“I sit behind a desk all week,” said Matthew Mead. “This is an opportunity for me to get away from my email, get away from my phone — to recharge. I get down on my hands and knees and play in the dirt.”

Gary Kleppel said that swine are “no more or less a potential nuisance” than any other livestock.

“We see deaths and dying and abuse, day in and day out,” said Brian Wood of emergency medical workers.

KNOX — On his 55th birthday, Aug. 27, Gary Salisbury quit his job as the Knox highway superintendent.

“It was because of the politics,” he told The Enterprise on Sunday. “The last couple of years were really tough … I cannot take the disrespect.”

“You wouldn’t go to court without a lawyer,” Ned Stevens told the Westerlo Town Board as it debated hiring a consultant to help develop its comprehensive plan.

The Westerlo Rural Cemetery may soon offer “green burials.”

Judge Ryan Fedele said that raising rabbits can let kids who live in cities or suburbs have a chance to tend to animals.

“I realized I wanted to take care of the larger planet,” Anne Rhoads said. “Protecting the forest would support the animals as well.”

For some of the kids from Albany’s South End Café, their trip next week to the Altamont Fair will be the first time they have seen a cow, or horse, or goat, or sheep.

Michelle Hinchey of Saugerties announced Sunday she has formed a committee to explore a run for State Senate.