Novelist Cynthia Thayer watched her family’s 153-year-old barn burn to the ground. Friends and supporters have organized an online fundraiser to help the novelist rebuild.

Author Kristen Britain attends a weekly writing workshop at Thayer’s house in Maine, and she shared a picture (embedded above) of herself with one of the Fjord draft ponies that died in the fire. Follow this link if you want to help the the family.

Here’s more from Britain’s post: “In the early hours of Monday, May 7th, my friends awoke to every farmer’s nightmare: their barn, full of livestock, was engulfed in fire. The fire was too far gone to save the animals–pigs, cattle, horses, sheep and lambs, ducks, chickens and chicks. Only two animals survived the blaze by some miracle: a chick now named Lucky, and the barn cat … I and many others have ridden in a wagon and sleigh drawn behind [the horses] either at the farm itself or the Common Ground Fair. The horses helped Bill with the haying in the summer and working in the woods during the winter, and brought delight to many of us in between.”

Below, we’ve embedded a photo of the lost barn, an “an old New England timber frame style” barn that was raised in 1859.