This time last week was a very different scene here at the farm.  I remember it as a noisy, chaotic mash of too many things happening all at once overlaid with tremendous grief at the horrible suffering that happened.  

This morning?  Quiet, calm and signs of hope.   

The picture above is of a two week old New Zealand litter housed in my other barn.  This morning they were snuggled up together sleeping peacefully - except Tank.   Tank was sleeping in the feeder, by himself where he gets as much food with no work as he wants.

This is a picture of Pride.  Pride is due to kindle today,  and that hay she has there is a sure sign that she is building a nest and we might see babies soon.  We lost 3 expectant does in the fire so hopes ride with Pride and Raven, the two surviving does that were bred.  This will be Prides second litter for us,  it will be a first for Raven if she has any.


I am working on a plan for moving forward, but have lots of details to work out and will need dollars to make it all happen.  If you are interested in helping rebuild Crosstown you can - donations are always welcome!  

I think I will mostly let the pictures speak for themselves.  But the short, factual story is this:  Saturday morning one of my rabbitry buildings burned.  I lost 10 does, many of which were born and raised here.  This accounted for over half of my doe herd.  Some I've had for four years.  Three of them were expecting litters this week. 
However - all people, goats, chickens, bucks and 8 does were safe, and no damage was done to the house.

What happened?  Heat lamp + goat.   Basically the heat lamp in the goats room wasn't high enough or anchored well enough or the goats were being goats.  But somehow the heat lamp got knocked down into a corner.  The focused heat caught fire to a piece of fiberglass roofing material that was being used as a ground barrier.  The fire then raced across the back of the storage shed to the rabbitry building.  Hay + thin wood + pvc caused a very hot, fast fire.  Luckily I had the help of an unknown stranger who was there as fast as I was and the fire department is only a block away.

While this is devastating and heart breaking it could have been worse.  I will rebuild, but it will take some time and some help (both financially and with labor).  I believe that raising rabbits is a good thing, I think this area is looking for that resource and I still would like to provide it.

I want to thank Kelly, Josh and Connor Spencer for not only coming to my aid, but for taking down the structure and taking care of the cleanup.   I do not have words for how grateful I am - you guys are amazing.

If there is something greater than thanks I want that for my Sister Shelby.  Not only did she drop everything and come from Vashon to help me, she coordinated with the Spencers to be there and took care of all the details of what needed to go where and all.  The biggest thing though was dealing with me I think.  Thank you.  I guess I left that part out of the story - I had been very sick the week prior to this,  bronchitis.  I also had stitches in my hand from a yard accident the previous weekend.  Being sick and inhaling the smoke cause a full asthma attack during the aftermath of the fire.  The medics wanted me to go to the hospital, Sis got to deal with me at home instead.  I am very grateful as hard as it was for me to not help with the clean up that she enforced me staying out of it.  I will admit just this once - 'you were right'.  

I will rebuild.  It will take time, dollars and manpower.  If you would like to help please let me know.  You can email CrosstownFarms@Yahoo.com; fill out the contact form on the 'Support Crosstown Page' or call.  If you would like to donate dollars you can!  You can 'buy in' here online, mail donations, or go to paypal directly and 'send' money to CrosstownFarms.  Watch here on-line and on Facebook for updates on what will be happening with the rebuild if you want to help physically with that part of it.

Thank you again to everyone for your support and understanding.

Unfortunately I do not have pictures of the younger girls we lost:  CT's Hera; Juno; CT's Calypso