HELP! Farmer Julia gored by a boar!

Dawn Kelly is organizing this fundraiser.

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The very attributes that make a good farmer, like strength, perseverance, stubbornness, determination & grit can work against you sometimes. What if the word help has never been in your vocabulary? Or if it has, it’s a 4-letter word at best. What if you are “the FORCE”? Then there is no way to be able to say, “May the FORCE be with YOU”. What if your mindset is “Failure is not an option?” Yet we know that learning occurs by making mistakes, failing, and falling off our proverbial bikes. Perhaps you’ve read that Margaret Mead quote a zillion times, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has”…and then you thought, “yah right… I can do it, I can do it by myself”. And then just before Christmas, in the midst of a cold snap the likes of which no one has seen for 40 years, after far too many sleepless nights in the barn with newborn piglets, your electric fence freezes up, your 1000lb boar escapes and you foolishly get in the way of his 6 inch razor sharp tusks which rip most of the way through your abdomen and into your liver. You are whisked to the hospital for surgery and everyone says, “You should be dead! You are the Christmas miracle! You truly are. And oh, by the way in 2 years you will be healed up to 80% of your former FORCE self.” What do you do? What do you do when your livelihood as a trustworthy, ethical, and nurturing farmer is now on hold? What do you DO? What do YOU DO?
That’s when your posse of the folks about which Margaret Mead speaks say, “What do you need? How can we help?” And then YOU, Farmer Julia, bump into yourself and begin to contemplate the power of the people. And with the help of your friends, YOU, FARMER Julia realize, I NEED (gulp, 4-letter-word) HELP!!!
I am Dawn. I am a teacher. I am Julia’s friend. We were new mummies together, over 20 years ago. I KNOW Julia. I REALLY know Julia. And as I sit here in my warm Kitsilano home, I know my pal needs HELP. She needs BIG strong, rough and tough HELP. I want to give you the opportunity to HELP my friend, and the FORCE Farmer Julia.
This GoFundMe campaign is to raise funds to HELP Julia pay a worker to fill her BIG shoes, and to help with the unexpected expenses resulting from an extraordinarily difficult winter at the ranch. Julia will NOT be able to return to her FORCE work in a BIG way, for at least 2 years. Yes she can sit at a desk, but that’s NOT our Farmer Julia. She’s out there on the land doing work that most of us (men and women) couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

It’s Time… Step up and be counted… Julia did but now she can’t… Get out that e-cheque book and HELP. Farmers like Julia deserve nothing less.

Links

You can read about Julia’s business Urban Digs at www.urbandigsfarm.com

You can read a more detailed account of the accident here

You can read news coverage and see more photos and video on CBC.

The tasiest way you can support Julia is to buy a side of pork! They have a lot of pigs that are market ready now and a big feed bill to pay.

Photos
(nice ones first... don't scroll past the first 3 pictures if you are squeamish!)

Julia & William in better times

Julia with one of William's offspring

Staff meeting in the barn

Ok now for the gorey pictures.... nothing too terrible. No was was taking pictures until Julia was out of the woods but they are still pretty gross:

This is the hole in Julia's abdominal wall

This is the hole in Julia's liver

Cleaning the wound the day after surgery. The surgeon stitched Julia up internally but left the wound open so it could be cleaned, to allow it to drain, and to hopefully reduce the very high risk of infection.