It’s now April of 2021 with the parents of Ken and Mark Beth back home from their winter home in Florida to their farm on Zippel Bay on Lake of the Woods.
The temperature has been warmer than usual, the kind of a spring day when your thump starts to get green and the hours slept by a farmer are known as “toss and turn.”
It is Friday night and Mary Beth and Ken go to Baudette to buy groceries for the next week. They just finished putting the groceries in the van when Mary Beth’s cell phone rings. It’s Bill and Bob, all excited, saying, “Please get home quick. We can’t go inside the house.” When they got home, the twins and their dogs were outside with the dogs in a frenzy. The boys explained they had let the dogs out for their nightly duty just before bedtime when the dogs started to bark and make funny howl like they were hurt. The boys opened the kitchen door onto the open porch and first one and then another skunk ran into the house. The boys tried to get the skunks out of the house, but between the skunks being afraid of the dogs howling from being sprayed, the skunks were still in the house. Ken and Mary Beth tried to remain calm, but this was a new experience to them. They decided the skunks wouldn’t come out of the house and the dogs wouldn’t go into the house to chase the skunks out. This was most certainly a stinking standoff. The house stunk.
Mary called her folks to let them know what happened and could she and Ken stay there tonight and longer until they could figure out what to do. Ken put up netting across the open door to the house as he was certain the skunks would find their way out and the netting would be moved to tell him the skunks were gone.
The boys, with instructions from Mom, were to use the shampoo from the machine shed, washing off with a hose outside the machine shed to do the best they could to eliminate the skunk smell from themselves and the dogs. The boys were to sleep in Lazy Boys using the blankets as covers with the dogs tied up outside. She would be over in the morning.
The next morning, Ken and Mary Beth brought over breakfast plus clothes for the boys after they purchased clothes in Baudette for the four of them.
Ken check the netting, but it was still across the open door so he knew the skunks were still in the house.
Ken called their new local insurance man to let him know what happened. The reply was, “This is a new one to me. I’ll contact the insurance company with details and get back to you Monday morning.
Mary Beth contacted the local contractor who drew up the plans for “her” new house. Her words were, “It’s a go. Start building as fast as you can.”
The insurance man called back Monday morning. The old house was condemned, thus the following: $25 per day each for housing, which totaled $100 a day to them until they were in the new house, the same amount of $100 per day for food until they were in the new house, and $5,000 each for new clothing. The full cost of the new house and the full cost of the new house furnishings was paid for by the insurance company. A $50,000 deductible would be applied when the new house contractor was paid. The premium waiver began as of the date of the skunks first occupying the old house. The right of the insurance company to advertise they covered the unusual claim would begin as soon as Ken and Mary signed the release of information form.
Ken and Mary agreed to all except signing the release form. The net result was everything was O.K., with the insurance company eliminating the $50,000 deductible. Then they signed the release form.
The parents of Ken and Mary Beth agreed to let their family stay with them and they would also pay for the groceries, with one catch: the insurance money for housing and food was to be used as a Confirmation present to the twins Bill and Bob for an ice castle fish house.
The net result: Ken’s farming didn’t change. Mary Beth is now superintendent of the local school, plus she has her “new” house. Bill and Bob are getting a new ice castle fish house. The two skunks left the old house the following Tuesday to raise their own family. The new house doesn’t have a strong skunk odor. An ad will be on national TV paid for by the insurance company, stating, “Yes, we covered the cost of the smell.”
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in New York. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.