Went to see the herd last week. The kids are getting so big! Sophie and Faye's hooves were horrible! With my sisters help I was able to get them in somewhat good shape but I will be heading down once again at the end of this month to do everyone's hooves again. I've noticed that the sheep's hooves need a lot less maintenance and are less prone to foot rot and fungal infections. More pics after the jump.

I received a package in the mail the other day from the Town of Plattsburgh with all the complaint letters they received pertaining to our attempt to start a small sustainable farm on my families property on Cumberland Head behind Champlain Park. So I'm going to uploading each letter and writing a response. So without further adieu here is the first post in my "People Be Stupid" series.

If you can't read the above letter, here is a link to a larger sized version. Link

First off it’s vacant land of course it’s not going to be maintained to the same standards as an active farm. If we had been permitted to farm the land it would have been maintained!

Secondly we THOUGHT that we could put a couple animals on the property, the town codes and zoning laws are so complicated that even the people that enforce them don’t understand them! We originally were told that we had to get a variance and then after going through 2 zoning meeting we were told to go to the planning board instead because we needed an approved site plan! (Which needed to be drawn up by a certified engineer = to expensive. Then we were told we needed a water run-off study = even more expensive. So that’s what’s ultimately led to us giving up.)

Third, my Grandparents bought the land to one, prevent a development and two, so my grandfather could plant some crops (which he did). My grandfather maintained the land for MY families enjoyment, NOT for the people in the community. If we can no longer ENJOY the property why maintain it? Also, why does it matter if my mother doesn’t live in the area? She’s wasn’t the one planning on farming it. It was me and my husband who live less then a mile away. Side note: Before my grandfather died he was planning on building a barn so my sister could get a horse, we were only continuing where he left off. My grandfather grew up on a farm and he’d always wanted to get a few animals, but he didn’t have the time and my sister and I were to young to be of any help.

Forth, just because we planned on having chickens doesn’t mean they would have to deal with a rooster crowing. Meat birds mature at 8-12 weeks and roosters normally start crowing at around 12wks so they would most likely be processed before they got too loud (when they first start crowing you can barely hear them). Smell? animals kept on pasture don’t smell (much) and we only have 2 pigs!

In closing, people are stupid and these people especially. If they had any concerns they could have stopped and asked us! We were there every single day and my dad lives right next to the property. All they had to do was stop and ask us what our plans were and express their concerns and I would have been happy to explain to them the difference between sustainable and traditional-intensive farming.

Finally, what is these people's issues with deer, bunnies and foxes? OMG if you have an issue with wildlife move to the city, where you can deal with rats, raccoons and stray cats instead!

Check back soon for my next installment of "People Be Stupid".

When we went to load the pigs for the second time we figured everything would go a lot better then the first. We had a bigger trailer that's lower to the ground so the incline on the ramp was significantly less. We figured now that the ramp's incline was shallower Toony would just walk right up into the trailer... not. So we once again were chasing around a pig in my dad's backyard while I desperately held the rope tied to her back leg and then it began to rain.

We were at our wit's end, the wind was picking up and the lightning was getting closer. In a latch ditch cry for help, or friend Yvonne called a farmer she knows. After our farmer friend got over laughing at us for thinking a pig would willingly walk up a ramp and into a trailer, she told us to put a big bucket over the pig's head and back them up the ramp. At first we were thinking there was no way this was going to work, but wouldn't you know that within fifteen minutes we had BOTH Niles and Toony loaded. So thank you Betty! We bow to your superior knowledge. I wonder why none of the forums mentioned this method?

The trip down to aunt Chrissy's went well and Niles was easy enough to unload, but Toony, who was the hardest to load, took a few minutes to wake up and get her into their new home. When a pig is asleep they don't like to wake up for anything. Niles seemed to remember the electric fence and only took one shock on his noise to remind him to steer clear. Toony took a few shocks before she got the point, but she adapted surprisingly well. They fought a little the first week and Toony still won't let Niles into the hutch to sleep at night but other then that they are doing well.

The goats and sheep are doing well, the shetlands look ridiculous with their wool sheared, but they are a lot cooler now. Ollie got the stubs of his horns caught in the fence and they ripped a bit, but Jeff went and checked on him the other day a they look to be healing well. That is one of the reason if you want to dehorn your goat have it done professionally. Faye was dehorned but she doesn't have the deformed little stubs that Ollie does. Both Faye and Sophie are being great mothers and both the kids are doing great.

We also went and saw a little farm that's for sale in Pennsylvania. It's PERFECT, but unfortunately it can't be financed so we'd have to come up with $125,000 in cash to purchase it, which isn't really possible right now. We aren't writing it off completely, but I'm also not holding my breath that we'll be able to get it either. It's about 25 acres with one large pasture already set up for electric fencing and a large renovated barn. The house isn't anything special and needs A LOT of work, but it's livable.

It's been a rough few weeks with most of my animals now moved to western NY and me still stuck up here in Plattsburgh, but I'm hoping to get the house up on the market within the next couple weeks and hopefully it sells fast so I can join Jeff. I probably won't be posting much for a while, because I'm not doing much as far as farming goes. I still have the chickens but I'm going to be selling and or giving them away soon. There is really no point in transporting chickens that far when it will be easier just to buy new ones.

Speaking of chickens. ChickenStock is June 25th up in Heuvelton, NY. We won't be buying any chickens, but Aunt Chrissy wants us to pick up some Silkies for her. The last ChickenStock was a blast so we're really looking forward to this one.