Lightning Damaged Tractor

You know the saying, “lighting never strikes twice”? Well, Rowdy Girl Sanctuary has been struck once! We don’t ever want to think that we can outsmart Mother Nature, but come on, lightning!

All of us animals and humans are fine. Our tractor, not so much—it was fried when lightning hit the antenna and sent a surge of electrical current throughout the motherboard destroying much of the inner workings of what makes our Kubota tractor work. 

Our Kubota is the most critical piece of equipment we have at Rowdy Girl, and without it our work and care for the animals come to a grinding halt. Tractors are the backbone of our survival and the wellbeing of our herd.

With more than 130 animals and weather conditions ranging from freezing temperatures to rain creating tons of mud to summer’s scorching heat and drought, our land and animals endure a great deal of weather related stress. Without the Kubota we are crippled and the animals suffer. We need it to…

  • contour the land to redirect rain flow;
  • repair our roads;
  • mow the weeds and the brush to constantly improve the pastures so the cows have more grass;
  • dig out dirt in muddy areas to add culverts to the property to prevent staff and animals from standing and working in mud;
  • feed the animals round bales;
  • spread dirt for pasture maintenance;
  • move heavy equipment;
  • add new waterlines;
  • and more.

This year, Tommy and I thought we had moved past every imaginable disaster and would not have to do another pop-up campaign for repair and maintenance, but Mother Nature never takes a vacation.

Who knew lightning would strike our Kubota? What are the odds?

Well, here we are. To fix the tractor, we are using our round bale hay budget. That is unsustainable.

I’ll be straight up: we need to raise $20,000 quickly to cover the cost of the tractor repairs. We are grateful that our local Kubota dealer has given us a $3,500 discount on the cost.

And, we are blessed to have supporters like you we can count on to get us through this rough patch.

As always, our highest priority is the animals in our care. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary can only be a voice for farm animals out in the world to the extent our animal family is cared for first. Every time we face a drought or any other disaster, we build more resilience. But only with you.

I hope everyone reading this one can contribute something – every donation will count. We are so very grateful for all of you.

Then we can move ahead and pave the way for more animals to join us, and to continue our work beyond the sanctuary for all farm animals. 

Let’s move on this at the speed of lightning to fix the tractor and handle all the maintenance needed at this slice of heaven here in the country.