Shovels and determination: Spence's Bridge family rebuilds farm after devastating floods

For the past few weeks, Brandie, Michael, and their young daughter Luna have been unrolling long sheets of burlap and staking willow tree cuttings into a steep, loose dirt bank on their property.

The family of three own a small farm in the community of Spence's Bridge, B.C., one of dozens of properties near Highway 8 that were damaged by horrific floods last November. 

After five months of staying with friends in nearby Ashcroft, the family say they're determined to rebuild a large portion of their property, home to an orchard and a chicken coop, by stabilizing the bank.

"It was thriving, and it is gone. It's a beach now. Everything that was on it is totally scattered to the four winds," Brandie Coutts told the CBC's Radio West Thursday.

Highway 8 through the community is still undergoing repairs, after a long stretch of the road was lost to the raging river.

In late March, Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said he couldn't provide an estimate for when the highway would reopen but more information would be released in the coming months in partnership with the federal government.

Coutts said the family can still only access their farm and haul supplies by helicopter, and they've been making week-long trips to their property, while they rebuild. 

Coutts said a helicopter pilot with Valley Helicopters, who had visited their farmstead for years, "endeared" himself to the family and has been offering free helicopter rides, given their home lies in the direction he flies each day. 

"The river ate our farm," said Coutts, "[and] we're helicopter hitchhikers."

Coutts said the three are embarking on a massive project to create a "micro climate" on the collapsed hillside, which at first took quite a physical toll on the family.

She said the flooding has loosened the soil, so they've been planting rows of willows and cottonwood trees with hopes the roots will take hold, knit the soil together and stabilize the bank.

"The slope is about 45 feet from top to beach," explained Coutts, adding that if they didn't take action the unstable slope would keep edging back and they'd potentially lose more of their land.

"You plant (a lot of trees) as they're not all going to be able to survive," said Coutts. 

She said the family has received generous financial and emotional support from the community for the past few months.