Message to Animal Care Volunteers
First off – we would not have a farm at Fort Langley (our first home) or 176 or 184 without you!!!
But this has been a big change for us. Change is always hard and this one is especially hard because we left a well organized, functional and beautiful farm at 176. I am feeling it along with you that it’s a lot of extra work right now to take care of the animals. Please know that behind the scenes we are working on improving it as much as we can without spending a lot of money.
Many of you started with Kindred in the last few years and I feel I want to put in context the history of how 176 came to be. The short answer is sweat, tears and money. When we got our eviction notice, I knew that any farm we moved to would require a lot of work again. This is why I was so hoping we would be able to purchase a property so that our hard work would not go towards improving a landlord’s farm.
I started Kindred to make a difference for animals and people and am determined to keep going. Our farm is so needed. We have a wait list for our healing programs and we are constantly saying no to animals in need 🙁 None of this will be possible without your kind care of the animals.
If you started with Kindred recently, you may be feeling “I didn’t sign up for this.” I totally understand and accept that it may be too much for you – it’s a lot like camping in the rain! We all have a lot going on in our lives and this may be too much to add to your plate. But I hope that you will be part of creating something new at 184 and feel how much this will bring our animal care team even closer together. And imagine the stories we will be able to share 🙂
When we first moved into 176 it was nothing like what you see today. The horses arrived on December 1, 2014 and had no access to a shelter or a field. Their only shelter was under the two cedar trees in the front yard.
The building that became the horse shelter was full of mud and garbage, was structurally unsound and the roof was leaking. There was only one entrance.
The barn had been used for a “business” and was floor to ceiling full of nasty wood shelves and electrical cords everywhere – this all had to be removed. There was no rabbitat and no cow shelter. The barn was blue and I can’t even remember how many times we had to re-tarp the roof. The barn had no running water, no sink, no fridge, no shelves and no counter. Our only water source were the hoses outside by the house and that’s where we prepared the meals and washed dishes.
The chicken coop, waddle inn and aviary were custom built for us over time.
There was a dilapidated shed in the goat yard that had to be removed. We also removed another small playhouse in the corner, loads of garbage and overgrown blackberries. Then we moved our large red shed from Fort Langley to the new location at 176.
The fields were not safe for the horses until we did a massive sweep for garbage and fixed the fencing.
It took 2 years before we were able to use the forest because of all the garbage back there.
We hauled out over 20 tons of garbage from this farm.
The cow paddock and area by horse shelter was a deep mud pit and we spent $3,000 bringing in road grade to improve it.
We are working hard to fix up this new property. But it’s a leased property and we won’t be spending a lot of money to upgrade it.
We will continue our fundraising and search for property which will be our forever home. And then we can build our dream farm!
