BRATTLEBORO-Ashlyn and Abraham McClurg of Rebop Farm on Sunset Lake Road are reeling but resilient, trying to recover from the collapse of their barn under a load of ice and snow on Sunday, Feb. 16.
"We're exhausted and in shock, but there's no other way but through, and the animals need taken care of so, that's what we'll do," Abraham McClurg said Monday. "The weather certainly isn't making it any easier today and tonight, though."
When the four-year-old, 40-ft.-by-100-ft. hoop barn collapsed Sunday afternoon from snow load, all 80 sheep inside were safe, as were 10 of their cows. But one milk cow was injured badly.
"Even after we cut parts of the structure apart and dug her out, she couldn't survive and needed to be euthanized this morning," McClurg said.
With temperatures forecasted Monday night to feel like 1 degree, the McClurgs have their hands full.
"We were able to walk most of the sheep and their lambs down the road to our neighbor's barn this afternoon [and] move some other sheep and their young lambs to our small pole barn," he said.
The cows are outside in a fenced area "with lots of hay for bedding and bales used as a windbreak," McClurg added.
"We aren't sure where we will be able to house them for the rest of the winter yet," he said.
The couple, who celebrated the birth of their first child just 9 months ago, moved to their farm to the current location here from Newfane 10½ years ago.
And this isn't the first winter weather challenge they've had to grapple with.
"Our pig barn collapsed a couple years ago in a similar snow load situation, and that winter we were able to move them to the same neighbor's barn that the sheep are in now," said McClurg.
Rebop Farm sells milk, meat, produce, and honey directly to customers.
A GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign has a goal of raising $25,000 to help replace the lost income from the dairy over the next three months as well as demolition costs.
"We hope it can also begin to cover the costs of planning a new wooden barn structure to be built this spring," McClurg said.
The cows will have to be dried off, meaning that they will stop producing the milk that Rebop Farm sells, "while we will still have to incur the costs of feeding, housing, and bedding them until spring," he added.
"We are also going to have to demolish the old barn structure and build a new barn; insurance is unlikely to cover the cost of the old barn because it was a modern hoop structure, so we will be paying for barn construction twice in under five years," McClurg said.
As of Tuesday, Feb. 18, more than $19,000 has been contributed from more than 200 donors.
For more information about the farm, visit rebopfarm.com.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.