Post by thystledown on Jan 14, 2017 14:41:58 GMT -5
I posted this pic for another purpose and then thought it might be fun to give a tour of my new milkhouse. I've enjoyed seeing other people's pics of their milking set up. This is still a work in progress. What isn't on a farm? So in tour fashion, let me tell you what you are seeing. (I should have made a before pic). The stuff sticking up in the middle of the floor is where the water came up for my barn before there was a milkhouse. It is not an ideal location, but I had to work around it. There is a hose bib at the bottom of the pic to which we connect a hose to fill the outdoor stock tanks. That is where the drain is. The cabinets at the left were salvage from a house that had a fire. They are two short cabinets stacked. I put the 2-quart jars, lids, rings, and filter box in there. Also the masking tape and marker for dating the jars when filled. We put the paper towel holder there to be handy but away from water spray. Next is the on-demand water heater. It is the largest one that my electrical service will support--so not as big as I'd like. But I use a washing machine hose with a spray attachment on it (you can see the spray head hanging off the far side of the little cabinet that comes next to the water heater. That chokes back the amount of water being used but still gives me a great spray pressure. I got the spray head at a garden show. The little cabinet that looks like a medicine cabinet my husband built to protect the circuit breaker box from water. This whole wall was the outside of my barn. The bright blue thing under the water heater is a water filter with my rubber gloves hanging on the pipes and the milker claw hanging on a valve (It works!) In the upper corner is the electric heater that has a thermostatic control to keep the room from freezing up. It has a metal shield to keep it from melting the insulation on the hot water pipes. However, underneath the milking machine bucket and milk strainer that are drying on a rack my husband built, you will see the head of a propane heater we use when we are working in the milkhouse. The electric heater keeps the room at about 36 degrees. We warm it up to comfortable with no coat working temp with the propane when we are there. Some cleaning agents sit there too, but mostly I use liquid dish soap. Occasionally though I do use bleach or vinegar or commercial acid for dairy equipment on the machine. The sink is from the farm I grew up on. (But the milker bucket did fit in my kitchen sink before I had this milkhouse). I have a hose quick connect on the faucet to facilitate attaching (and removing) the spray hose mentioned before quickly. Under the sink are the 5 gallon pails I put skim milk in to clabber for the animals. (Chickens eat the clabber much better than liquid). There is an old mesh strainer for scooping the clabber out of the whey on top of the farthest pail. (We just dump the whey right now as we don't have a pig. I haven't tried feeding it to the beef cows like someone on here said they do). The brushes hang on the wall and over the sink. some tools, including the dish soap dispenser sit in the window. That is a dishwasher top rack that hold my cream separator parts while they dry after washing. The old fridge. I put meds and horse grooming supplies and things like that that I don't want to freeze over the winter on top of that. To the left of the cabinets you see is the door to the barn (actually to a tack room full of saddles and then into the barn). The outside door is opposite the sink. I do have to leave it cracked to let out steam when I am cleaning. I have plastic over the windows in the winter for insulation, but can open them in the summer (have mesh over them to stop flies from getting in then too). My dad built the room before he died. A friend (married to a relative) helped us wire and insulate it and put up the interior walls/ceiling which are advantek roofing sheets. My mom painted the walls/ceiling. My new husband (both my late husband and father died during the construction of my barn--but not from the work! ) My new husband insulated the barn wall and installed everything else. He also built my portable vacuum pump and put in the stantion and other stuff for the milking area (another tour). Thanks for visiting!
Edited to add a picture of the other two walls:
Edited to add a picture of the other two walls: