Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Pictures from the file

The fellow in front of the blue tractor is Isaac Dozier

This file contained a number of pictures, two of which I've posted above.  So far no surprises there; yep, we feed fruits and vegetables to pigs.  Yep, we dump the material, and then distribute it via tractor to various groups of pigs around the farm.
Yep, the uneaten portion is mixed with more wood chips and windrowed, eventually composting.  We get a few tons a day, on average, so on any given day you'll find some fruit or vegetables in each stage:  Just delivered, fed to pigs, post-pig, composted.    One thing that the pictures do is to give you an idea of what they're looking at.  The hand-written notes also help. 
This is an interesting picture.  The county road, to the left side, is impervious.  When it rains the water runs off it.  When the county did the road they didn't raise it above the area around it, nor did they install a ditch to contain the runoff from the road.  So when the health department comes over and takes this picture, road runoff is assumed to have come from my property. 

My experience has been that if you ask one of these enforcement people about what they're after, they're often very coy about it.  It's a double-secret violation -- why, if they told you, you might correct the violation.  I can't say what they're thinking, but I've been left with that impression repeatedly. 
Here the health department is looking at google maps, but notice that they're looking at a line that is 200' from the front of the property.   The statute that they cited me with says that I have to be 200' from any water, so I think they're doing the math and found out that I'm more than 500' from any water.   They have been very rigorous in their examination of my farm.    I'm curious if they consider grazing animals a violation.  I'll have to ask them.   No stone left unturned. 

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