Mokelumne Hill, CA… My husband and I live in Mokelumne Hill, CA and own a small 5 acre farm called Angry Serb Farms. We have sheep, goats, turkeys, two sweet livestock guardian dogs and three hogs…two of which are very very pregnant. On Thursday, September 10th, we spent our 12 year anniversary being rescued by one of the most impressive, kind, gracious, strong and funny families (and friends) we have ever met. The Butte Fire broke out up the road from us Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, September 10th at 4 am, we put out a request for aid in evacuating our farm.

A few minutes later, our new family friend Deborah Ward-Crummey reached out to me offering to help evacuate our entire farm to her ranch in Acampo (roughly 40 minutes away). Within a few hours Debbie, her daughter Lily, and her neighbor/friend and all around hero John Paul Marion were at the farm loading our “zoo” into her trailer. All this after her new truck broke down at Wendell’s while en route.

We were able to successfully load all animals except for Bella our very large and VERY pregnant hog…who decided to swim to the middle of our pond and refused to come out.

Fast forward to early Friday morning, Operation Rescue Bella commenced. Debbie, her eldest daughter daughter Katie and John once again at the ranch, loading Big Bella onto the trailer to evacuate her to the Acampo ranch. As if this wasn’t enough hero work, they had my husband and I go ahead to take Bella to the ranch while they stayed back to help my neighbor load and evacuate 15 wild (literally wild & untamed) horses. They then proceeded to drive our off road vehicle 20+ miles through back roads to the Acampo ranch…helping people all along the way.

The Crummey family continued the rest of the week traveling throughout Calaveras and Amador counties helping people and families evacuate their animals. Their ability to act while under extreme pressure was unlike anything I had ever seen.

Debbie housed us, she fed us, she laughed with us, she cried with us. She gave random strangers who had lost their homes hugs. Her amazing neighbors Laurie and Steve Wiegel dropped off their travel trailer so we had a private place to sleep. James Marion and his brother Jon Paul Marion(aforementioned hero) not only helped us with our animals (also giving us awesome advice on birthing pigs) but went back to rescue Debbie’s broken truck, towing it back to the ranch. To top it all off, their goddess Mom baked us all the best Apple Crisp in the world!

We spent a week at the Crummey ranch before we were allowed back to our farm, which thanks to the heroic efforts of the many Fire Departments involved, came out unscathed.

To say I am eternally indebted to them isn’t enough as eternity is too short a time.
I wanted to thank each and every person who helped us in our time of need.

Thank you from

– Jenai & Vlad,
– Sookie & Tiberius (Dogs)
– Zoe, Amber, Satyr, Milena, Yelena, Minxy, the twins and Rafie (Goats)
– Sahara, Sonmi, Ramstein, Zoolander (sheep)
– Major Tom and his women (turkeys)
– Lois, Griffin and of course the one and only Bella (hogs)

From my family to yours, we are eternally thankful.
You are what makes this country great.

Sincerely,

The Marinkovic Family
The Angry Serb Farm