A dairy-farming couple is reeling from a Christmas Eve blaze that destroyed a barn, killing 1,000 goats and other animals, but Stephen and Brittany Springer are relying on the faith that spurred them to name their enterprise Cornerstone Farm to help them pull through.
A day-after photo of the burned barn shows a mere shell of the structure. (Cornerstone Farm Facebook photo)
The Springers say they intend to rebuild the barn when weather allows such work, with some of the money coming from contributions to a fundraiser friends launched. The fundraiser, through PayPal, had raised $9,261.14 of its $20,000 goal from 140 contributors as of Tuesday evening.
In a Facebook post on Christmas Day, Brittany recalled her discovery of the blaze on their rural Henning farm in the middle of the night Christmas Eve, writing, “We have been struggling with words, but we see each of you as family. So bear with me as i fumble through.
“I woke up at 3am on Christmas Eve to a noise in our basement followed by the house losing power. I looked out our bedroom window and the whole sky was glowing orange,” she wrote.
“Our beautiful barn was lighting up the night sky with the horrific glow of fire. I immediately woke up Stephen and called 911. All we could do was stand there and watch our dreams burn for 15 mins before the fire departments got there,” wrote the mother of five young children: Savhannah, Gracie, Peter, Paisley and Amelia.
“Our beautiful barn built from the ground up, was taken back down. The whole barn and all the goats inside were a complete loss. There were no survivors. The goats that were our family … gone.
“We even lost one of our beloved dogs, and all 15 of our peacocks (this is super hard for me),” she wrote.
The LGD (livestock guardian dog) canine was trained to herd the goats. Also lost in the conflagration were at least two tractors and dozens of tools, according to the according to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office.
Although the cause of the fire remains undetermined, Otter Tail sheriff’s Lt. Greg Steim issued a statement Monday saying, “There is nothing suspicious noted at this time.”
Cornerstone Farm, which uses “Founded in Faith” as its mantra and a barn with a cross on it as its logo, is an organic, CSA farm in west central Minnesota. It also produces beef, hogs, chicken and a host of vegetables it sells, according to its website. The site offers a host of products, including ground beef and a variety of beef and pork cuts,
Brittany credits one of the farm’s employees with starting the goat portion of the farm.
“She loved the goats as much as we did and she wants us to succeed just as much as we do. … God is faithful and is getting us through this,”
Brittany wrote on Facebook.
“God gives and takes away, but God is still good. We are waiting to see His plan of whats next for us. Waiting to find the beauty in the ashes,” her Facebook entry concluded.
Source: news8000.com
