Monday I had flashbacks to every moving day I have gone through in my adult life. Forklift-full by forklift-full our garage was emptied of all the cheese making equipment that had filled it from wall to wall and floor to ceiling for the last 4 months (the garage being the most accessible and securable location available). I spent the better part of the day in the creamery directing equipment unpacking and placement, answering “Yes, I do need this many cheese molds,” scouring discarded cardboard for missing bits of stainless steel, and racking my brains trying to recall where we intended this or that shelf to go. Of course it is during this process that forgotten items become apparent, so there was also lots of darting back to my computer and my ever faithful Nelson Jameson catalog to add to the growing list of “Still to Buy.”

Goat Barn Building 101

I must admit to being incredibly lucky at having the opportunity to design our barn from the ground up rather than modifying an existing building.  While our start-up costs are, for lack of a better word, astronomical, in the long term this barn will hold up better, be more efficient to use, and healthier for our animals.  Lots of thought went into the design of the building, and I am, again, incredibly lucky to have worked on several goat dairies whose various strengths and weaknesses directed the features included in the barn.

The Nuts and Bolts of Building a Creamery…

or the pea traps and drains, as the case may be.  That is the phase of construction that is underway now at Pennyroyal.  There are three systems of drains and piping that are being installed before foundations and the floor slabs can be poured.  The first is the domestic waste system, which handles water from the bathroom and takes it to our septic system.  The second is the largest, and will capture all the process water which will be pumped to a water treatment system.  The third system is a whey diversion line, which will allow us to collect whey to use as animal feed.