Building the Butchershop Part 2

In Part 1: https://steemit.com/homesteading/@goldenoakfarm/building-the-butchershop-part-1

I wrote about why we built the butchershop and how far we got the first 2 years.

This part will describe how and why we finished it as we did.

The first thing we discovered was the cheap meatsaw we’d bought new would absolutely not work for cutting up a cow. So we put it on Craigslist and sold it right off. We kept the meat grinder.

But before we did, we started hunting for a better replacement. The ones we found on e-bay were far more expensive, and we were constantly being beat out in bidding.

Then my husband found one that someone had converted to a metal bandsaw. He put a bid of $20 on it because he figured he’d get beat out for more than he could pay, and he did.

But about a month later he got an e-mail from the seller saying it had not been paid for and did he want it. It was in a town about 1 hour away and he said he’d be there in an hour!

It cost us, in addition to gas for the truck and the $20, about $300 to convert it back to a meat saw. It needed sliding SS tables, followers, blades, rewiring and repainting, and a base.

The next thing we found out was the mouse problem was going to make cleaning as things were very hard. We really needed to at least finish the ceiling.

The third thing we found out was that hanging meat in the butchershop was not going to work for 2 reasons:

• The mice could get to it from the beam
• If it got real cold, we couldn’t control the temperature for curing

So we applied for and got a grant in 2010 to finish the butchershop. This is the finished shop:

Starting at the door:

I painted the door and woodwork with several coats of gloss paint for easy cleaning. The storage cabinet got white paint and we put a washable shelf up.

We got a small fridge on Freecycle and a heater from a friend to keep us from freezing solid out there.

We ran outlets over the counters and painted the ceiling beams.

We hung fluorescent lights and wire racks for supplies.

The sink got a new faucet from Craigslist and a 7 gallon hot water heater. No more bowls of boiling water! The sink support was painted as were the bottoms of the sink bowls.

The bay window was covered with whiteboard and the window frames painted.

I found a big venetian blind for the copper window and 2 small ones for the side windows on Freecycle.

Venetian blinds drawn and windows opened on a hot Freezer Camp day for chickens.

The island was moved over to this area and it became the weighing and packing area.

And here we are back at the fridge by the door.

The problem of cleaning was greatly improved, the new meatsaw cut through cow bones with ease, but hanging meat where mice could get it, and having to work when it was far too cold to be cutting meat were still a problem.

So we solved that problem in April 2010 with money from the grant by building a cold room:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@goldenoakfarm/building-the-cold-room

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