On a sleety, dreary Monday in early March of 2006, I was in a meeting about 20 miles away. Suddenly I was paged for an emergency call from home - come quick! The barn is on fire! WHAT????! Hurrying home as best as I could on the icy roads, my heart was beating out of my chest.  The barn had our pet sow and her 12 young piglets inside. By the time I got back to the farm, there was literally nothing left of the barn, or the pigs. All gone. It was a terrible moment that haunted us for months and permanently altered the way I think about fire and taking precautionary steps to try to prevent having a fire.  On the other hand, a week or two later, when we had the barn clean up day, I was humbled by the huge and diverse turn out of all our friends and neighbors from far and wide. Everyone showed up at 9 on the dot and worked steadily and quickly and by noon, the wreckage was cleared. I was so grateful and felt that the true meaning of "the farm" had just been made manifest.  See a slide show of the barn clean up LINK.  We are finally getting around to thinking about rebuilding, but reluctant due to the economic times and high cost of building. What do you think?