Ole has a Rude Awakening!!

We had another Alberta Clipper blow in last night. We didn’t get much more than a couple of inches of snow with it, but it made for some nasty visibility and wind chills. It blew all night long and into the morning. Shortly after 6 a.m. Ole’s pager went off and the rescue squad and fire department were called out for a garage fire. The dispatcher said the garage was completely engulfed and there were two cars inside. The nasty wind and the cold wind chills make it extremely difficult and dangerous for the firemen.

So Ole tore out of bed, jumped into his jeans, and I threw a couple of protein bars into his pockets as he passed by on his way out the door headed for the fire department. We found out later, after the fire was all over and the computer reports had come in, they had a six minute response time – that’s from the time the call went out from the dispatch office to the time the firemen got to the scene and had the pumper trucks going. Now consider, these are all volunteer firemen who have to come from their homes to the fire station, gear up, get the engines started and get to the fire.

Ole said the folks had tried to put the fire out themselves before calling it in. If they had called it in right away instead of fooling around they may have been able to save the building, but with the delay, it was totally gone.

Apparently there was a dog kennel inside the garage with a bunch of straw bedding, which had a heat lamp extended into the kennel to keep the dog warm. They got the dog out of the kennel, but the poor thing was so terrified that it bit four firemen before they got it into the house. The garage was located about ten feet from the house. The fire was so hot that it melted the next-door neighbor’s siding.

These fellas do an outstanding job and have developed a reputation that has the second best response times for volunteer fire departments in the entire county. The number one position belongs to a town about twice the size of our little village that’s 15 miles down the road. So I don’t think we’re doing to bad at all.

Now, enter the neighbor with the melted siding. Later this morning, while the firemen were still on site picking up hoses and cleaning up other things, Neighbor is heard at the post office berating the firemen. He was telling everyone that would listen to him that it took the firemen over 20 minutes to even get any water on the fire, so he sure was glad HIS house didn’t burn down. Then he trotted across the street to the Local Watering Hole for his morning coffee and started telling his tall tales over there. Only by that time it had grown to a 30-minute response time and that there was absolutely no excuse for the firemen to be so slow. The person who heard all of this immediately called the fire chief and informed him of what was happening. Needless to say the fire chief was irate. So I guess we’ll see what happens from here.

About an hour after Ole got the call, I drove into the village to see what I could see, making sure I stayed out of the way. The strong wind was making it difficult to breathe even several blocks away from the scene, and there were so many official vehicles there I couldn’t get close enough for a look. Mid morning I drove back and managed to get a shot of the garage through the alley. Ole finally got home about 11 a.m. after helping to get everything cleaned up, tanker trucks full again, and everything set for the next “event.”

And you know, when something like this happens in this part of the country, it usually happens when the weather is at its worst.
Needless to say, I’m pretty proud of our guys – not just because Ole is part of them, but they all do a super job and are all very professional.

PS: FYI the temperature this morning at 6 a.m. was 5 below zero. At that time there was a wind of 40 MPH, which made the wind chill factor equivalent to 34 below zero. Neighbor with the melted siding should try to handle hoses spraying water at those temperatures with the wind conditions. Maybe he wouldn’t be so quick to criticize, huh?

The Snake Handling Minister and Smoking Ole

Ole and I went to a funeral yesterday. The father of a good friend of ours died at the age of 89. He was sitting at a table looking at a photo album with his wife and some friends who were visiting and he just fell over dead. Up to that point he hadn’t had any health problems. What a way to go – no laying around for that Norwegian farmer. I guess it was a burst aneurysm in his heart.

Anyway, it was an interesting funeral if funerals can be interesting. I didn’t think funerals like this took place anymore. It was at a little country church out in the middle of nowhere in a very Norwegian community. The church had been built in 1895, and with the exception of a couple of additions such as an enlarged entry and a large dining room, the original church was pretty much intact.


There had been some updating in the sanctuary, such as lighting, etc. But the original alter was still there, which was extremely ornate and beautiful, along with some of the original lights fixtures. The light fixtures really caught my eye, as they were wrought iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling each holding six kerosene lamps that were lit. I wish that you could get good look at them, but they don’t show up in this picture, although you can get an idea of what the alter looked like.

Then there was the minister – who still wears the ruffled clerical collar like they used to back in the “olden days.” He was a real fire and brimstone minister, at times speaking in an extremely loud tone of voice and holding his arms skyward. I almost expected him to reach in a box and pull out snakes to handle or something. It was almost that kind of a funeral service.


Then it came to communion, which I’ve never seen done at a funeral before either. At least not at a Lutheran funeral. Instead of communion wafers there were actual loaves of unleavened bread, which were broken in pieces and a piece given to each participant. And a communal silver chalice was used – not the little individual plastics cups. Sorry – but Ole and I didn’t participate because of all the flu going around right now. Just call us germaphobics, but no thanks.

Then of course, there was the big dinner served following the service. You could tell it was a Norwegian community due to the mountains of food that were available – all homemade, nothing store bought. And again you could tell it was a Norwegian community because even though you had your plate loaded with food hanging over the edges the ladies would come around and try to force more food on you. “Come on and eat some more, then.” No wonder they’re all round with rosie glowing cheeks. You couldn’t empty your coffee cup before someone was there filling it again with very stout black coffee, strong enough to eat the silver plating right off your spoon.

So that was the way the morning and early afternoon were spent. Funny, how you can do nothing strenuous and come home exhausted, so that meant a nap in my future. The grand doggers wouldn’t let Ole take a nap because they had been shut up all morning and were raring to go. I’m glad they like Ole better than me in that situation.

Then Ole got a call from Dick that the fire department was having a practice burn last night. Somebody had donated an old house out in the country that they wanted taken down because it was taking up space that they could be farming. So Ole went on his first fire run last night. Have I mentioned that Ole is a volunteer fireman? He was so excited about this drill.

The officers of the fire department went out ahead of the trucks and started the house on fire (bunch of fire bugs). When it was going good they called the fire in and the rest of the guys had to get the trucks going and find the address out in the country. Ole said by the time they got there the fire was hot and unfortunately the wind had come up. When they started this whole thing a 6 p.m. there was no wind. Of course the grass around the old house was tall and dry, and the tree claim along one side of the property was old and rotten with lots of dead trees. So I’m sure you can see what happened next. Ole and his nozzle man were out trying to put water on some of the old trees that had started on fire when he noticed that the nozzle guy’s fire jacket had started to smoke due to the intense heat of all the dry stuff around. Then Dick came up behind Ole and told him that HIS gear was starting to smoke too! So they each got doused with the fire hoses to cool their gear down. So I could have had smoked Ole by the time he got home. Hmmm – wonder if it was apple wood – that always makes the best flavor for smoked stuff. Anyway it was 12:30 before he got home last night. They got all the fires out, had to bring the trucks back to the station, scrub and dry all the hoses and get everything ready in case there was a real fire during the night.

So Ole’s not real energetic this morning – just a bit on the pooped side. And Daisy’s beside herself because she’s ready to get at ‘em but all Grandpa wants to do is sit and drink coffee.