[A] December fire at the small organic farm of Heidi Choate and Evan Perkins in Barnet tragically took the life of their close friend and left the farm building and solar panels in ruins.
Small Axe Farm is off the grid, so not having solar panels left them without a power source. Being “underinsured” and low on funds, the family was uncertain how it would afford the rebuild.
That’s when Catamount Solar reached out and offered to donate the panels they needed.
“We had no power to run our house or our farm until they came,” Choate said. “We were running power off a neighbor, and running power off a generator — our next door neighbor loaned us panels and lights.”
But they needed a lot more than just new solar panels. Starting in January, the farm was swarmed with friends and neighbors who came every weekend to help rebuild their farm building. A GoFundMe page for the project brought in nearly $40,000.
Catamount staffers were working on a nearby farm when they heard about the fire at Small Axe Farm, and offered to donate panels to help the owners rebuild. Andrew Wible, the company’s director of operations, said not all solar companies have off-grid capability, so it just made sense for his company to be the one to step up.
“It was such a heart-moving catastrophe, we felt more than obligated to do something,” Wible said. “Perhaps that’s what anyone would do if they were put in that position.”
The woman who died, Kelsey Locke, 21, of Groveland, Massachusetts, had worked on Small Axe Farm a few years earlier. She had asked Choate and Perkins if she could stay on their farm temporarily, and was sleeping in the farm building adjacent to the family’s home when it became engulfed in flames.
On Feb. 20, Catamount came to install nine new solar panels, worth $1,150. Catamount also donated its time for the installation.
The farm — which grows vegetables for community supported agriculture, or CSA, shares — is looking to be back up and running by the end of the spring.
“The entire community rallied around us as we began the process of raising money for a rebuild,” the owners wrote on Instagram. “The crew that came were so amazing, knowledgeable and generous. The solar power allowed us to run power tools this winter to rebuild our farm building and will be critical for us to be up and running for farming this spring. We have been so overwhelmed by their generosity as well as their professionalism.”
