Family Farm Barn Fire

One of my earliest memories is of my father thawing slowly in front of a heater to avoid frostbite. A cow had gotten herself stuck in a frozen pond in the middle of winter. He refused to give up and worked for hours into the night to free her. He was hypothermic and at risk of frostbite by the time he got her out. She survived.

My family has been farming this land for seven generations. On June 15th we lost our barn in a massive fire. We don't know what caused it yet. The blaze was so hot weather proofing on a house several hundred yards away melted. My mother burned her arm from across the street when a burst of flame sent a wave of heat out from the fire.

We were incredibly fortunate that no one was in the barn, and all the livestock was outside. But now we need to rebuild before winter. Before we know what insurance will come through my family has to begin repairing and rebuilding. Currently there is no water on the property (the fire destroyed the well) and no power as the poles, lines, and transformers were destroyed.

This is a small family farm, the kind that used to make up the heart of New York but now has all but disappeared from our region. Please help us keep this one alive.