Well, I’m back home now, and am really wrestling with myself.
I went to the old church again to see what was left. I saw a few things moved around, and a shelf in the entry that had been in the choir loft. Someone shattered a fluorescent light bulb, so there was new glass all over one area.
Someone managed to remove and entire window. They had simple stained glass panels in them; squares for the most part, with triangles to fit the semi circle tops.
Unfortunately, that leaves a big hole in the wall. It’s unlikely anyone will make any effort to board it up, since the entire building is going to be torn down.
Much to my surprise, the pair of candle sticks with red glass globe shaped tops were still there.
I decided to take them.
I went into the priest’s room and found the closet doors in there open, and vestments still hanging. The doors protected them, and they are not damaged by fire at all.
There’s a solid wooden shelf opposite the closet. I went through more of the drawers this time. They were a bit janky, trying to open them with one hand while using my phone as a flashlight with the other. Still, I hope someone takes the shelf. It’s big, heavy and incredibly solid. There is only smoke residue on it.
The drawers were for things like altar cloths, other cloths, and I even found the curtains that had been used as doors for these two tiny rooms on either side of the altar. At a bottom drawer, I found a cloth that looked very clean and picked it up. I am sure it is actual linen, not the usual cotton.
I decided to take it.
There were a number of glass items that I was very tempted by, but I left those for now. Instead, I grabbed the candles sticks and headed out.
My conundrum.
Should I take a pew? Plus a bench or two?
Five of them have already been taken. There are still eight left, plus a couple of benches. If no one takes these, they will be burned.
They are really solid. Even the ones in front seem to have only smoke damage, not flame damage. The benches in the back have the least damage of all.
They are all pretty long. Possibly longer than our truck box, though that is not a concern. I could just secure them with the tailgate down and put a red flag on the back.
With various projects we have in mind around the property, I can see being able to use these.
The problem is, where to keep them until then?
Ideally, we’d take them into the new part basement, where they could be cleaned over the rest of the winter. With how long they are, though, we couldn’t get them down the stairs. For the new part basement, we simply wouldn’t be able to maneuver them through the doors and down the stairs. Then, once at the bottom of the stairs, they would be too long to turn at the bottom. There’s a hand rail attached to a support pillar in the way.
Theoretically, we could take them straight through the house and to the old part basement doors, but we’d have the same problem at the bottom of the stairs. The space around those stairs is even tighter.
There are a few other things still there that I’m tempted to take but, again, where would I put them until we can use them?
After I was done going through the church, I went to the store the post office is in. Still no regular mail, but my daughters’ Christmas gift that I was expecting was there. The product packaging was wrapped in semi-transparent plastic, though, you could see exactly what was in it!
My daughter had sent me some funds and a request for some Crown Royal for the eggnog. Her sister had already picked up some booze when we were doing errands a couple of days ago, but she picked such good ones, they didn’t want to “waste” it on eggnog. 😄 The general store and post office has a booze section, too. After looking at the options, I chose a Salted Caramel.
It was that or “regular”, blackberry or peach.
As I was paying for our stuff, I asked the owner of the store if she knew when the church was going to be torn down. She didn’t know, but her husband happened to walk in while we were talking, and she sent me his way, as he was more involved with all the meetings and stuff.
It turns out he didn’t know, either, as that decision hasn’t been made yet. He thinks it would be in the spring, too. It just doesn’t make sense to do it in the winter.
We spoke for quite a while. He had been in the church this morning, while I had been there within maybe 15 minutes, and there were already some changes from between our visits. He himself had taken a couple of pews. I brought up the shelf in the priest’s room, with the janky drawers. He just laughed and said, they have always been like that! He agreed, though, that it is really solid, and hoped that someone could take it. It would not be easy to get out of there, but it would be worth it!
So we will have time to decide.
When I got home and brought things in, my older daughter met me at the door to help me come in.
…
Well, since she was going to see it anyhow, I handed her the box and told her, Merry Christmas!
We got them an Instant Pot.
My daughters had been talking about getting a rice cooker, and in my conversation with them, I suggested getting an Instant Pot, since it can do that, as well as being a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, among other things. We’re down to one slow cooker, so a second with be handy, and it would have more control than our little pressure cooker.
I got a positive response to the suggestion, so when we had the chance, I ordered one as a gift for them. We are a family that quite appreciates useful gifts like this!
So they got their gift early. I’m sure they’ll get good use out of it!
Then she helped me carefully take the candlesticks and their glass covers, which I had already taken off, to the cat free zone to join the other mementos. As she was going through the doorway into the living room, though, something fell and hit the floor.
Hard.
It was the insert from one of the candlesticks. The insert it meant to hold a long, straight candle and has a spring on the bottom so that, as the candle burns away at the top, it slowly pushes the rest of the candle up.
It still had most of the length of a candle in it!
After everything was put away, we started talking about what I found at the church and I told them about wanting to take a pew, and maybe a bench or two. They agreed that these were things we could definitely make use of but, again, where do we store them until then?
One possibility mentioned is the storage house, in the inner yard. That would be a good place where they would be protected from the elements, but there is already so much stuff in there, I don’t know that there is room for even a bench, never mind a pew.
Ideally, we could put it in the storage warehouse, which used to be my late brother’s workshop. That, unfortunately, is so full of stuff from my parents, there’s barely space to walk around.
A lot of what’s taking up space in there is bags and bags and bags of old clothing, bed pads and other fabric items. The clothing, at the very least, should be taken to the dump as far as I’m concerned. My mother, however is still very attached to her material goods and still frets over whether the door is locked, because someone might steel her stuff.
*sigh*
That building is the most structurally sound one in the outer yard, and we can’t even use it.
Either way, it would mean we couldn’t start to clean them until spring, at the earliest.
So … can we take a pew and some benches?
I think we could make it work. In fact, if we could find the space, I would take several pews. It would be a massive shame for them to be destroyed. They don’t make them solid like this, anymore!
Which leads me to our next question.
Should we?
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 