Our kidding season is fast approaching. In about two weeks, we’ll have goat kids on the ground (and, Lord willing, a calf in June) and that means MILK — and also LOTS of cheese.
Last year, we started with a small wine cooler as a cheese cave. Then, we co-opted a freezer with a temperature controller gizmo on it. Still not big enough, with only 9 does in milk. This year, we are anticipating 17 does and one cow in milk, so now we have graduated to a 6′ x 8′ walk-in cheese cave! We’re excited.
Our cheese cave is a Cool Bot brand walk in cooler. It came a few months ago in pieces, and has been stacked in a corner of our barn until our friend Chris Lambert could come and put it together for us. Last weekend, he did! It was a big jigsaw puzzle at first.
The first step was to create the base of the unit. The pieces fit together using cam locks, but it’s really necessary to get the floor dead level.
We had done the basics ahead of this day, but Chris still had to do more work to level the sand beneath the unit before it could be erected.
Once the floor was level, the sides started to go up quickly. One corner gave trouble, but most of the rest of the sides, and the roof, were pretty easy.
Here is the shell, all erected. That hole on the right is where an air conditioning unit will fit. This will cool the interior to a temperature controlled by the Cool Bot controller.
The door is really heavy duty and loaded with safety features so that no grandchildren can get trapped within. (Even if they did, it’s not airtight, nor will the temperature be freezing, but it would be scary, so we’d like to avoid that! 😉 )
I think it will take awhile for Scott to fill this with cheese. Basic exterior dimensions are 6′ x 8′. Plenty of room for cheeses!