The seasonal cycle of work of the farm never ends. Jen and I castrated 8 piglets yesterday at fostering farm Samish Bay Cheese and neither the farmers or the pigs are worse for wear a day later (okay...I might have a few bruises from a few close encounters with an angry sow!)
Building on that good news, we have some additional good news to to share regarding our insurance claim. First, we want to preface this by saying that the claim is still open and will not be finalized until a new barn is up, but for now, it looks like our insurance company will cover about $10,000 towards the building structure demolition and rebuild. That will be about $8,000 after our deductible is met. The maximum we could have recovered was $16,000, so we think this is mostly good news. I don't want to get into any more specifics here due to the fact that the claim is still open, but if you want more information or have any advice, feel free to contact me privately and I will be happy to let you know all that is going on. We haven't heard anything regarding what they will cover on the contents of the barn, but it should be a sizable amount considering the amount of equipment (both personal and farm owned) that was stored inside. When the claim is completely settled, I will write a post detailing everything that we experienced and learned regarding insurance and this fire. The insurance company wrote us a check on Friday for a portion of the insurance, and although we are not going to cash it until the claim is settled, we will be adding the total to the GoFundMe page so that it can be included in the reach toward the goal.
Also insurance related, we are planning for the future and the hopeful return of the pigs and steers to the farm in about a month. Before we commit to bringing them back, we want to make sure we stand on absolutely firm ground regarding the insurance situation of the house, future barn, and farm liability moving forward. We are currently soliciting quotes for that insurance package (ironically, this is a process we had started a few weeks before the fire!) We are learning that it's not so easy to find insurance that is affordable for a farming operation of our size, and it's also not easy to get insurance right after you've had a loss due to fire. We are hopeful that we can find something that works for us in the next week so that we can start planning for bringing the animals back. In order to bring them back, we will need to invest in a few small pieces of equipment: an electric fence charger, some new billboard tarps to repair our pasture pig shelters, hoses, a water tank and float valve, and we will need to repair and bolster our perimeter fence that used to include the barn as a "wall". Your donations will be applied to those needs. We've had unusually warm weather recently, and we should have enough grass to sustain the cattle in a month, if not sooner. The piglets are fine on pasture once they are about 2-3 weeks old if they have an adequate shelter.
We are also now able to start the process of site clean-up. The first step is going to be the worst, as we need to contain the asbestos containing cement siding that covered about 1/2 of the barn. About 1/2 of the siding is intact.
Also insurance related, we are planning for the future and the hopeful return of the pigs and steers to the farm in about a month. Before we commit to bringing them back, we want to make sure we stand on absolutely firm ground regarding the insurance situation of the house, future barn, and farm liability moving forward. We are currently soliciting quotes for that insurance package (ironically, this is a process we had started a few weeks before the fire!) We are learning that it's not so easy to find insurance that is affordable for a farming operation of our size, and it's also not easy to get insurance right after you've had a loss due to fire. We are hopeful that we can find something that works for us in the next week so that we can start planning for bringing the animals back. In order to bring them back, we will need to invest in a few small pieces of equipment: an electric fence charger, some new billboard tarps to repair our pasture pig shelters, hoses, a water tank and float valve, and we will need to repair and bolster our perimeter fence that used to include the barn as a "wall". Your donations will be applied to those needs. We've had unusually warm weather recently, and we should have enough grass to sustain the cattle in a month, if not sooner. The piglets are fine on pasture once they are about 2-3 weeks old if they have an adequate shelter.
We are also now able to start the process of site clean-up. The first step is going to be the worst, as we need to contain the asbestos containing cement siding that covered about 1/2 of the barn. About 1/2 of the siding is intact.
And about 1/2 of the siding has broken up into tiny pieces.
I've done my research on the cleanup of this type of material, and I feel confident we can get it cleaned up safely. Asbestos is only a danger if it is released into the air and breathed into the lungs. When the tiles are unbroken, there is no danger. When the tiles break or disintegrate there is danger. Any fibers that were released during the fire are now in the soil and ash. They can be kept from going back into the air by keeping the material wet. We will be setting up hoses and keeping the areas we work in sprayed down. In addition, I am going to buy at least 5 sets of respirator masks, Tyvek suits, and gloves. The work, unfortunately, is going to be very tedious as we need to carefully pick up each individual piece of siding and put into into a double-bagged 6 mil plastic bag. We will probably be scraping up some of the soil and ash and bagging it as well. We are going to begin this work on Saturday, and we will continue until it is finished. We could certainly use help, but we also understand that asbestos is a dangerous product and we want to make sure that anyone who helps us with this portion of the clean up is aware of the (minor) risks involved. If you would like to help, either stop by on Saturday or Sunday or let us know when you are available to help.
Thank you all again for your support through this long, but hopeful process.
Thank you all again for your support through this long, but hopeful process.
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