It's amazing to see it all coming together, isn't it?! How awesome! Are you going to internet market your products as well, or just local consumption? I ask because I'd be interested in purchasing some when the time comes 
Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter
- Thread starter babsbag
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- #22
babsbag
Herd Master
I would love to sell the cheese and chocolate truffles over the internet, just have to figure out shipping but I know it can be done.
A friend is coming on Thursday (if no jury duty) to start the site work for the new barn. We bought one of the fabric Quonset type barns and will be putting it on a 6' high pony wall so the goats can't reach the fabric. The barn is 30x40...massive...at least to me it is. I saw some of these when I visited NC last year and I really like them. It will be nice to be under one roof that doesn't leak. I will still have to build my bucks some shelter but I'll figure that out later. I will have three of them I think...at least two for sure.
One of the requirements for the dairy is a bathroom. OK, fine, but the dairy is below our septic tank so unless I pump the *** uphill I have a problem. But the problem has been solved. The inspector suggested that we just use an RV with a bathroom in it. Just so happens that my son has a trailer here that he is no longer living in, a nice trailer with all the creature comforts. We are going to buy it from him, take the bed out and put in a desk and make it an office, a bathroom, a place to stay during kidding season, and a refrigerator for storing meds. Perfect win win situation and he will let his mom make him payments.
The epoxy coating for the floor came today so that is next but first I have to figure out how to use a router to set the floor drain...
A friend is coming on Thursday (if no jury duty) to start the site work for the new barn. We bought one of the fabric Quonset type barns and will be putting it on a 6' high pony wall so the goats can't reach the fabric. The barn is 30x40...massive...at least to me it is. I saw some of these when I visited NC last year and I really like them. It will be nice to be under one roof that doesn't leak. I will still have to build my bucks some shelter but I'll figure that out later. I will have three of them I think...at least two for sure.
One of the requirements for the dairy is a bathroom. OK, fine, but the dairy is below our septic tank so unless I pump the *** uphill I have a problem. But the problem has been solved. The inspector suggested that we just use an RV with a bathroom in it. Just so happens that my son has a trailer here that he is no longer living in, a nice trailer with all the creature comforts. We are going to buy it from him, take the bed out and put in a desk and make it an office, a bathroom, a place to stay during kidding season, and a refrigerator for storing meds. Perfect win win situation and he will let his mom make him payments.
The epoxy coating for the floor came today so that is next but first I have to figure out how to use a router to set the floor drain...
How exciting!!
BlessedWithGoats
Herd Master
Sounds like an exciting time for you and your family!! 
- Thread starter
- #25
babsbag
Herd Master
@BlessedWithGoats Not sure that my husband would call this part of this project exciting. He is being a good sport and helping me build my dream but I don't think that this is how he ever envisioned retirement. He isn't retired yet but not far away.
He keeps asking me about my exit plan...![:\](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/side.png "side :\")
I tell him let's get it up and running before I try and figure out how to hand it off to someone else. He wants to travel and see the sites, I want to raise goats and stay home.
He keeps asking me about my exit plan...
I tell him let's get it up and running before I try and figure out how to hand it off to someone else. He wants to travel and see the sites, I want to raise goats and stay home.
bonbean01
Herd Master
Too bad your DH doesn't have the same future in mind that you do...I'd take your plan 
As far as shipping prices, that flat rate shipping might make it easier to figure out?
BlessedWithGoats
Herd Master
Aww!@BlessedWithGoats Not sure that my husband would call this part of this project exciting. He is being a good sport and helping me build my dream but I don't think that this is how he ever envisioned retirement. He isn't retired yet but not far away.
He keeps asking me about my exit plan...
I tell him let's get it up and running before I try and figure out how to hand it off to someone else. He wants to travel and see the sites, I want to raise goats and stay home.
It would be hard for me to choose between the two... I'd want both! - Thread starter
- #28
babsbag
Herd Master
@bonbean01 ...it is not the cost of the shipping, it is keeping it cold while it is in transit.
Moody
Loving the herd life
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Wow! You are my hero and such an inspiration. Anyone who has the guts to start their own business and comply with all the regulations of a grade A dairy deserves to be applauded.
I just want milk for our family and am just getting started but a business like yours sounds like a wonderful idea. Not out to be rich but break even and a little bit of $ for your time.
Can I be superbly nosy and ask how much all the equipment and setup is costing? I know milking equipment can be costly. Electric milker, pasteurizer, special rooms, meeting the special requirements... (trailers sound perfect for such a setup). I'm just curious (read, nosy).
I just want milk for our family and am just getting started but a business like yours sounds like a wonderful idea. Not out to be rich but break even and a little bit of $ for your time.
Can I be superbly nosy and ask how much all the equipment and setup is costing? I know milking equipment can be costly. Electric milker, pasteurizer, special rooms, meeting the special requirements... (trailers sound perfect for such a setup). I'm just curious (read, nosy).
- Thread starter
- #30
babsbag
Herd Master
I paid 20,000 for the trailer and the equipment to pasteurize and bottle milk. I will probably spend another 10,000 converting the office in the trailer to a processing room for cheese and buying the equipment for that and also buying the equipment to milk 6 goats at a time. I figure about 10,000 to build the trailer for the milk parlor and the milk house and the bulk tank and chart recorder. And another 5,000 for incidentals like water tank for waste water storage and cement for the path from the barn to the milk parlor.
I was able to get a loan from the USDA for a large chunk of this and my mother gifted me with some and the rest is pay as we go and tax refund.
Will I ever get rich doing this? Hardly. But on paper it should turn a pretty good profit and just getting the goats to pay for their own upkeep is money in my pocket. I am not expecting the dairy to support us, I am already retired and DH has a job for a few more years so they only have to pay for themselves; anything else is just a bonus.
It is a lot of work though and I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what in the world I am doing at my age building a dairy. I must be nuts.
I was able to get a loan from the USDA for a large chunk of this and my mother gifted me with some and the rest is pay as we go and tax refund.
Will I ever get rich doing this? Hardly. But on paper it should turn a pretty good profit and just getting the goats to pay for their own upkeep is money in my pocket. I am not expecting the dairy to support us, I am already retired and DH has a job for a few more years so they only have to pay for themselves; anything else is just a bonus.
It is a lot of work though and I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what in the world I am doing at my age building a dairy. I must be nuts.
