BUILDING A MILKING STAND FOR DAISY

This came up more quickly than we had planned!

We thought that we would have to breed this goat before we could milk her, but as it turns out, she was bred almost two months before we even got her! That's a huge bonus. Since we wound up with our own milk source a lot more quickly than we had anticipated, we figured that we should get to work building a milking stand to use!

BUILDING IT PAPA'S WAY

That random pile of boards is what we planned on using. It's basically a bunch of scrap lumber and other miscellaneous boards that would most often just be burned. For us though, they are a free resource that we can repurpose and use, rather than waste.

These screws have a similar story and were all discarded. Except for the time and effort, this job should cost us nothing to get done. That's the way that I like to do it, whenever possible. Reuse and repurpose, which not only eliminates waste, but it can be incredibly cost effective.

Once we rounded up our tools and resources, we were ready to begin. In typical @papa-pepper style, I also did not have any real plans, only a general idea of the concept and a vague understanding of what things should look like when completed. Operating this way allows for creativity, as well as "learning the hard way."

LET'S BUILD!

This board was going to be the main platform of the stand. Since I wanted it to be about as high as a five gallon bucket, I set it on top of a five gallon bucket. Pretty smart, huh?

Then I began adding the legs, and reinforcing them for maximum stability. Once the platform and legs were taken care of, I just needed the head mount.

The base may not be the prettiest, but it certainly is stable and functional. I definitely don't want to put anyone or any animal in harm's way, so I make sure to do the best that I can on jobs like this.

For the head mount I secured one upright board to the platform and left the other one able to swivel on only one fixed point. This way it can be moved to allow Daisy's head through and then secured safely on her neck. At first, it was a little too wide and she just pulled her head out and left, but after a minor distance adjustment we were good to go.

Here Red-Pepper shows how the head mount works and how we can just use a short stick to hold it still. I wanted it safe and secure, but also simple enough that my @little-peppers wouldn't struggle with it. So far, so good!

The finished project looks great, and should be able to be used for milking goats, shearing sheep, and trimming hooves on both of those animals. If so, we will get a lot of use out of it. Daisy seems comfortable enough, but I'll probably add a feeding tray to the front to give her something to do while we milk her.