Marikate continues to think about what the pastor said in the church just a week before the bird died.
“There are two types of people in life,” she said. “You can say, ‘Why me?’ or ‘What’s next?’
They excavated graves at the edge of the farm in fields dotted with dried corncobs.
The four of them went out together: Marty, Marikate, two farmers. It took me all day to dig a hole and carted over all the chicken corpses on the skid steer.
As the USDA directed, they buried all their bodies, along with thousands of dollars of feed and eggs.
Marikate cried in her n-95 mask.
That day, the car was pulled up to the farm and one of the patrons headed out hoping to pick up fresh eggs. Still wearing her dangerous suit, Marikate explained what had happened. He quickly handed her all the cash to his wallet.
After that, messages began to be poured.
“I pray for you all during this time of struggle.”
“All your dental friends are rooting for this to be all fixed as soon as possible!!!”
Donations to the GoFundMe campaign have been expanding since Word came out. As well as orders from online farmers markets, the main source of remaining revenue. They were impressed with the pouring of support from their customers and the community. However, Kakadoodle farms are still at financial risk. They are considering applying for a private loan to float the farm.
“We’re at the bottom of the barrel,” Marty said. “If this doesn’t work, we’re deleting all life savings.”
What they keep telling themselves: they survived other disasters on the farm – and somehow found a way to survive.
There was a barn burnt out due to a defective extension cord. Crusting bacterial infections that tear the herd, cratering egg production. There were endless accidents and mistakes they made, as they expanded their surgery, fought mites and frozen water, expanded the aftermath of a tornado, washed YouTube, and sought answers from more seasoned farmers.
“It happened over and over again,” Marty said. “This is crazy, and we’re doing. We don’t know this world at all.”
And next time he and Marikate will prepare better. They want to renovate their sheds to keep wild birds out of their feed while roaming the chicken space. They try to keep farm shoes on the farm to reduce spreading of illness.
Because bird flu won’t leave America anytime soon. Just three weeks ago, Marty and Marikate received a call from another local farmer who suspected they had an outbreak of avian flu. He struggled with whether or not to call USDA. His father begged him and warned that the agency would come and slaughter all the birds.
“All I can tell you is what we did,” Marikate told him before hanging up.
The farmer called.
