Help a Trans-owned Farm Get a Security System

Moxie Ridge Farm is a trans-owned farm and creamery in Washington County. I am asking for help to install a security system for the farm - a small goat dairy, licensed on-site creamery, and diversified livestock farm on 46 acres. **Due to an overwhelming amount of request for visits, I'm updating our funding goal to be able to accommodate visitors to the farm. See the update below and Phase 3 for details. Thank you Jonathan Van Ness and Getting Curious team for this signal bump! **

 

 

 

 

What's Happening

 

Five years ago, I started Moxie Ridge Farm in the small town of Argyle, NY. During that time, our small community has been welcoming, supportive, and safe for both me and for our animals. It is very important to me that you understand how lovely and supportive my rural community is; this security system is not for my neighbors.

 

As Moxie Ridge has grown, both the farm and I have become more visible in the public eye with both local and national press. It's taken hard work to get here and we'll be getting even more attention in the coming months.

 

While I am thrilled to grow our community and to be visible as a trans person, because of the overwhelming amount of hate and violence against trans people (just in 2022 alone), it's left me very concerned with my safety and the safety of my animals.

 

I live alone on the farm and my staff and I are responsible for the lives and wellbeing of 100+ animals. These animals will spend most of their days in pasture in a rotational grazing system across our 46 acres and the farm has over 700 feet exposed with no fencing along our county road.

 

I am asking for your help to install a security system for the farm. As more and more people learn about Moxie Ridge, this security system will allow me and my staff to feel safe while working here, it will give me peace of mind while living here, and it will protect our animals from harm from bad actors seeking to make a statement or hurt the farm. The risks of not having a security system seem to be going up by the day and we hope to start work on the system as soon as possible.

**Please note: As a small working farm we are not currently set up for visitors! Due to an overwhelming amount of requests to visit and learn here at the farm, we are focusing our PHASE 3 funding on making this possible. If you would like to visit the farm, you can help make it happen by sharing this page with friends.** 

What this GoFundMe $$ is for:

This is broken up into 3 phases - phase 1 for basics needed to prevent and protect, phase 2 for improved systems and increased coverage, and phase 3 for going from surviving to thriving and being able to safely welcome visitors. If we do not reach our phase 1 goal, we will do the best we can by prioritizing cameras, fencing, and gates. Update: PHASE 1 HAS BEEN REACHED; WE ARE CURRENTLY FUNDING PHASE 2

 

Phase 1 is about the bare necessities needed to prevent and protect. The target of $9800* will cover:

 

Phase 2 is about improving security by lengthening the approach to the house and barns, better systems, and increasing coverage. This target of $16250* will cover:

Phase 3 is all about being able to welcome visitors to the farm. Since our start in 2017, Moxie Ridge has been a working farm and creamery as well as my home. Our focus has been on the welfare of the animals and creating exceptional traditional food (which go hand-in-hand) and not on agri-tourism and all the investments that would require. The response to this GoFundMe changes that and makes welcoming guests in 2022 a possibility! We're dreaming big and imagining Summer visiting hours, biosecure tours, baby goat bottle feeding activities, on-farm events, on-farm education and multi-day training, and the beginnings of an on-farm store. These investments will allow us to increase our visibility as a trans-owned farm by welcoming you and other visitors, while keeping myself, our staff, our animals, and our guests safe.

 It includes:

   • barn and outbuilding improvements

   •  staffing

   • child-safe and biosecure visitor areas

   • maintenance

   • on-farm pickups and farmstand 

   • property cleanup (60 years of trash)

   • food and flower gardens

   • signage

*due to dramatically rising costs, these budgets have gone up. Thanks to our amazing donors, however, our goals are still being met - just at higher costs and/or with some slight changes.