COMMUNITY OUT OF HIDING.

Well, it just wouldn't be our blog if we weren't talking about exactly what was going on in our lives, and right now we're almost entirely––emotionally and physically––preoccupied with this fundraising endeavor we've embarked upon.It's quite the experience: thrilling and terrifying, stressful, exciting, beyond educational, but definitely, decidedly, intense. We've been humbled by the response, the sharing of the campaign and the contributions. But we've also been overwhelmed by the reality of asking people for money. We lost our money––yes. We lost our investment in the farm and it was devastating. We have practically nothing to rebuild with and although we have land, we need a house. But does that necessarily give us reason to ask other people for their money? I still don't know that answer to that. The closest thing to an answer I've come up with is this: we needed help, put it out there and people have responded generously.Hannah and I have a strong affinity for community––it's a big part of why we decided to move to Bugtussle: to be close to fellow farmers; to start building community of our own. In a community––be it suburban or rural––when a member has a need, the community works to fulfill it. If someone needs help, the community comes together to raise the barn; to build the house; to take care of kids; to feed the animals; to raise some money. We want that security, but we also want to give that security to others. Community is the oldest form of insurance: you invest in the community, and the community makes itself available to catch you when you fall.And then we fell... hard. twice. But when this campaign went live we weren't thinking about community, asking the internet for assistance was a shot in the dark for us. I don't want to call it desperate, but desperation was close to what we felt. We knew we couldn't get our farm back up and running without a house, and we couldn't build a house without help. What we didn't realize, however, was we already belonged to a community, a selfless group of people who have donated enthusiastically, or shared our campaign, or sent us an encouraging note. It's a group we care about, and a group who we've discovered cares about us. However spread out, vague or even anonymous, it's a community, and thus an incredibly powerful entity.I suppose I'd never thought twice about the term "online community" before this campaign, but once it's done I'll definitely never underestimate it again. We have a long way to go yet in the fundraising, but this experience has already done a lot: it's redefined community to us, and brought that community together. And if ever another member should fall, we'll make ourselves available to help however we can, because that's what you do in a community, and that's what community is doing for us.- Jesse