Help save Windy Mesa Farm

Hi,   My name is Victoria Czech.

I am the owner of Windy Mesa Farm, a small farm near Larkspur, CO.

My husband and I recently bought this farm with high hopes for doing great things and doing them the right ways.

 The great things/mission of our farm:

1.     Grow our crops organically, possibly eventually getting organic certification
2.     Put the utmost care into all that we do
3.     Provide good and natural produce to feed our family and our community
4.     To teach our grandchildren a hard-working and honest lifestyle, full of respect for our planet, the plants and animals that inhabit it, and all of the wonderful people in our community.
5.     Love our animals and treat them like members of our family
6.     Be good stewards of our land and all we care for, always striving to leave the land, soil, and environment better than we found it.
7.     Produce the best possible crops using the best and most natural methods available.
8.     Be a good example for our family and members of our community.

 I have so much love and pride in my garden that I literally sing to it while working in it every morning.  I am so thankful every day that I am blessed with all of the beauty I get to experience there each day.

 We had been working so hard to achieve all of this, and despite many difficulties and learning experiences, we were on our way.  For the past several months I have been growing so many beautiful plants from seeds to seedlings until they were finally ready to be placed into our soil.  The seedlings were growing so well and our future as well as theirs looked bright. 

While the seedlings were growing, there were so many of them that they were taking over all parts of my house.  I called our home SEEDLINGS GONE WILD.  They were EVERYWHERE!!!  I had little seedlings in my dining room, kitchen, den, and basement. I played classical music for them and sang good mornings to them while I tended to them.  I loved seeing them everywhere.  They were my beautiful little babies.

 On Monday June 13th, my babies were killed.  There was a terrible hailstorm that devastated virtually all of them.  June 14th was one of the worst mornings of my life.  Instead of waking up and singing to the beauty of all of my seedling babies growing in my garden, I awoke and walked speechlessly through my garden witnessing the devastation that had happened.  My seedlings had been crushed and pummeled to death.  Most had no leaves, some not even stems.

Tough garlic foliage had been shredded.  Leaves and stems from pepper plants were completely missing.  Climbing pea plants had been crushed into unidentifiable masses.  Elephant sized Rhubarb leaves were pierced and shredded, now looking more like skeleton hands, while the stalks had been beaten so badly that large chunks were missing from all of them, even the few that remained upright.  Swarms of flies were all over the remains of the plants, as though they were rotting animal carcasses, and not just my previously beautiful plants.

Rhubarb before hail:
Ruined Rhubarb after hail:
Crushed Cucumber:
Pummeled Potato Plant:


It took over three days to remove the remains of my dead and dying plants.  We had to root out and take away the completely dead ones along with those that were still alive, but not going to make it.  All the while I could not help wondering:

“What am I going to do now?”
“This took me months to start and grow.”
“I have no money to replace the plants.”
“It is over, I’m done, this farm is done.”

After each long day of the cleanup, I felt so defeated I just went to my room and cried.  The roofs of our house, barn, and greenhouses were damaged enough to need replacement, and just to make things even a little bit worse, our tractor broke down.

When I shared the pictures of the damage and talked about how devastating it was on Facebook and other social media, my friends there encouraged me to try to use GoFundMe to raise the funds to replace the plants and repair the damage that had been done by the hailstorm.

We desperately need to raise $6557 as quickly as possible.  If we are able to find enough kind and caring people willing to help us, this is what we will use it for:

 1.     Purchase organic plants to replace those I had poured so much love and care into.
2.     Hire workers to help place these plants into our soil.
3.     Purchase supplies to build covering trellises to protect the new plants
4.     Hire workers to build and install the trellises
5.     Repair the tractor
6.     Buy organic supplies to treat the soil to speed the growth of the new plants
7.     Pay the $2500 deductible of our home insurance to get the roofs of our buildings repaired.

This amount is what I calculated it would take to do these things.  We need to do them very rapidly because it already so late into the season.

 If we do not start immediately, there is no way we will be able to get any plants ready to harvest in time to feed our community.  We will lose all of the time, money, and effort we have invested on our crops and farm, and we will end up losing it.

 We so deeply appreciate any help you are willing to give us.

Please help us with as much as you can.  Our promise to you is that we will use any donations only to support our mission to grow the best food possible, support our community, steward the land we have been blessed with, and to do our part to help others in any way we are able.  Your support will help us to better our community, our country, our world, and ourselves.

Please share our story with your family and friends.  Getting the word out to others helps us too!