Protect Jordan's Homestead from Future Fires

Our world was shook Wednesday morning when we woke up to banging coming from our neighbor's yard. My partner, Brett, always bold, was ready to face what we believed was intruders or vandals. We peaked outside and true horror struck. The unmistakable glow of a burning blaze was illuminating our backyard- a fire had began to overtake our closest neighbors shed. Our other neighbors were at our front gate immediately, 911 was called, hoses were turned on, and water buckets were grabbed as we desperately attempted to wet our property, house, and sewing studio.

We waited 15 minutes for the fire department while we tireously worked to protect our home. Automotive parts on their property were exploding, a 30 foot tree was engulfed, the flames reached 40 feet, and fire rained down on our home. I'll never forget watching the love of my life standing 15 feet from the inferno, hosing down the roof of my sewing studio to protect my dreams. I'll never unhear the paniced screams of my neighbor, who has lost her home to a fire before. And I'll have trouble forgeting the fear of losing everything that we have worked for, everything that we love. But I'll also never forget our neighbors who have beome our closest friends, running towards fire to protect our home.

We are so incredibly lucky. The winds were still and the fire department finally arrived, but without the bravery and quick thinking of our community, we could have lost everything. My ADU - my lifes work - is unscathed because of partner.

We're lucky this time, but had the fire kept burning for 5 more minutes, our pine tree could have caught fire (its lower limbs are scortched) which would have risked our neighbor's house and our whole property, if not the whole neighborhood. So, we are reaching out for help as we are financially strapped but need to fire proof our property more to protect our lives, our dreams, our animals, and our whole neighborhood.

We're asking for the approximate cost of a 60 foot chain link fence (our wooden one burned down) plus the cost of some debris cleanup. The remnants of the charred shed are littering our fenceline, but also our hillside is covered in old logs, left by the previous owner, that we haven't had the means to cleanup. We spent hours after the main fire was put out, hauling water to smoldering dead tree limbs left rotting on our hillside.

Our stretch goals, given any overabundance would be:

•Longer hoses to be able to wet down more of the property.

•Have an arborist come cut dead limbs off our pine and oak trees.

•Get a chainsaw to cut down the trees that were burned in the fire.

•Repair the water tower at the end of the property for extra protection in these situations.

•Replace my ADU roof with a metal one.

We understand that the majority of our community is financially struggling as well, so if you do not have the means, please do not contribute. If you have material, man power, or just hugs to give, we would happily take those instead.

For those of you who are reading this without a personal connection to me, here's a little bit of my story. My name is Jordan Miller and I live in a small, wooded community in the mountains of LA. I am a fashion designer and costume designer/builder. My partner is a performer and a costume designer/builder. We bought our home in 2021 when work was abundant and the future looked hopeful...

But other than making art, our dream is to create a self sufficient homestead, and since we have moved in, we have planted a huge garden and built a chicken coop to house our egg flock which we use to feed us and our community. Our goal is to provide the majority of our own food, but we also want to build a farm stand to provide fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs for our neighborhood.

Unfortunately, we bought our house when we had amble work as union costume builders for film and television, and since the writer and actor strikes in 2022, we have been struggling to just pay the bills, but we have managed to keep our dreams afloat, and we have kept pushing them forward with sweat equity. Everyday, we wake-up with the sun to hand water our vast garden and many fruiting trees (Usually a 2 hour task with both of us). We have built Planter beds out of scrap wood to protect plants from vermin, we have used old planks of wood to create hanging planters for native milk weed to bring in pollinators. Really we have just poured every ounce of love and every penny we make into making this property as magical as we can.

So this fire brought such fear into our hearts because our bank accounts might be empty, but our home is our heart, and we could have lost it all in a blink of an eye...

With all the love in my heart, I just thank you for even taking the time to read our story, if nothing else, please share and hug your loved ones because life is short and love is our strongest bond.