Hog update

I meant to post this last night, but the internet wasn't working. Sorry to keep you all waiting.

This morning was the meeting of the board of Supervisors, to discuss and vote on the hog confinement planned for next door. Dad and Mom both took off from work and the whole family went, except, of course, for our dearly departed sister(dancing in MS) and our brother (independent working man). So we got the boys all dressed in clean clothes and went down to the county court house.

The meeting only lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, and most of that was made up of us on the opposing side giving our arguments, again. And again, Mr. ------ said very little. His building contractor spoke for him, and one other person, but they didn't have much to say. It was pretty tense- the two speakers were not rude as they were last time, but more forceful. It was implied by the opposing side that we would go to court if the board approved the CAFO. The board members again didn't seem to care about health issues; the reason that seemed to most motivate them to vote against the CAFO was mainly the force and size of the opposition, -us. We were told that on average, in our county there is a livestock operation for every square mile, but this is the first time that there have been so many people living near the proposed site, and that those people have been so strongly against it.

It has been such a weird day!

There were maybe thirty people at the meeting on the opposing side, and only about seven on the other side. The board is made up of seven people, and so we needed four votes against the CAFO to win.


We got five!



We won round two, and we really(really, really, really, really) hope there will not be a round three. There is a strong possibility that Mr. ------ will go to court. So I'm not sure how much we should celebrate, but I am very glad that we won. It was a surprise to us that we actually got five votes. We are all very happy with our district supervisor, who said strait out, "These people are in my district and I'm voting against it." We are all for voting him back in next election day! So now some of the pressure is off. Our neighborhood is having a "celebrate fresh air" party some time next week, and for now we just have to keep our eyes on Mr. ------ and watch for a lawsuit.



I went outside today and I breathed fresh air! Hallelujah! The skies were blue and there was no smell! Thank you, Lord! There is still a plain cornfield next door- I love you, cornfield! I'll never complain about the view again! I love our house, our land, our neighbors, and our God!