Not too surprisingly, it's been very busy for me recently. In the midst of the business, we have made some good progress and I want to keep everyone in the loop.
1. As you can see above, the piglets are doing fine. I go to Samish Bay Cheese once a day to feed and clean up after the pigs and I've settled into a bit of a routine.
2. We have insurance! We signed the paperwork on Friday to change our current homeowners policy to a hybrid farm/homeowners policy. We'll be able to get coverage on the new barn, as well as getting liability coverage for our animals and food products. Which means....
3. ...the animals are coming back to farm! Perhaps as soon as the end of next week. The recent warm weather has given the spring grass a good head start and I think the 2 steers should now no longer need hay for the rest of the year. The piglets will be 4 weeks old at the end of next week, and should be plenty strong to hang out outside. I need to order some more billboard tarps to fix up my old pig shelters, but they should be fine to keep the pigs out of the rain. I still need to get a new electric fence charger and figure out how I'm going to get water to the animals, but that should be fairly simple. Later on in the spring/summer, I'll need to decide if I want to resurrect the well (I like to keep a hose running at all times at a trickle for the pigs so that they have a wallow, and that seems like a waste of our community water system water).
4. With the animals back and insurance in place, we're ready to start taking order for pork and beef. I'll be sending out our newsletter to officially announce the start of the season soon, and I still need to update the website with new prices and information.
5. The asbestos clean up is progressing well. We had a good turn out for our work party last Saturday, and I've been able to work on the clean up here and there over the course of last week. I think we're now more than 50% finished with the asbestos abatement and we probably have about 45 bags of waste.
6. We also are keeping track of all our expenses so that you can know how your donations are being spent. So far, we've spent just over $1000, with about half of that dedicated to the asbestos clean up. See below for the full details.
1. As you can see above, the piglets are doing fine. I go to Samish Bay Cheese once a day to feed and clean up after the pigs and I've settled into a bit of a routine.
2. We have insurance! We signed the paperwork on Friday to change our current homeowners policy to a hybrid farm/homeowners policy. We'll be able to get coverage on the new barn, as well as getting liability coverage for our animals and food products. Which means....
3. ...the animals are coming back to farm! Perhaps as soon as the end of next week. The recent warm weather has given the spring grass a good head start and I think the 2 steers should now no longer need hay for the rest of the year. The piglets will be 4 weeks old at the end of next week, and should be plenty strong to hang out outside. I need to order some more billboard tarps to fix up my old pig shelters, but they should be fine to keep the pigs out of the rain. I still need to get a new electric fence charger and figure out how I'm going to get water to the animals, but that should be fairly simple. Later on in the spring/summer, I'll need to decide if I want to resurrect the well (I like to keep a hose running at all times at a trickle for the pigs so that they have a wallow, and that seems like a waste of our community water system water).
4. With the animals back and insurance in place, we're ready to start taking order for pork and beef. I'll be sending out our newsletter to officially announce the start of the season soon, and I still need to update the website with new prices and information.
5. The asbestos clean up is progressing well. We had a good turn out for our work party last Saturday, and I've been able to work on the clean up here and there over the course of last week. I think we're now more than 50% finished with the asbestos abatement and we probably have about 45 bags of waste.
6. We also are keeping track of all our expenses so that you can know how your donations are being spent. So far, we've spent just over $1000, with about half of that dedicated to the asbestos clean up. See below for the full details.
7. In case you're wondering what the lawnmower battery and hardware refer to, Samish Bay offered to let me try to fix an old DR mower they had tucked away in their barn loft. With the help of the asbestos work party, we were able to get it down and over to the farmstead. I was able to get it fixed up and working, and now I'll be able to use it on our property in exchange for keeping it maintained and bringing it over to Samish Bay when they need it. Thanks!
8. We also applied for a recent grant through the Human Links Foundation. It was a pretty short turn around between hearing about the grant and the due date. They were looking for farmers practicing sustainable agriculture with a strong financial need, so we hope our barn rebuilding efforts will fit what they are looking for. We will keep you updated if we hear anything back from them.
All in all, it's been a bit of a stressful week. Aside from the barn rebuilding efforts and insurance, I've also had to stay focused on my normal part-time job duties, and respond to a few emergent issues, such as a leaking roof at our rental house in Shoreline and a melted ignition wire on Jen's car. It's comforting to know that we can rely on continued community and friend support moving forward, because I think we're going to need it. Thank you all again!
8. We also applied for a recent grant through the Human Links Foundation. It was a pretty short turn around between hearing about the grant and the due date. They were looking for farmers practicing sustainable agriculture with a strong financial need, so we hope our barn rebuilding efforts will fit what they are looking for. We will keep you updated if we hear anything back from them.
All in all, it's been a bit of a stressful week. Aside from the barn rebuilding efforts and insurance, I've also had to stay focused on my normal part-time job duties, and respond to a few emergent issues, such as a leaking roof at our rental house in Shoreline and a melted ignition wire on Jen's car. It's comforting to know that we can rely on continued community and friend support moving forward, because I think we're going to need it. Thank you all again!
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