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Touring the New Farm

The name is now official.  We toured the new warehouse last night, the chillers are ready to go and are being tested as we speak, the freezers are nearly done, another week or so, and they too will be fully online.  The farm kitchen is also ready for use.  

The new milking shed concrete apron is still curring and the contractor will begin assembling the building in about a week, there are some unforeseen design issues that need to be resolved as per the milking equipment manufacturer.  Nothing really terrible but something we need to take into consideration.  Two unused buildings on the new farm have been converted into dairy barns, We are keeping the groups separate, and a third barn is being converted for calves.  They are a few hundred meters from the milking shed, but usually, the cows themselves will make their way to the milking shed.  

This morning we had a quick conference with the contractor and architect for the new quarters we are building in the house for our daughter and her family.   Last week the plumber and electrician brought services to the new apartment.  Our daughter plans to have her bedroom on the top floor, with two small bedrooms nearby, for when her children are young, and more bedrooms on the upper floor.  

In other news, when we neared the farm, maybe 5 miles away we saw massive construction activities.  5 miles appears far, except when you have a 1,200-acre farm.  It seems that some enterprising fellow had decided to build what is called "low-density condos" not entirely sure what that means, but Jennifer tells us that its rental properties are very much like the old council estates out here, far from the metropolis.  Jennifer found out that they would be ready by the end of the summer.  Jennifer is very happy about that because it could be a very good location from which we could hire more workers.

January has simply been spectacular in terms of revenues for our dairy and meat products.  Prices have risen by nearly 15% over the past year (again we don't control prices, they are determined by auctions).  Still, we had to sign new insurance claims for the 500 pounds of goat cheese and 3,000 litres of goat milk.  The insurance rep came over on Friday and was bitching a little about the destruction of the goat cheese and milk.  Jennifer, in jest, offered to sell it to the insurance company and they could give it to their employees.  He changed his tune, it seems he was happy for the market to take the contaminated product, but he would not.  We claimed for the hours our workers put in £ 4,000, and we claimed for the destroyed cheese, and milk  £ 9,000.  We had already claimed the two goats  £ 600.  Insanely large amount for three cretins trying to give our goats their freedom.

In other news, the auction of our surplus equipment brought in a surprising, £ 30,000, and Jennifer found 17 tractor implements that she was planning to buy this year since we were short.  

This afternoon, I have a meeting with my accountant and fund manager.  The tax season is upon us, and we have to make some tax treatment choices.  I am also having dinner with my bank manager, it's our once-a-year get-together.  We are usually four or five clients, all local farmers and we enjoy a pleasant evening.  I will usually sleep in town because driving after these dinners is ill-advised.  My wife is leaving for Cambridge on the 1.30 train to spend the night with our daughter.  It's usually a bit of a shopping trip for our daughter and dinner.  Tomorrow mid-morning, I will pick up my wife from the train station.  My wife has found a convenient B&B right next to our daughter's college.   

Note:  The tractor implements are old but serviceable, they will need adaptors so that they can be used on modern equipment, but the conversion kits are cheap

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