Well, here's an unpleasant picture for you all. It certainly is for me.
My Uncle Keith and Aunt Madolyn's place. This just happened a week ago. Lightning strike on the garage during a big storm.
I don't have a picture handy of the barn before it burned, but it was a beauty. Had it built after he retired. Two and half bays wide, two bays deep, two stories, gambrel roof.
And the entire upstairs was devoted solely to his gun hobby. He had more guns than anyone I knew. And ammo. And loading equipment. And components. And not a fireproof-safe to be seen. All in wooden cabinets.
Keith had a stroke some years back and couldn't shoot much after that. He was a big tough ol scudder and still got around ok and still bought some new guns, but his left arm was weak and he couldn't shoot a rifle.
He died five or so years ago, and Madolyn was taking care of the place by herself. Not too hard, the house was very compact, but was dwarfed by that garage. When the garage caught in the middle of the night, she woke up to what she thought was either monstrous hail or a nonstop firecracker barage. The ammo was cooking off. Tried to call in the cavalry but the phones were down. She has a cell phone, but that was in her car. Out in the garage. Apparently it was just the second story burning at the time, and the power was still on, so she got the garage door up and got her car out and called in the troops. By the time the firefighters got there they gave up on the garage and worked on the house, and dealt with what was left of the ammo cans full of surplus powder, welding tanks and propane bottles that were still making things interesting. I'm impressed they saved as much as they did.
They've been digging what was recognizable for guns out of the rubble a few days later. When we got over to view what was left a week or so later, I was poking around in the ashes and found a few bullet moulds. Keith was a caster as well. One was warped so badly I couldn't believe it. One mould BLOCK warped. handles sagging. I found one that appears to be a lyman single cav with straight handles that was in the best shape (comparatively) that I kept to clean up for a keepsake. Probably won't be worth using, but I'll keep it in the collection for Keith.
Just depressing, but at least Madolyn got out OK. She's certainly irreplacable. Fortunetaly, after he died I think his boys got most of what they wanted that was of sentimental value to them out of the place, but there was still an awful nice collection up there.
And I'm sure he didn't have a list or an insurance policy on all his guns. Keith was like that. But I know the house and garage were insured, so Madolyn is all set to have a new modular house put in on the old foundation and stay on the property. She likes it there.
Those fireproof safes may be an expensive upfront proposition, but boy they'd have paid for themselves here. I'm glad my dad invested in one. Seeing his collection up in smoke would break my heart. Not much really nice stuff, but a lot of memories in there.
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