I took water for granted, until I didn't have any

I need a well. A very expensive, very deep, water well.

And, before you read any further, I wasn’t planning on asking anyone to GIVE me money for this well. I planned to ask ya’ll to LEND me money so I can get access to water that me and my 12 horses and donkeys desperately need. If Go Fund Me would allow me to pay you back, I would, and, in fact, the first version of my fundraiser said just that. My fundraiser disappeared from the GFM website and several of you messaged me to ask what happened to it. As it turns out, Go Fund Me does not allow me to offer to pay you back so I am humbling myself to ask for help without the promise of repayment...this is difficult and uncomfortable for me, but this is not about me or my discomfort; it is about my animals. I am hopeful my willingness to ask for help will open up the chance to, through your help, provide my animals this precious life source they cannot live without, water. To better understand why I am in the position I am in asking for this help, let me tell you what happened.

The last two years have been huge years for me in terms of new beginnings and changes.  I not only left my old career behind to pursue a new one, but I also took a leap of faith and moved out to the country, where I could start life anew with a sanctuary for my animals, who mean the world to me.  It was not easy and there were many challenges along the way, I also made mistakes along the way, which is what leads me to posting this request. While negotiating a purchase price on my property last year, I trusted my soon-to-be neighbor when he said he would share his water with me. Why wouldn’t I trust him? He was a seemingly sweet, helpful, 91-year old man who has lived on this hill for over 30 years. I was buying the property from him and would soon be his close neighbor so he would have my best interest in mind, right? Wrong!!

After living there for a few months, one night I got home from work at 12:13 am, came inside after checking on my animals, put my hands under the faucet to wash the day off and nothing. Not a drop. Apparently my close neighbor had suddenly decided he no longer wanted to share his water with me and cut my supply off without warning. To add insult to injury, when I asked him about what happened, he did not even have the courage to tell me the truth, which was that he just did not want to share his water anymore.  Instead he lied about what happened, deflected responsibility, and made clear that he was not going to do anything to allow me to have access to water again.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was just me and my dog but I have 12 horses and donkeys and it was a scorching September in south Texas.

I had to come up with a plan fast. Through trial and error, I eventually ended up with a temporary solution:  I bought two food-grade 275 gallon IBC water totes, a food grade 50-gallon plastic barrel and several 5-gallon jugs. I didn’t know where I would fill everything up but knew I had to figure it out because my herd of 12 was drinking upwards of 125 gallons of water a day in the Texas heat. Thankfully, a friend of mine didn’t think twice about offering me water from his house so we turned my horse trailer into the “Water Wagon” and calculated how much water I could safely haul with my truck. I could haul enough water to keep everyone hydrated for about 2-3 days in the summer and 3-4 days as it cooled down.

November rolled around and Capital Farm Credit FINALLY approved me for a loan to refinance my property so I could roll the cost of my well into it. Things were looking up! I got several quotes on drilling that were all about the same price per linear foot. I would need roughly $32,000 for the well installation. The loan officer said she looked everything over and I would need approximately $2,000 cash at closing. Every few weeks I checked in with her and every time the status was essentially the same as before, until January 21st, when she gave me a closing date of January 28 or 29th. The end of the water hauling saga was in sight! Then, on January 24th, the loan officer sent me a text message stating she “ran the numbers” and that, due to the loan to value ratio, instead of needing $2,000 in cash at closing, I would need $14,542.81 to close on the loan. Why she did not “run the numbers” until 4 days before closing when the loan had been approved for nearly three months, I will never understand.  Regardless, to say I was devastated, furious, and terrified about what I was going to do next would be a mild understatement.

So, with strength gained from Brene Brown (her books and podcasts keep me going!) and my amazing tribe of friends, here I am, asking for help. This is a position I never imagined I would find myself in. As self-reliant as I have always been, it’s a very vulnerable, uncomfortable, and unpleasant position; but I also know that if I do not at least try, I will not be able to receive a miracle, if one is to happen in this situation. If I can’t raise the funds to install a well, I will have to move, which is fine, but I will spend thousands moving so I thought I’d try this approach first since both scenarios involve my spending thousands of dollars. 

Here’s what I need:  I need your help to raise the $32,280.81 I need to be able to make the full payment for my well.  If I am not able to raise the full amount, my hope is to raise the $14,542.81 needed to refinance my land and roll the cost of the well in, as originally planned. I’m trying to raise the full amount of the well first, instead of refinancing with the cost of the well rolled in, because, in the long run, it will cost me more to refinance my land and I’d like to avoid paying more if at all possible. 

My promise to you, now that I can’t offer to repay you, is that I will pay it forward. I will start by offering any of my neighbors in need of water a place to fill up any time they need it, and, unlike my neighbor, ya’ll can trust my word! 

Thank you in advance, from the bottom of my heart!