OT- Building a residential walk in refrigerator and meat processing room - OT

Botch · March 2019

Sea2Ski said:

SGH said:

@Sea@Sea2Ski
Simply a great addition my friend. Question if I may. Are you going to use the room as a mini abattoir as well? If so, that’s even more awesome my friend.

@SGH whenever possible, we try to kill the animal without having to transport it live, although that Has not always worked out to this point. So we will kill in the field/nearby if possible and then go from there. We do have a slaughterhouse 10 mins away which we can take the blood and guts to after disembowelment for just a couple of bucks which is really nice. So, this room is going to be for hanging/holding the animal(s) until butchering and then butching as well.
And anything else you want to hold and keep cold.

You reminded me of this little incident that happened in Ogden a few years ago:
https://www.standard.net/news/local/throwback-thursday-police-called-after-man-butchers-cow-in-his/article_d7ba9fae-1680-5213-8dac-d9ba7ea7f3fc.html
I remember following the story, it got over 900 comments on the Standard's website, lotsa fun!
Enjoying the build, wow!

nolaegghead · March 2019

Botch said:

Sea2Ski said:

SGH said:

@Sea@Sea2Ski
Simply a great addition my friend. Question if I may. Are you going to use the room as a mini abattoir as well? If so, that’s even more awesome my friend.

@SGH whenever possible, we try to kill the animal without having to transport it live, although that Has not always worked out to this point. So we will kill in the field/nearby if possible and then go from there. We do have a slaughterhouse 10 mins away which we can take the blood and guts to after disembowelment for just a couple of bucks which is really nice. So, this room is going to be for hanging/holding the animal(s) until butchering and then butching as well.
And anything else you want to hold and keep cold.

You reminded me of this little incident that happened in Ogden a few years ago:
https://www.standard.net/news/local/throwback-thursday-police-called-after-man-butchers-cow-in-his/article_d7ba9fae-1680-5213-8dac-d9ba7ea7f3fc.html
I remember following the story, it got over 900 comments on the Standard's website, lotsa fun!
Enjoying the build, wow!

How naive! Everyone knows you rig up a kill room before you slaughter something. Didn't he watch Dexter?

nolaegghead · March 2019

*For high density urban areas.

Sea2Ski · March 2019

Did not get as much done as I wanted today. 2.5 hour round trip and picked up the wall panels, lights and a few other things for the build.

The panels are now being stored the room directly above the refrigerator.

When we got it back to the house, we discovered there was a pig escape. Not one, but two got out. Even with 5 people, it took 1.5 hours to get them back in the pen. It may have taken 15 mins, but when we got them to the gate the first time, the other pigs inside were there and we could not risk letting them out. So then we had to lure those inside away with food... blah blah blah...... what a pain. After all that, we had to fix where they got out and then finally unload the trailer.

Not as productive of a day as I had hoped. But another few tasks were crossed off the list.

northGAcock · March 2019

Sea2Ski said:

Did not get as much done as I wanted today. 2.5 hour round trip and picked up the wall panels, lights and a few other things for the build.

The panels are now being stored the room directly above the refrigerator.

When we got it back to the house, we discovered there was a pig escape. Not one, but two got out. Even with 5 people, it took 1.5 hours to get them back in the pen. It may have taken 15 mins, but when we got them to the gate the first time, the other pigs inside were there and we could not risk letting them out. So then we had to lure those inside away with food... blah blah blah...... what a pain. After all that, we had to fix where they got out and then finally unload the trailer.

Not as productive of a day as I had hoped. But another few tasks were crossed off the list.

The great pig escape and no pictures? Say it didn’t happen.

20stone · March 2019

Sea2Ski said:

Did not get as much done as I wanted today. 2.5 hour round trip and picked up the wall panels, lights and a few other things for the build.

The panels are now being stored the room directly above the refrigerator.

When we got it back to the house, we discovered there was a pig escape. Not one, but two got out. Even with 5 people, it took 1.5 hours to get them back in the pen. It may have taken 15 mins, but when we got them to the gate the first time, the other pigs inside were there and we could not risk letting them out. So then we had to lure those inside away with food... blah blah blah...... what a pain. After all that, we had to fix where they got out and then finally unload the trailer.

Not as productive of a day as I had hoped. But another few tasks were crossed off the list.

Two more comments on this:

You are now an honorary member of Team NFA (slogan - There's only one thing we don't do). When your project requires a gooseneck trailer, clearly there is NFA going on. Well done, sir.
As for the pigs, I don't know about you, but if I watch someone spend a few weeks building a room in which to chop me up, I am going to go all Papillon on you (or, for a more current reference, all Dannemora on you).

Awesome project!

Sea2Ski · March 2019

Made more progress. Front wall framed in, cooling system and cement board installed.

Inside looking out

Outside looking in.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/7f/o1ys2mqazzak.jpeg

Now we we are caught up to where we wanted to be on Saturday late afternoon.

Is it possible to hijack your own thread? Anyway...
got a call from a guy who wanted to try raising mangalistas but decided to get out after one litter. He was selling the mother super cheap because she was costing him money. Took a look at her, saw her in person and other than being a bit flat footed from being on concrete, looked good. For the basement low price that included delivery, she was sold. Here she is next to the litter which was born in September. We will breed her with a Berkshire boar, and after the 3 month, 3 week and 3 day gestation period we should have 6-9 more small ones. Once weaned, she will hang out in the cooler.

northGAcock · March 2019

Sea2Ski

Is it possible to hijack your own thread? Anyway...
got a call from a guy who wanted to try raising mangalistas but decided to get out after one litter. He was selling the mother super cheap because she was costing him money. Took a look at her, saw her in person and other than being a bit flat footed from being on concrete, looked good. For the basement low price that included delivery, she was sold. Here she is next to the litter which was born in September. We will breed her with a Berkshire boar, and after the 3 month, 3 week and 3 day gestation period we should have 6-9 more small ones. Once weaned, she will hang out in the cooler.

A flat footed pig? Now you can’t have that can ya?

sumoconnell · March 2019

It puts the lotion on the skin

bangor307 · March 2019

The triple D's for gestation, you are no amateur!

20stone · March 2019

With some experience with Manga's, there is a reason people try and then switch, from pure bread, at least.

The meat is phenomenal, but some of the things you may be looking for are lacking. For ours, at least, the belly was unusable as bacon/pancetta because of the fat content. It was ~80-90% fat. Also, for such a big pig, the loin (chops), while very, very tasty, are smaller than you would expect.

You will also have a TON of extra fat (likely 40 lbs on that big girl), so if you are a hunter, you will be well equipped for blending awesome fat into whatever lean game you come home with.

Good news - If you are going the charcuterie route, you will have lots of great stuff to work with, and you will have really, really good sausages (if you are in a rush) or salumi (if you are patient) with the quality of the meat and the fat.

FWIW, for the charcuterie, bigger is better.

TN_Egger · March 2019

Awesome project. Question: Is this your full-time gig or are you doing this evenings and weekends? You seem to be making great progress.

thetrim · March 2019

Fahkin savage!

NPHuskerFL · March 2019

I'm totally digging this Mark! Just a thought for controls on this for you KE2 + dft
It offers a lot and can be monitored if you hook it up to your network.

http://ke2therm.com/product/ke2-temp-defrost/

YEMTrey · March 2019

TN_Egger said:

Awesome project. Question: Is this your full-time gig or are you doing this evenings and weekends? You seem to be making great progress.

He does this to get a break from chopping and stacking firewood.

northGAcock · March 2019

YEMTrey said:

TN_Egger said:

Awesome project. Question: Is this your full-time gig or are you doing this evenings and weekends? You seem to be making great progress.

He does this to get a break from chopping and stacking firewood.

Yeah....after he finished his masonry project.

Sea2Ski · March 2019

@20stone yes, the mangas are a lard pig. We have had the same experience as you with the quality of the meat, but lacking the quality. As for the lard, right now, we have 7 yes 7, 5 gallon buckets of lard. This is also why we crossed it with a Berkshire boar. Both are great tasting and hope to get a great cross. So far, the litter we have, although none have been butchered are coming in nice. From the manga side, they are super hardy, rooting and self sufficient, but did not get the aggressiveness. From the Berkshire side they have the temperament, are more muscular than the mangas, and are growing a bit faster. We will not know till we process one if we have a winning mix for us.

@TN_Egger as @YEMTrey and @northGAcock so eloquently stated, no this is not my full time gig. This is a project we are working on when we can. Never built anything like this. Did a bunch of research, and went all in on it. We have the animals (which has now got a bit out of hand) and so we thought this is/was the next step to take. Otherwise, I am in IT and am oncall 24x7x365 unless on vacation, and sometimes even then. I love projects. The bigger the better, and the less automation/technology it has, the more I like it. This is a good one.

Sea2Ski · March 2019

NPHuskerFL said:

I'm totally digging this Mark! Just a thought for controls on this for you KE2 + dft
It offers a lot and can be monitored if you hook it up to your network.

http://ke2therm.com/product/ke2-temp-defrost/

Thanks for that link! I am going to have to read up on that product a bit more to learn about it to see everything it does. I really appreciate you offering up that information!

Matt86m · March 2019

And here I am trying to get a small dorm size fridge going to dry age meat in my garage,,,,,Awesome venture

nolaegghead · March 2019

Man, I love to play "Keep up with the Jones's" but I live on a 32 x 150 foot plot. You guys are killing me.

Love it, though. Sometimes one must live vicariously and hope to get invited to the party.

Sea2Ski · March 2019

Electric ran for the lights and they are in. Next comes the wiring for outlets.

MiniMax coming to temp for a few burgers and steaks.

Sea2Ski · April 2019

It is getting serious now.

Ozzie_Isaac · April 2019

Awesome thread. Love watching the progress.

Sea2Ski · April 2019

We had a delay in the build because of a delay in the spray insulation going in. Got them to come out yesterday as posted above. After the spraying, we had to run fans for about 2 hours to ventilate the room. As soon as we could be in there without smelling anything, we waited another 30 minutes to be sure, after all, there is always something to do.

Then it was cleanup time. We had to scrape off all the overspray. What a messy job that was. We were covered in foam insulation because of the static. The ceiling corners were the worst, not because of my statuesque 5’4” height, but because there is a lot of expansion of the foam there.

The room cleaned up and turned out well though:

As soon as the scraping was done we started to put panels on the ceiling.

Had to remove the lights, then rehang. We knew this was going to take place, so it was not bad, but was still a time suck. The black wire hanging from the ceiling is for one of the speakers which will be installed last.

Took a break mid afternoon and watched the baby goat and calf have bonding time. It was cute to see the goat leaning against the calf, and at times climb over her. It was clear the goat wanted to play, and the calf was doing nothing else but tolerating the playful antics of the kid.

Getting back to work, cutting around the meat rack mounts took the most amount of time to get them just right.

By this time it was after 5. That last picture was for the last ceiling panel. Right after that was up, we cleaned up and had a beer. It is only now that I realize I do not have a finished picture of the ceiling. Next we will work on the walls, and progress should be faster. I hope....

Looking for thoughts/ideas/suggestions on what color to paint the meat rail. We were thinking the horizontal mount which is up against the paneling on the ceiling will be white in an effort to make that disappear, the vertical hangers be black, and the rail itself a brighter maroon red so it really “pops” out. Not set on those colors yet though. Opinions and ideas welcome, but may be ignored as well.

northGAcock · April 2019

Those colors sound like Gamecock Colors....always trust your first thoughts.

20stone · April 2019

Great progress!

On the meat rail, would it make sense to powdercoat it for durability? I don’t have a clear idea whether you’ll have rolling hooks on there, but you’ll want that finish to hold up.

YukonRon · April 2019

Mark,

Is that the place you told me I was going to stay when I visit?

Seriously....awesome project...this is absolutely a geat Idea.

By comparison, I am trying to figure out landscaping rock placement.

You win.

northGAcock · April 2019

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422753#Comment_2422753

Don’t forget to plan for the outdoor urinal.....you know, over by the landscape rocks.

Sea2Ski · April 2019

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422740#Comment_2422740

@20stone We thought of powder coating, but honestly, we had just as good and durable results with proper prep with some other paints. The benefits of going this route is that if it does need a touch up, we can do it ourselves. Yes, we are going to have rolling meat hooks.

CTMike · April 2019

Have you considered getting the rail electroplated? I think that would be a much harder finish that would stand up to the abuse of weighted rolling hooks.

OT- Building a residential walk in refrigerator and meat processing room - OT

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