I think I can say the rebuilding from the fire is now complete and I am ready to share some finished pictures. I was an avid blogger until the fire interupped my life and devasted our business in April 2025 and all creative sap was drained from me and poured out. We were struggling to recover and all my energy and creativity went into letting go of the past and embracing the future!
But now, I am stirring to write again and to give you a tour….
I can not explain the feelings we had that fateful Saturday when we went to bed or got up the next morning. But it did not take long to kick into survival mode. Within hours we knew we were going to rebuild.
The first of the rebuild was the building we brought in for the feed store. It was very important to us to get the feed business reopened as quickly as possible, it was our bread and butter. It was absolutely amazing; the fire was on a Saturday evening and the building rolled in Monday evening thanks to the help of close friends, Andy and Amanda Powell who had a shed lot. I already had a normal load of feed ordered for Wednesday to replace weekly inventory and Purina helped us put together another trailer load that came in on Thursday. We literally were out of business three days. I admit things were chaoic, disorganized and hectic, but by Thursday we were selling feed from the front porch of our shed while volunteers worked inside installing electricity, insulation, and shelving for a retail space. The warehouse behind the building had to be retrofitted with shelving to handle the feed. It had been storage for shavings, hay, and extra feed and fertilizer. Little by little, step by step it all fell into place.
The retail space is small but we have the basics. We increased our feed selection to four brands; Purina, Triple Crown, Nutrena and Sunrise Farms. Our focus has shifted from Animal Health and hardware to feed, fertilizer, seed, hay, straw and shavings.
The second concern we had was to get the farm market back on it’s feet as quickly as possible. We had a very supportive and encouraging group of vendors. May 10, four weeks after the fire, we had our Market Relaunch in two big tents. It was exciting to see things happening and the community rallied to support the vendors.
It was a happy day. In one month we had both the feed store and market reopen for business. Looking back I don’t know how we did it.
Benson Construction was our contractor for the rebuild and they did an excellent job. Steve Graber was able to capture our vision and bring it to life.
By June 11, two months post fire, the pavilion was built and ready to use as the temporary home for the farmer’s market until the permanent structure could be built. It was a big relief to not have to worry about every wind blow like we did with the tents. It was bigger, more useful, and safer; however, every night all the inventory had to be taken down and stored in totes for the night. It was a lot of work.
The pavilion is still a very useful space for vendors on our big, special Quarterfield Market event on the 2nd Saturdays, a garage for our vehicles and as a back-up for family picinics if the weather is bad. We are finding it is a very handy building to have.
The next rebuild was our farm shop as it was also destroyed in the fire. The shop is the hub of our farming operation where we work with mainenance and repairs of the farm equipment. It was good to get all our tools back into one building and organized.
Finally, after a long fall and winter, Quarterfield Markets reopened in our brand-new building on Valentine Day weekend. It was hard to be patient with permits, inspections, work schedules and delays, but finally our dream was realized. The following weekend we celebrated our third “grand opening” and the community poured in to show their support. It is still a work in progress as it continues to grow.
I would never ever want to go through a fire again, but after we got over the initial shock and started cleaning up and rebuilding we grabbed hold of the opportunity to make changes, develop a more cohesive plan and creative a better and more usable space. We never dreamed we could have what we now have. The rebuild has given us new life and energy. It feels good and we are happy.
Again we say thank you to the community and all our family and friends for their generous support and help. You came from far and near! I am not sure we could have accompolished it without you. We definitely felt the hands of God holding us through your care.
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