Weekend of Progress

It was a productive weekend. :)

Friday evening we went to pick up the newest addition to our farm family. Camouflage (aka Cammie) is a six week old Shetland Sheepdog. She is very very cute and "already" very very spoiled.

On Saturday we went to town and picked up a few supplies then we spent the afternoon trimming the goats feet and giving annual vaccines. Saturday evening we went to the winter meeting for the Tahlequah Farmers' Market. There was a good attendance and it looks like it will be another great market year.

Sunday was a good day. We got door #7 installed on the dairy barn and we also got all of the batting strips up on the ceiling of the creamery. Daddy is working today on getting the first coat of paint on those and then some caulking and another coat of paint and the ceiling will be done.

This evening will be spent making final preparations for this horrible winter storm that is suppose to assault us beginning tonight. I will get all of the feed barrels filled during my lunch hour today then will stop by the grocery store on the way home this evening. Once we get home we will make sure that the diesel and fuel cans are full, the wood supply by the door is full, the generator is operating properly and all of the extension cords are handy. We will also make certain that all of the critters have their hay feeders full and are tucked snugly into their appropriate housing area.

I will be very glad when winter is over, but I am thankful right now that it is still a full three weeks before our kidding season begins.

Stay safe and warm! We'll report in as time and weather conditions allow.

DOORS

Can there ever be to many doors???? Maybe. :)

We are still working on the dairy barn and creamery. Tonight we plan to hang the "6th door" and maybe even get the "7th door" hung. That is a bunch of doors! Amazingly though, we use every single one of them already.

Here is how they add up:
* 2 doors into the creamery from the outside
* 1 door between the creamery and the milk room
* 1 door into the milk room from the outside
* 1 door between the milk room and the milk parlor
* 1 door from the milk parlor to the mechanical area
* 1 door from the milk parlor to the housing barn

We may have to add doors #8 & #9 which was in the original plan, but we are changing that plan just a bit and hopefully our dairy inspector will agree that the "New Plan" will work just fine if not better than the original one. :)

Greenhouse

We held a "Planting Party" with our kids last night. We had pizza and soda pop and lots of fun! And.......we even managed to get over 6,000 seeds planted and nestled into the greenhouse.

We should soon be seeing our little seedlings breaking through the soil and oh I can not wait to be tasting some of that "super" spinach, "lavish" lettuce and "gorgeous" greens! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. mmmm.........

Weekend Progress

We started out the weekend by gathering a few supplies for the construction project. When we got back home it was such a nice morning with NO wind, which has been the kind of morning that is hard to come by lately. With such a nice morning we decided to get the plastic on the greenhouse, which we should have already had done. We have been so caught up in working on the dairy stuff that garden stuff just kind of fell behind. Anyway, the greenhouse is now ready to go and we are holding a planting party in the greenhouse tomorrow evening complete with pizza and soda pop. :) Should be fun!

The creamery came a long way this weekend as well. All of the FRP is up in the creamery. Now we need to put the trim up on the ceiling and in the corners and put the base down. Creamery....90% complete!!!!!!!!!

The creamery walls before putting up the FRP panels.

The creamery walls after putting up the FRP panels.

Dairy Update

Well.....

The housing barn is complete!

The milk barn is probably 80% complete. We still have to install 3 doors, some curbs and paint again. Then it will be ready to hook up the milk line. Oh.......we need to install the septic system to.

The creamery is probably about 80% complete as well, but it should be about 90% complete by the end of the weekend. This weekend we will install the FRP (fiberglass panels) that will line the walls. After that it will just be running the wiring and plumbing and those are both going to be surface mount so although it is a job, it won't be that bad.

We hope to be finished with the above list of things by the end of the month, but in reality it will probably be closer to the middle of February. At that point it will just be a matter of waiting for our pasteurizer to be ready and after that we will need to get our final inspections and receive our permits to begin operation.

COLD COLD COLD

WOW! What miserable, cold weather we have been having. Saturday was fairly nice. Sunday started out nice but by about 3 or 4 o'clock that changed. Temps have been in the single digits and low teens since then. Now on Thursday, at 10:39 am, it is finally above 20 degrees. I sure hope this signals a warming trend.

All of the critters have faired well. All of the goaties have been holed up in their new housing barn. I sure am thankful for that this year. The other thing that I am thankful for is that for the first year EVER we did not breed to kid out in December and January. It feels so weird to not be milking and caring for babies in this arctic weather. We will start kidding out around the middle of February though, however, it is usually starting to warm fairly nicely by that time.

On Saturday we went to Missouri and picked up the FRP panels for the inside of the new creamery. After we left there we came back into Oklahoma and headed to Tulsa to Sam's to pick up the new prep tables and shelving units for the creamery.

On Monday since my work was closed, I got the first coat of paint on the ceiling of the new creamery. Dad helped me out and put another coat of paint on Tuesday. Last night Chrys caulked all of the nail holes on the ceiling and tonight we will put on the final coat of paint on the ceiling.

New Year!

It has been several days since I have posted and a LOT of things have been accomplished since my last blog.

* We have put up new metal siding on the wings of the milk barn. These wings will be the holding area/feed room and the exit area/mechanical room.

* The interior of the milk barn has been cleaned, all seems and joints have been caulked and the first coat of new paint has been applied.

* The interior stud walls of the new creamery are up, the insulation is in and the wafer board is up!

* We divided up the younger does who have not been bred yet and gave each of the young bucks their own harem. The first babies for the younger group should begin arriving around the 25th of May.

In other news - The mature girls are all starting to get big bellies. These girls should start kidding about February 22nd. I always love kidding season. It is so exciting to see what each doe has and there is absolutely nothing cuter than a baby goat.........except our grandbabies. :)

SOOO.....with kidding season fast approaching, it now becoming imperative that we get the dairy barn completed in a timely fashion. It'll happen. :)