Help our family recovery after another devastating flood

Hello, we are Emmett and Mackenzie!

We are an LGBTQ and permanently Disabled family and farm specializing in organic, non-G.M.O. food and handmade, by the earth goods in the NEK (based out of Morgan). While we are not parents of humans and we don’t “work" in the traditional sense, we homestead, steward and care for 10.5 acres of land as well as goats, dogs, cats and other animals around the farm. 

Thank you for taking the time to read and support our fa(r)mily!

Emmett comes from a very poor family and has been living on their own since they and their whole family lost everything in the 2018 Camp Fire, that swept through their home town of Paradise California and destroyed all but the entire town. This is the second time in six years Emmett has lost their home. Emmett is chronically ill and has dealt with increasingly challenging symptoms over the years when the COVID pandemic hit; now due to necessary precautions to protect both of our health our ability to do most things in community, in town, in general is extremely limited. Unfortunately we are still very at risk for serious illness or death while almost all precautions that were put in place to support us at the beginning of the pandemic have been eliminated. Before the pandemic Emmett had spent years working in food justice work, doing sexual and reproductive health education and activism, and creating spaces for other LGBTQ, disabled people to build community and power together. Emmett is also really good at charming animals, especially birds. And will often walk around the forest like Cinderella, with chickadees and crows following alongside them, often landing on their hand or head. Emmett is the mitochondrial powerhouse of the farm; they operate the large equipment, use the chainsaw, and coming from a background with a contractor stepfather and having grown up off the land they are ready to jump in with all the power tool projects on the farm.

Mackenzie is a Jewish, disabled and chronically ill, early childhood educator who specializes in working with queer families and neurodiverse children (newborn and up). They can lull pretty much anyone to sleep, of any age and of any species. On our farm, they are known as the sleep witch. They have a degenerative spinal condition that worsens every day so we build in wheelchair access and the ability to sit into all areas of the farm. Kenzie is incredible patient, compassionate and generous; which is why they are our go-to conflict mediator on the farm. They are they cool, calm and collected Cancer to Emmett’s passionate, forward Taurus nature. They bring a playful and spiritual nature to the daily work on the farm, reminding us to sing, to dance to pause to smell the literal roses.

Mackenzie’s parents are older, and living in the south, often dealing with water-related disasters of their own. We have grown a small, local community of neighbors and friends, but have often have had to tackle the big projects just the two of us. 

Our farm, home and area was hit extremely hard by the July 2023 flood, as well as months of flooding following. And we were hit by both of the July 2024 floods. In fact July 30th our entire road was destroyed, leaving more than half of those of us up the road totally stranded for over five days as neighbors jumped into action and fixed it with their personal equipment. 

The 10 acres we steward was flooded by rapids-like waters from neighboring land. Entire areas and paths washed away, our driveway began to disconnect completely from the main road, water pooled and flooded toward the house and garage. All of our farm infrastructure: greenhouse, vegetable beds, long-term food storage  were destroyed. 

And when the rains hit hard water backed up into our roof and down the walls, into the outlets, almost causing a major electrical fire.

This forced us to shift into emergency mode and come up with another immediate, temporary housing solution. Since July of 2023 our family has been living in an R.V. And living in an R.V. in winter in the NorthEast brings with it its own challenges: no running water half of winter (despite us doing everything we can to insulate), no hot water the rest, freezing on the inside walls, heat and electrical bills skyrocketing, and mice… lots and lots of mice…

In hiring several contractors, excavators, plumbers, electricians, etc last year to hook up the R.V. to utilities we experienced several bouts of contractors fraud: “professionals” taking advantage of people’s situations after the floods, doing below-code work while charging us an arm and a leg and leaving us in a worse situation than we were in before. By the time the last guy finished they disconnected the garage from electrical and water, something I was very adamant they NOT do, and buried water and electrical lines was too shallow to pass code, resulting in poor water connection, freezing water even in moderate winter conditions and faulty electrical connections (meaning faulty heat during winter). 

We did everything right when this all happened. We had insurance for the land, house and all the structures on it. We were denied coverage on our claim. We applied for FEMA July of 2023 and for the July 9th and July 29th declared floods and were denied for all of them by FEMA. In January of this year we were connected with KURVE (Kingdom United Resiliency and Recovery Effort), which is the our area’s flood recovery team that was put together with both federal funding and lots of public donations. We worked with one of the coordinators for six months, being told all kinds of things: first that they were going to have the Mennonites come out to do free construction for people, then that Catholic charities were going to fund $20,000 of recovery for each family affected, the story always changed. They we were told that we ALSO had to work with an organization called Capstone, so we had to go through a whole intake with them where it became very obvious that we were being handed off because the person we had being communicating from KURVE was closing out in her position. And in fact, KURVE is closing out as a program. So we filled out ALL the paperwork, went to all the meetings, and even though they were telling us every week that we were the number one family on their list, and I had person after person look me in the eye and promise me that they wouldn’t just drop us and disappear come winter, the representative from Capstone and KURVE emailed us right before winter telling us that our case is too complex and telling us they can’t work with us and asking us if we would like a referral to local organizations (as if we aren’t already connected to all the local orgs).

And now we are back for round two. As we write this our area was hit hard yesterday with equally as intense waters. Our garage and hay storage flooded. Our leech field is failing. The problems keep stacking up.

This land is more than our home, it is our calling. We are part of a community here, an ecosystem. And for us, for many reasons, it’s just not an option to leave, even temporarily. We have animals that depend on us, we have land that we’ve agreed to tend, we are building and moving towards. And in today’s climate, political and land, there are no options where we leave and end up in a better situation, unfortunately. Especially because a big part of the reason why we landed in Vermont was because we are both transgender and having faced danger and threats for being ourselves, needed a home with legal protections. Especially right now, cannot afford to lose that legal safety.

While our house was destroyed our garage has been standing as a perfect space, ready to go for new construction. It is a bare-bones skeleton, with no mold or eater damage to the structure.

Here is a breakdown of how the funds will be used:

Architecture drawings

$7,000.00

Bathroom

$15,000.00

Plumbing for whole house

$3,000.00

Kitchen materials and appliances $25,000.00

Internal wall materials $10,000.00

Roof repair $20,000.00

Electrical solar Install $75,000.00

Heating system install $5,000.00

Excavation $3,000.00

Engineering consultation $2,500.00

Permits $5,000.00

Energy audit $2,500.00

Dump and disposal $4,000.00

Insulation $10,000.00

Elevator/lift install $30,000.00

Helical pier removal $7,000.00

Totaling $224,00.00 We are funding the first phase of it to get water and electrical connected so we can build and use the space during the winter months, especially if our water freezes in the R.V. again.

Thank you for reading.

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