Sizing up the Mess Part 1: The Main Gate

Hi There Everybody,

It is time to have a look at the work that needs to be done to clean up the mess from last years chutzpah. To start with there are 2 areas of concern:

The gate and areas of soft ground caused by stagnant pools of water.

There is one more area but this is outside of the site, it is course the access road into the site which is waterlogged, potholed, muddy etc.

Here in Part 1, however, I only want to talk about the Main gate, because it is quite clearly a big mess. It is quite hard to do and involves a fair bit of money. You can have a look at the site and its condition in this panorama below:

Click for a larger version



This panorama shows what I am talking about here, the gate which is to the left and the building which is to the right whilst at center is the hut, the vantage point for this photo.  You can't see much from this picture, mostly because all of the damage, apart from the gate, is soil related being softened by continuous rains since November and likely to continue until March.

The Gate.

By far the most difficult and demanding task to fix is the gate. The gate wasn't destroyed per se, but dismantled to allow a trailer access into the site in Early October. Below is a picture of the gate shortly after completion:

The gate is supported by wooden posts which are part of the fencing, it is bolted to the posts by through holes drilled into the wood. Why is this significant you might ask, is because the posts, if you look at the above picture have been knocked over. Below is a picture of the gate as is today.

The posts and their concrete footing have been removed entirely from the ground and putting them back into the hole where thy came from would only mean that the width of the gate is the same  This isn't so much of problem until you consider the fact that the trailer that destroyed the gate was poorly maneuvered. Below is a picture of the said lorry.

Notice the comparison between the gate width in this picture compared with the above picture. The posts in the former photo are spread out further and their concrete footing is visible, meaning that they have been removed entirely.










Repairs


Repairing this mess will cost money. I am not happy with the lorry driver, I can insist that he pay for repairs but really they cannot afford it. If anything, it is the buyer who should pay, but even then, this kind of thing only makes doing business difficult and in the end only ruins business relations. Do you trust the buyer? Perhaps, but I would rather not have to worry in future about doing business simply because of some issue with the gate. Furthermore if the lorry driver's incompetence is anything to go by, you can be assured that other drivers are also just as incompetent and useless and even if that is not the case, I don't want to wait and find out.


In the end the only thing that can be done is to repair it and move on. Does the responsible party have to pay anything? That is something I will have to find out. What about attributing blame? Who is to blame, if its me who needs to be blamed,  yes I can accept it, because if no one takes any responsibility, I still have to anyway. Either way I lose out. I don't have a gate, and I cant take deliveries or send anything out, especially now after being hammered by this weather.

In fact, I have already asked for repairs to be made. the new gate will be wider, the entrance made bigger so as to allow drivers more room to maneuver. The new gate will slide on rails and not be hinged. There is a few more trees to be felled. And more concrete to be poured, but until work begins, I will just have to wait with bated breath and all.




Up next: Another visit to another Milking station

How Ice cream is made.

Travel Day 20/12/2011 KL-Lumut

Just a short trip for a couple of days to check on everything. I will be putting up a posting about damage to the site and previewing actions in the next few days. Also need to get this truck serviced, it sounds a bit off.

A Visit to A Milking Station.

 As Part of my research into doing the Milk Project, We start by visiting several Farms that do daily Milk collection to do a few things.

The First thing that we do is we actually have a look at Some Milk Cows. Now, Everybody has seen what a Milk Cow looks like because they see one printed on the side of the milk carton everytime they go to the fridge. Seeing them in Real life however is much different of course, the first thing that you must do is to get used to the fact that this thing is going to look at you as if you have some kind of problem with it, then it is going to get on its legs and 'Go Away'.

The next thing we are going to have a look at is the Milking Parlor. We will have a look at this Farms simple setup and also look at the buildings that he has constructed. We need to get a feel for the kinds of operation that he is conducting, on a daily basis and look at how the money is spent such that I have a rough idea of the types of equipment to buy, the structures to build and at the right quantity or sizes.


Animals

 This is a Guernsey Breed Milk Cow According to the owner
The average Amount of milk produced per day is 10 liters. It is seen here munching on the undergrowth. This is not the proper diet of the Animal of course. For a milk cow the diet has to be one consisting of high protein feed. For this case the proper feed would be Napier Grass.

 The Herd's Head Bull or else it is one of several studs kept by the farm, but I didn't see any others so I'll assume that this is the Dominant Male for this herd. Quite a cute fella actually, and this puny picture doesn't do any justice to my photography.






According to the owner several of the Animals are from across the Border to the North. This is one of them he says. I didn't see all of the animals so I'm not sure if this what his herd mainly consists of. Apparently, there are roughly 30 milk cows being kept on his farm.







Young calves are separated from their mothers and kept in cages such this one.They are bottle fed until they reach a certain size to a breeder or kept as breeding stock at the farm. The goal is to get the Milk of course so the Milk used in the bottle feed is not Mother's milk but a milk replacement.
             

One year old breeding stock grazing Once the Animal is made pregnant, the cycle of milk production begins. Notice how clean the animals all are. Hygiene is of the utmost importance in Milk production. So is treatment for diseases. A typical herd of Milk cows may be medicated every 2 months. Any contaminated milk is not accepted by the collection centers and is disposed of. 

SCAMMER#2: BLACKMAIL'S r US.

In The Beginning: 2011 a year in Review.