The Rural Voice, 1979-11, Page 13What to do
if your
barn burns
BY GISELE IRELAND
With the Woodstock disaster fresh in our minds and the
numerous barns being lost by fire every year let us look at the
possibility of starting all over again. No one dreams that when
they leave the barn at night with all chores completed that the
building might not be there by morning. But it happens, and
with alarming frequency. We can to some extent buy some peace
of mind in the form of insurance, but the financial loss suffered
in any disaster can never be measured by the insurance policy.
Most farmers would do well to review their policies
periodically. Every time you buy something for the operation and
it is stored or installed in the building and not insured, you lose
it. You might say that a small item isn't worth the bother, but a
lot of small items make a lot of dollars worth of investment in a
short time. Just think, you won't have a ladder, a screw driver,
hammer or anything else if you lost it now. Start going to the
hardware store to replace these items and watch the cost soar.
Take out your policy and review it now. You'd be surprised how
out of date the average one is.
Say you've lost the works and all you have left is an insurance
cheque in your hand. That's when your troubles really begin.
You now face such a multitude of decisions that you can literally
go gray or bald overnight.
Where do you go to decide what to build? How do you decide
what you will build? Where will all the money come from?
Questions and questi ,ns and you are g...Lig to have to come up
with a whole lot of •iswers in a very short time if you are
sta•• " with a crop in the field and no place to put it or animals
'with no housing.
No one can put themselves in the place of the person involved
but you will receive a multitude of advice nevertheless. You
ihave to put your brain on computer to sift and store information
that is useful and discard that which isn't. You'd be surprised
how many others have gone through a similar disaster and the •
solid advice that will come from them.
Contracting companies will be flocking to your door in a
remarkably short time and from now until you are established
you will see more sales people than you ever imagined existed.
All will have the superior product and all will be able to put up
just what you need. That is difficult, because at this point you
don't even know what you need.
One of the first things on your agenda will be a chat with your
banker and to arrange loans and credits for future use. Banks are
helpful and often send agricultural representatives who will give
you options and alternate courses to take. At the rate of present
interest they can afford to be friendly and helpful.
Take some time off and just think the situation over. What are
you going to do? Some natural reactions are self-pity and the
temptation to pay off the mortgage with the insurance.
Then what? When you finally get your gray matter functioning
properly you will realize that to continue farming you will have to
establish what you had over again. Those who build bigger and
more modern seem to survive the disaster much more
successfully than those who spend the minimum and look
forward to being mortgage free.
You are depriving yourself of future income by limiting
yourself at this time. Arrange any money sources you can and
get in your car and start looking at operations that are successful. -
Once you decide for sure what you want, don't let anyone or
anything sway you from your course. Of course, this should be
only applicable once you have sat down with your spouse and
figured all angles of the proposed operations and the decision is
unanimous. Don't contemplate getting into goat farming if one of
you hates goats; they'll never learn to like them. Make your
future plan suitable to all individuals involved.
Once you see a dozen or so operations you will have an idea
what will work for you and what won't. Take notes of things that
you would like to use and also of things you find wrong. At this
point you can learn a lot from other people's mistakes.
Now you are readytoget estimates for the proposed project. By
all means get all the estimates you can. Compare all materials
used and go over all contracts with a fine tooth comb. Above all.
insist on a finish date clause. Nothing is more annoying than to
be left hanging for six weeks waiting for trivialities like doors and
knobs. Check reterences or check other projects of the company
you finally settle on. Do the same with all other things you are
going to put in the building.
Other farmers are more than willing to extend information
regarding quality of workmanship and durability of a product.
All you have to do is ask, don't take the salesman's word for it.
He's on commission and you have to live with it for a long time.
Your own intuition will be your best ally. Hopefully you are a
good judge of character and integrity.
Hopefully a year later you are back in the farming game and if
you thought that contracting the work out leaves you a lot of free
time, think again. Having the owner around during construction
insures that small mistakes are corrected and big ones avoided.
Neither you or the contractor can afford them. Be there and be
there and be there.
When everything is settled you will find no matter how
carefully you planned that there will be things you could have
changed or things that are not working the way you expected
them to. That is normal. You will have hopefully gained from this
experience a more tolerant nature, the ability to spot a salesman
a mile off and satisfaction with a job well done. It is to be hoped
that ulcers and frayed nerves settle down now and you can look
back over the past experience with less sorrow and more
expectations for the future
THE RURAL VOICE/NOVEMBER 1979 PG. 11