So this may be a little outside of "normal" for a typical Sew Crafty Friday post, but I'm used to living a little on the wild side. And besides, it is my "normal", for now, anyway. I haven't had time for the fun and crafts, so this is my outlet.
I built a milking stand for our goats using the instructions from Mother Earth News dated way back in 1980, which can be found here. I did it all myself, with a little help from the kids. I can't express how satisfying it is to construct something like this. It was easy, but it still feels good to build something, knowing that you need it and will use it for years.
After I built it, I asked the kids if they wanted to paint it. Ho boy, they were all over that. All I could find in our cabinet of paint was purple. So, purple it was.
The kids love to paint. They aren't particularly good at it, but they love it.
Um, guys? You missed a spot.Or two.
Well, anyway, you'll have to imagine it finished up because I forgot to take pictures. I touched up with the paint and filled in all the gaps. And then I added the feed box to the front.
It works very well. The pegs in the top (they aren't painted yet in the picture above) come out to allow you move the center two 2x4s. You get the goat's head in between them, where she then can eat out of the feed box, and then lock them back in place so that she can't remove her head until you are done milking.
We tried it out last night, as all of the goats needed their hooves trimmed. It worked very well.
The only problem was that since they are still very young, their heads could slip out as is. We had to drill a second, closer in, set of holes for the pegs to make it a little tighter for younger goats. Other than that, it was great.
The goats enjoyed their treat in the feed box and I was able to get their hooves trimmed with little effort.
Well, maybe next time I'll have something more normal to share. I do still need to get a dress made for Meagan with the fabric I scored from my Grandma. In the meantime, you can check out other Sew Crafty Friday posts at Waiting for Him.
4 comments:
That is really cute, I have never seen goat milking stand before, but I like yours!
What a riot--and the color is great! Very springy!
Honestly, if I saw that I'd have no idea whatsover what it was...I'd think it was some kind of odd bench or chair, LOL! Then again, one time I didn't have my glasses on, and we were driving by a field and I thought a bunch of dogs were goats. Duh. My sister (who has a farm--I'm a suburbanite) didn't let me live that down for a looooong time. She calls me a city slicker, even though I haven't been within 50 miles of a city in 10 years.
That's really cool. Some of our greatest projects come from necessity. I actually think the paint job the kids did gave it quite the rustic charm. I'm sure you get plenty of use from your wonderful milking stand.
That is a really neat project. I love the paint job - LOL! It's a great color.
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