Thank God for a Lack of Hay!!!

Busha called me this morning. Uncle Gick and Ukie Di had a fire in their barn last night. It was in the South West corner where Gick has penned up cows ready to calf and bottle calves in the past. Last night it was empty except for loose hay. Apparently the wind was blowing so hard that it bounced the electric fence off the tin wall of the barn sending sparks into the hay below.

Their neighbors were heading home late from church last night. As they neared the house, they saw the smoke and stopped to tell Gick and Di. Aunt Di said they were banging on the door like no body's business. The Husband helped Uncle Gick drag out the hoses and beat down the flames. By the time the fire department got their, they had it pretty well put out. If they hadn't been going down the road just then, the entire barn may have been lost.

Aunt Di sent me pictures this morning, but I'm not posting them because they're a little hard to see if you aren't familiar with the barn. The damage wasn't too bad, the walls of the barn are tin, but there are some support boards that will have to be replaced and the wood surround that keeps the livestock away from the walls. Normally that side of the barn would be piled to the ceiling with square bales of hay, but this year they put up round bales that won't fit in there. That's one thing that saved them.

That barn also holds their pull behind camper, Uncle Gick's old beater car, their extended cab, full size truck, the lawn mowers, wagons, and other odds and ends. It could have been bad. They went to the hospital after the fire was out and were checked for smoke inhalation. The doctor said they would have raw throats for a while and coughs, but it was just irritation, no damage. We are so thankful!

In other news, I got my free bottles from Second Nature today. There are 2 small bottles, one large one, one transitional cup, and two extra nipples. I think I'm really going to like them. Hopefully Baby will too (I really need to name this poor child...I mean, she has a name in "real" life, but I need to give her a blogging name...I'll think on it).

BabyGirl is a reader!!! February is Reading Month at school and they want each child to read 10 minutes a night or 70 minutes a week. At the end of each week they get a prize and at the end of the month (March 2nd) they get to go to a party if they've met the goal. We've been doing Book-It for about 4 months now, but I've always counted the books I was reading to the kids at bedtime as her books for that. Since she has a larger "reading vocabulary" now and is doing well sounding out words, I thought I'd let her try to read her own . Grandma B gave her a Dick and Jane book earlier in the year, so we got it out, and I can't get her to stop reading! Last night she read for 33 minutes before I made her put the book up so she could eat dinner before bed. I counted each Dick and Jane story as a separate book for her Book-It sheet. She's already filled the one for the month of February! She's bursting with pride. We may run out of books...if you have any suggestions for easy to read kids books, please let me know. We have quite a collection of kids books, but I think a lot of them may be a little tough for a kid who only knows one sound per vowel at the moment.

And thank you, Lauren and Anonymous, for the cocoa butter tips...I didn't realize it was from Coconut oil. The Tummy Butter that I just got is cocoa butter and it seems to be helping. I hadn't thought of getting some to eat.