The Fire

As I mentioned previously, living at the Cabin meant I had to completely trust the Lord to take care of us. He did in many ways and on several occasions I do believe we would not have survived had it not been for his protection and grace.
It was going into the end of winter, the fire was going in the woodstove, we would usually stoke it heavy before going to bed so we wouldn't get up to a freezing home in the morning.
Because the Cabin was over 40 years old, there was, at least in my mind, a potential of fire, since the flume pipe hadn't been replaced in who knows how long. I didn't believe with all the snow in winter it would be a concern though.
As usual that day I had brought in the usual 20 gallons of water from the spring. Because it was winter the natural spring was running up the hill and with the help of gravity we were able to run a hose down from the spring to the cabin in winter. Which was nice for me as it meant I could just take the bottles out back to fill them up. Instead of walking all the way down to the creek.
I don't remember what time it was, only that it was in the middle of the night. I woke up to the sound of crackling wood. At first I just figured it was the wood in the stove and started to doze off again. I kept hearing "get up and check". I laid there and had this little conversation with myself, "it's just the wood crackling", "no, get up and check", after a couple of minutes I gave in to the voice in my head. I walked into the other room, listening still hearing the noise only it was a little louder than usual. Something told me to look up at the ceiling.
I glanced up not really expecting to see anything.
What I saw were red embers at the crossbeam where the flume connected at the cabin. I woke everyone up and started throwing water from the bottles on it. Thank God I had water in the house, I had debated on whether or not to bring it in that evening because it was so cold outside.
My husband at the time went out grabbed the hose and a ladder and began putting water on the outside. We got it out, and had I not gotten up when I did it might have been too much for us to extinguish.
Had this fire happened in the summer we would have been in trouble. Being so far away from neighbors, not having a phone and the gate being locked at night even if the fire department could have gotten down, it would have been too late. The water in the house would not have been enough to put it out, had it not been for the hose running. God only knows what would have happened.
By the Grace of God, and I believe the Holy Spirit telling me to get up there was not too much damage and we were ok.
It was always a fear it would happen again every time we used the stove. We did replace the pipes but the fear was still hanging in my thoughts. I did learn to turn that fear over to the Lord and He continued to protect us until we were finally able to move.