The Stone Barn storage area finally complete

After much work sorting, organizing, and arranging, the barn storage area is compete.  Thanks to Mark's strength (which I lack) we now have a place to store all the extra "stuff" we use periodically.  All my gardening and planting stuff, canning supplies, camping equipment, Christmas decorations and more are stored here.  Most things are in plastic just in case the roof leaks.  Mark even strung lights for me!

I'm not sure if you can see my saddle stand and saddle next to the bench...waiting for a horse or two.

We will have a true, old fashioned "summer kitchen" in the old milk house.  I will be able to can veggies, applesauce, jams and jellies there.  We hope to make wine and cheese there too. Mark will be able to butcher both deer and cattle in this space.  Not at the same time of course!

Since it was a professional milk house, it has all the appropriate and legal drains in the floor, stainless steel sinks that were necessary to pass FDA milking inspections.  We will add a stainless steel table and shelving system (so it can all be washed down and bleached) for food safety.  We have not sold the huge 400 and 600 gal vats yet, so the photos I have are not what it will look like.  Once we get the equipment out and our fridge, freezer, table, and shelves in place, I'll take a photo so you can see it.

We are still working on cleaning out the pole barn and setting up Mark's workshop and our workout room there.  We hope to have it cleaned out enough that when I'm in St. Louis next weekend, Mark can take his time and get his work benches set up.  Then he'll start with our universal weight machine.

It's been so tough on him trying to find the box with the right tools in it for us to move forward with setting up our home.  In hindsight, we should have set his workshop up first; however, that room is the only space in the pole barn that has a cement floor.  We had boxes and furniture that needed to be on a dry surface (not moisture-holding gravel), so the room filled up quickly. We are now down to just a few items in his way, so after we finish scrapping, caulking, painting and cleaning windows we can move on to that project.

I'm looking forward to my visit to St. Louis next weekend!  See you soon!