We're Canaan and Nikki Manley of Sprague River, OR. Since 2013 we have lived in and homesteaded our property with a goal of being self reliant.

Between Saturday, August 8th, 2026 and the early morning hours of Sunday, August 9th, 2026 our home, shop, barns and six other outbuildings were decimated by the Wrights Spring Fire. This includes animal housing, our garden, the pantry, the solar infrastructure, the water infrastructure, and Canaan's upholstery business. Not to mention furniture, home goods and family heirlooms.

We have no insurance. Time after time we were rejected by insurance companies due to being too far from a "true" fire station, for being more than half a mile down a Forest Service Rd, for being off-grid with solar power, for having livestock dogs over 100 pounds, for raising chickens (!), the list goes on. Anything to avoid us and our "extreme fire risk". We already lived there and were already invested when we started being rejected. What exactly could we do but live our lives and be fire diligent?

Despite years of thinning, trimming and enhancing defensible space, the fire came in too hot and too fast to be stopped, pushed by winds and accelerated by the dry conditions of this year's drought.

We evacuated with just ourselves and four days worth of clothes, our three house collies with their food, bed and crates, 36 breeding rabbits and 9 juniors, our vehicles, a stock trailer and flatbed trailer. Most of the goats we had to leave survived thanks to a couple of dry lot pastures, but the poultry (with the exception of two old Muscovy hens) and remaining rabbits were lost in the fire.

United Way has been able to help us with clothes, toiletries and some food. We used a considerable chunk of our savings to acquire a fifth wheel to live in temporarily and to stay in while we rebuild.

Because we are still, as of August 18th, in a level 3 zone we cannot return to our property, other for an hour each day to feed and water the goats. We have been told not to leave combustible materials like hay on the property as hot spots are still popping up a week later. There is also no water to the property until we can get our well temporarily wired and tested.

This means we're hauling in feed daily and water every other day. These trips are costing us $30-$40 per day to travel from where we are staying with friends out to the property. Additionally, winter is coming fast and we must get some type of barn structure up for the goats, as NOAA is currently predicting a record breaking winter of snow for our area.

We're proud people and are willing to work hard, but we are asking our community for a little help. ANYTHING is helpful right now.

Our immediate needs and in the next few months are: gas money for our daily trips to the property, funds to get a serviceable, snow proof shelter for the goats, and funding to get our power and water infrastructure back up, running and sheltered before winter.

Anything helps, and we are grateful to you for taking the time to read this.

https://youtu.be/WiHFmwXx5TA?is=4Q2C5GlBGYLw8xtr