This Benefit is for Anna Pearson.  Here's her story:

I feel like Job - that which I feared the most has come upon me.. My neighbor called me at work yesterday morning and told me the barn was on fire. When I got here, everything was gone. For those of you who have been to the farm, we're talking about a two story 40 x 60 foot barn with stalls and pens to the sides and a huge general population pen to the back.

We lost 14 goats (including SG Foxwood CP Milky Way and the wonderful yearling in my Christmas card). I lost all eight of my this years babies. I lost the oldest (and I think the best yearlings). Needless to say, we are devastated. This is the very worst - there is nothing left of the barn and contents except a metal milk stand that the firemen salvaged. It's warped, but I used it last night to milk. A friend brought me another metal stand last night so now I have two. (I feel blessed to have wonderful friends.) The back porch is now my milking parlor.

We are trying to make shelter for the animals that survived about as fast as we can. Another goat friend took the 10 eight to ten month olds that made it. We're erecting canopy tents tomorrow and making places to put goats.

The best news is that God blessed us this afternoon with 2 beautiful doe kids from Hot Biscuit. (Julie turned her into the pasture yesterday or we would have lost her as well.) Four of Julie's Takwendo buddies who have never seen a goat helped me birth babies today! Amazing!

Our insurance company, USAA, will not cover it because they say we had a business. They'll give us $2500 - period. God will supply the rest. We WILL be OK and we will rebuild. We covet the prayers of everyone.

This weekend, we'll start some real clean-up. We tried today, but there are many hot spots and I melted the soles of my boots. I did get to the carcasses of the eight young kids and buried them. The others we burned in huge funeral pyres yesterday and last night.

Some of you will wonder about the cause. We had a heat lamp on, but it was very well secured above the kids. The fire inspector was pretty sure that the fire started at the electrical junction box in the front of the barn. (We still don't have power to the back of the house because everything was on the same breaker.)

Believe it or not, there are some wonderful positive notes. My SGCH golden colored doe Pink Rendezvous, her half-sister Panther, and ten young yearlings were rescued by lineman from an electrical company who got here before the firemen. They saw the fire from the road and pulled back as far as they could in the back yard. They risked their own lives (the fire totally melted heavy green plastic feeders 30 feet away) and pulled down fences to get them out. I met them this morning. There are not enough words to thank total strangers who saved some of my very best animals. God is indeed good!

We covet all of your prayers. Hug your goats tonight. I am thankful for what I have left!