We Have Been Approved!

The first official stage of our venture into cheesemaking has passed the muster. After several communiques with the Oregon Department of Agriculture we submitted our construction/renovation plans for the Milk Barn/Cheese Making Facility early last week. This morning we received a phone call from the ODA to tell us that the plans have been approved.

What does this mean? Well it means that the layout we have designed to incorporate all of the construction elements of the PMO has passed the ODA's regulatory assessment. This means things like overall layout, position of rooms, access routes and walkways, location of doors, position and number of sinks, etc is done. It also means that our construction materials, wall coatings, etc have been OK'd too.

Some of the extra safety precautions we had included proved to be unnecessary, but we will include them just the same. This is a huge weight off our shoulders because it means that we can essentially secure our general contractor now and actually begin construction. Our plans have been passed down to an ODA rep in Grant's Pass who will be scheduling a visit in the not too distant future.

As I mentioned before, the roofing contractors are due to begin Monday so its full steam ahead. On another funny note, one of the 4 ewes who had not lambed gave birth to twins out in the fields today. That was completely unexpected. Both are doing well despite being delivered in appaling weather conditions (we've had rain and there was snow dropped overnight on the surrounding hills).

All in all its been a good week as we found out from our vet that our chief sheep herder Marlowe has finally come back negative for Valley Fever. We'll continue with the rest of the medicine he's on until its gone, but after 2 years and plenty of aggrevation, we might have finally seen the end of it.