hopefully to all who attended; we hope to do it again soon.

Monday morning, A. Joyce emailed to us these px of Kevin & Jolynn’s house which she took on Sunday afternoon.

To the left was the house; the pile to the right is what remains of a concrete block shed/garage. If I remember right, the concrete visible between the two buildings was a patio area.

The shed was destroyed around this equipment; a corn crib (east of the concrete block shed) was also leveled.

On Monday morning, about 100 people came to help them sort through the debris, including a group of FFA students from Eureka High School; by Monday afternoon Grandpa & Grandma Kaiser had dropped off a pile of laundry that had been salvaged from the pile of rubble. They took laundry to several other places too; as well, they took a sizeable pile home themselves. Grandma took this quilt home, which she made for Drew when he was a baby:

Some of the laundry we did looked like this quilt, but I didn’t think to take pictures; most of the items, though, were just wet and covered with insulation which we shook outside before putting them through the washing machine.

Here’s the amazing after picture of Drew’s quilt, which Grandma emailed me yesterday:

So by Monday night, that pile of rubble was completely gone; as well, the fields east of their farmstead were cleared of debris. The field west of the house wasn’t cleared, though, so on Tuesday, the kids & I, along with some other friends, took a field trip. That is, we walked the field, collecting debris and piling it on hayracks which were taken back to Kevin’s parents’ farm to be sorted and burned or sold as scrap.

I do have pictures of Tuesday, but that’s another post for another day.

It’s been quite a week.