This morning our first delivery of cheese making equipment arrived from Fromagex in Quebec, much of it having first made the trip from France to Canada, before working its way through U.S. Customs. I also received a call from the company shipping the stainless steel draining tables we had fabricated by Custom Metalcraft to set-up a delivery date for later this week.The pasteurizer should be arriving at the port in southern California in a few weeks. In short, everything is starting to come together. Inside the creamery progress continues as well.

On January 4th, the insulation installer arrived to fill the stud bays of both aging rooms with a pink foam which hardened by the afternoon. A second layer of soft blown insulation was applied the following day. Our own crew then installed sheets of rigid foam to the studs, so that each room is now surrounded by three layers of interior insulation and one layer of exterior insulation. In the adjacent rooms our electrical contractor and our own crew have continued to work on wiring and plumbing respectively.

Our hose stations will be fitted with both hot (180F) and cold water, with a mixer unit which will allow us to set the temperature of the water specific to the cleaning process. Choosing the mixing unit meant we had to re-evaluate some of the hose locations to get adequate clearance between the hose and the floor (so that hoses don’t touch the floor, and possibly interfere with drainage, when hung on the hose rack). Our lead construction crew member, Alvaro, merely shook his head at us as we debated placement. At this point I think he has just come to expect alterations and modifications every time we walk through the door.

Outside lights were wired, and it was an exciting day when I pulled up one evening to see the exterior light fixtures in place and illuminated. In the aging rooms, our crew battled the below freezing temperatures with portable heaters, encouraging the adhesive paper that creates a water proof barrier between the insulation and wall studs and the high humidity of the aging room environment. Over this water proof barrier a layer of radiant cooling tubing is being installed. We are hoping that the combination of radiant cooling in the floors and the walls, along with the intense insulation job will minimize or even eliminate the need for using the air conditioning units. This will give us greater control of both air movement, and reduce how much drying takes place (as air conditioning units remove moisture from the air). The mechanical contractors are moving in this week, to begin installation of our glycol cooling system for the aging rooms and our air conditioning units. Finally, we are getting closer to the finishing stages of construction, which is a good thing, since we are now 30 days from kidding season.

Bring on the creamery and bring on the milk!