Community Goodness in the Midst of Disaster

Here’s a story about community. A story about goodness in the midst of disaster, exhaustion and unending work. As many of you know, we were hit pretty hard 2 years ago by Hurricane Ian. So getting dealt this blow by Hurricane Milton is especially hard. Immediately we check the animals, our people etc. Then we evaluate property damage. That’s when we saw the broken structures, caved roofs and damaged equipment.

We, like many others have no power, water and very little phone service. With what little signal I had, I posted some pictures and asked if anyone would let us hire them with some good heavy equipment to lift these buildings off of our equipment that we desperately needed to start cleanup and recovery. There were lots of people who were basically telling us to do it ourselves with the equipment we had, not fully understanding that not only was this not helpful, but it was dangerous and impossible.

Enter Katelyn Egolf. We received a message from her asking if we got help. If we still needed it. She and her husband Chris own Egolf Land Services. They offered their time AND equipment to help us. At 7:30am on a weekend after working days on end helping others, Mr Egolf and a helper show up with an absolutely MASSIVE loader. I was actually a bit envious…. The task of getting this detached broken shelter lifted was much more complicated than it looked. Chris handled that huge piece of equipment and the delicate work perfectly. He maneuvered that big beast in tight areas without damaging a single thing. It was really, very impressive. As a result he got the roof lifted so I could get my beloved Lucille (Kubota) tractor out. We also got several tools, fuel, the mower and Argo out. Now we can assess the damage.

Afterwards he took the loader to the south side of the property and removed 2 huge pines from the well-house that feeds the Learning Center and all of the cattle and goat troughs. Again he did this expertly. The risk to the guts of the well during this procedure was great but he did it without causing even a slight bit more damage. I cheered like a kid…. Now I could start the less delicate clean up work. I told him that I have his wife the email to invoice us but that she hadn’t answered. He said, unphased, “aw, there’s no invoice, we just wanted to help you out so you can get going on your clean up.” Of course I argued a minute, but he was firm on it. I texted his wife, so was she.

I thanked them both profusely but then I decided to post this. They didn’t ask me to, but I want to. THIS is community. This is caring. This saved our rear ends AND made the endeavor safe. Chris & Katelyn and their helper were so polite and professional and helpful. I mean honestly, showing up early for a 7:30am Saturday morning appointment when they didn’t have power themselves even…. Just unbelievable.

The help for our community historically, non profits like ours, and the expert and professional handling of all of the precarious situations and equipment makes me believe Egolf Land Services is the best around. You know what they did then? Donated us some fuel to keep us going. They don’t make them like this anymore. I’ve decided I’ll hire them personally for my clean up and I highly recommend them. You guys know how I feel about Lucille…. She’s my right hand gal out there. But I declare here, Chris & Katelyn Egolf are CMNC’s honored guests for life and I might even let them take ol Lucille for a spin. Again, thank you. You guys are amazing. Thank you for helping tackle some of the biggest and most dangerous parts of this journey.