Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - Third Week of January 2017

This weekend we’ll run our first Sanctuary board meeting, providing our 7 member board with an overview of

Animals and activities
Financial
Legal
Infrastructure
Projects

Our strategic goals in 2017 are

Develop internship program
Develop educational programs
Develop additional funding possibilities
Develop standard intake process
Develop trail plan in collaboration with the Sherborn Rural Land Trust

Here’s a brief update about what we’ll tell them

In February we’ll take on another horse (Millie, a 20 year old Welsh Pony) and another pig (Penny, the 1 year old Yorkshire).    We’re making modifications to the existing layout to accommodate them.   Likely Millie will run with Sweetie, leaving Amber and Pippin together since they have bonded.   We’re enhancing the outdoor run ins and modifying the barn traffic flow so that 4 animals can easily come and go through the main barn entrance.   We’ve taken on two Bielefelder roosters and they are now integrated into the rest of the flock.    We’ve received requests to take on a few more horses and pigs, which we do not have the space to add over winter.   In the Spring we’ll finish another acre of paddocks/run ins, and hopefully we’ll have a standard intake process by then so the board can help decide which animals we take on permanently and which we help in the short term.

The initial sanctuary budgets are ready for board review and our plan for long term sustainability will be presented.

The 501c(3) IRS filing for the sanctuary has been done.

Last week we refinished all the wood floors and removed about a mile of unused legacy wiring that had powered a 1990’s in building Hi-Fi and video distribution system.   It seems that every property we take on has a endless phone wiring from the 1980’s, cable TV from the 1990’s and sound systems from the early 2000’s.    Now that it has all been pulled we have an electronic greenfield in the Sanctuary, enabling us to add educational technologies as needed.    We continue to improve the barns, fences, paddocks, and run ins with additional hardware and equipment to make daily animal care easier.

This week the dead trees threatening paddocks and buildings come down and we’ll grind them up to cover the paths we’re creating through the property.

It’s exciting to see it all take shape.   Every night we’re at the Sanctuary doing projects.   Every weekend we’re there when we’re not doing direct animal care.   Once the floors are done, the patching and painting of interior walls begins.   In the spring we’ll move to the outside, replacing roof shingles and repairing rot/woodpecker damage.    The big project will be redoing the barn roof, which is sagging.

February is generally the snowiest month in New England, so our project work will get harder.   The Terex PT 30 front loader will work overtime keeping the paddocks, roads, and trails clean.  

So far, so good.  No major surprises in the building of the Sanctuary and the adoption of animals while we’re building.