All Gone

I was going to take some pictures as they dismantled the old Stienecker barn, but before I got over there with my camera, all that was left was rubble. Two days ago, I saw some guys ripping (wooden) siding off the old store, and they told me that some Amish people were going to come take down the barn and rebuild it somewhere else. Better that the material was reused than just burned, right?

Well, unless the Amish are now recruiting Hispanic gentlemen who use powertools, I don't think those were Amish. And unless demolishing something to rubble = taking it down to rebuild, then I don't think it's getting put back up anytime soon.

In other news, the old Provico building is now flat. By "flat" I mean, there's little evidence to suggest that it was ever there. It was completely taken down, and even the foundation was dug up and carted away.

The Provico building was demolished for asthetics, or so we were told by the mayor in a community breakfast last week (all three mayors of the "Golden Triangle" towns, New Knoxville, New Bremen, and Minster spoke at this breakfast, and I managed to sit near a couple of people that I knew and in the spot nearest to the buffet table and at the table that got to approach the buffet first).

That the building was aging and rather unattractive was a given. The old store is much uglier (and, I might add, a much more attractive place for local kids to mess around - I know I would have been in there if I were 20 years younger) and probably more dangerous as well. The wall is sagging toward the NK Supply (who are going to be moving out of their current building before too long; I guess once they build a new place back behind us somewhere) parking lot, the foundation is crumbling, and there's a basement window that's been gone for quite a while.

Which reminds me, Scooter is a mouser. We were walking the other day and there on the sidewalk was a mouse. I'm guessing that the commotion had scared it out of the barn or the store, but wherever it came from, there it was. So Scooter (with only minimal prodding from an unnamed associate) went chasing after it, caught it, and dispached it nicely. The moral of this story is: Who needs a cat?