The cheese vat arrived yesterday, barreling down our driveway in the back of a Semi. It's now sitting in one of our barns, waiting patiently until the creamery is ready to house it. Having a vat is a pretty big accomplishment, so everything else should now fall into place, right?......Right?

The creamery room once housed a bulk tank for my dad’s cow dairy, which means we’ve had to clean up some old stuff in there that is no longer needed. This week my dad and I removed a tangle of stainless steel pipes from the ceiling that used to carry water for cleaning the tank. I stood on the ladder with the wrench-thingy, cringing as rust and spiders fell with the removal of each screw. It looks great now, like a blank slate. Now Dave can either, a) sand the wood ceiling down and paint it, or b) apply FRP panels. On one wall of the creamery is another mess of pipes that brought milk from the parlor into the tank. We thought about leaving those intact for the future installation of a bulk tank, but it makes more sense to remove them, hang on to them, and reattach them when the tank is needed. I'm trying to recycle as much reusable material as possible!

The room is now pretty bare except for a stainless steel sink, a wooden chair, and three weathered pictures that have been hanging in that room since forever. Two depict a rainforest, the third a vintage beer poster. They are completely out of place, which makes them very loveable. My dad removed one from the wall, saying we should throw them away. “No!” I said, “I like those…they’re so random, did you find them at a garage sale?” “What, these?” He said. “I made them in the 70's.” I made him re-hang the picture, because now I like them even more! I think they’ll add character to my new milk room.

Something I won’t mind changing at all? The bathroom.When I first showed the potential creamery space to Seana and Dave earlier this year, I looked in the bathroom for the first time in years. Truth be told, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. But I would still rather hold it when I'm milking than use that dark, unwelcoming bathroom.So another project we’ll face pretty soon is redecorating the bathroom. Priorities first, though, and that means finishing the creamery! I don't want to jinx it, but the permitting phase is near completion. County officials can be notorious for laying obstacles in front of projects, needlessly delaying them and exponentially increasing cost. Well...that seems to be pretty accurate. I'm sure Seana and Dave weren't expecting to be charged a $600 road-use fee, but that was another surprise thrown on top of the pile. To be honest, I thought the process would be smoother since we're starting with an existing, plaster-walled, cement-floored building. I'm glad to be sharing the experience with Seana! We just have to keep saying...it could be worse! I can't imagine starting from scratch.

Marissa