March 8, 2008
Hi Folks,
Here is the milkhouse. You can see where we took out the milk tank a few weeks ago. We had to replace a few planks after knocking out the wall. The original siding was untreated popular.
All I had on hand was maple so it looks a little funny. I'll just let it weather. I like the look.
That is a milk filter on the right and a old Surge bucket on the left. Those are my idea of decorations.
Here is the inside of my milking parlor. It's a flat barn. As you can see, I milked in self locks.
Those are 72 cubic foot bags of potting soil. In our spare time in winter, we fill hanging baskets so we can save time when the crunch comes in March.
By the way, You wouldn't want one of these big bags to freeze. It takes until July to thaw them if they freeze through to the center. That's why we keep them in the milking parlor.
Also in my milking parlor. This is a skid of hanging baskets that we filled when the weather was too poor to work outside.
Here is a relic on the wall in my milking parlor. The Dane County, Wisconsin Holstein club used to give these out with membership renewals. I aquired this decades ago and thought it made a nice decoration.
I also slipped a good show cow out of the same farm from right under the noses of some very famous Wisconsin showman. She was too close to their homes in Wisconsin, they saw her but couldn't SEE her.
I doubt there are many herds left in Dane County now as that's where Madison is located.
Here is an outside view of my calf barn taken this morning after stacking up the snow.
Here is an inside view of the same calf barn. It's been permanently converted to a meeting room. We use that for grower meetings and other community events. It handles about 150 people.
You can probably see my frost free waterer on the left. It's the green thing at the left end of the third church bench.
Another view of the interior of the calf barn/meeting room.
Here some excess snow that I piled up this morning. I have many more piles like this.
Here we are looking into our smallest greenhouse. There are about 2000 hanging baskets in there. As they grow we will space them out. Ultimately they will be 24 inches on centers.
Here is an inside view of the same greenhouse. The tank in the center is fertilizer water, 20-20-20 at 300 ppm of Nitrogen. It's a pretty darn crowded workspace.
And that's it for today! Thanks.
Kindest regards,