My husband is amazing. Really. He is.
We have been here a total of 16 months during which he added to his skill set plumbing and electricity. And now he just does them. Like it’s no big deal.
His latest project was in the milking stall.
Our barn has always had water and electricity. Great. But…. a sink with running hot and cold water would be nice.
Bamm, we have it! (He would say it wasn’t exactly bamm but two days is bamm in my book)
When we moved into the house the kitchen sink was a large two sided cast iron sink. It was the first thing Michael replaced. We thought it prudent to keep the sink. It is a good sink.
Ever since we switched from hand milking to using our Simple Pulse milking machine a couple months ago, milking required carrying out a bucket of hot water to we could clean the machine. When we done with the milking we would divide the hot water between two buckets; one with soap and one with bleach. Since Michael is entering that time of the year when he will be out of town multiple days at a time for his paying job, it was really important to him to make it easier on me.
So he built a base, put the sink on it, attached some plumbing and an electrical outlet. The previous owners had left a new faucet set in the garage so he attached that and bought a new mini hot water heater.
Isn’t it pretty! (Ignore the mess)
He moved the Simple Pulse milking machine to a cart so it can be closer to the sink.
Here is the whole set up. Now when we clean the milking machine we just fill up one sink with warm soapy water and the other with hot bleach water. So easy!
Here is Joshua getting ready to milk Brown Sugar.
Here is how the whole stall looks every morning and evening. That red cabinet was an extra, mostly empty, cabinet in the garden shed. Michael painted it red and now it houses some of our stuff. It will be mouse and (mostly) dust-proof.
Onto changes in other areas. On September 5th we separated Jessie and Sandi from their moms. They are officially being weaned.
They have their own stall but it was important to us that they have safe access to the outside. So Michael installed a fence for them.
Little do the goats know, but we have two sets of father/daughter in side by side stalls now. We are boarding Jasper for a while to help out our friends at MisFit Farms. Jasper is Sandi’s dad and Woody is Jessie’s dad.
Michael decided to take the straw out of the feed room (too easy for mice to nest) and put it in with the hay.
So our barn is really coming along. Thanks to my handy hubby.
Enjoy your day,
Karen
Wow! For your fans who don’t get up at the crack of dawn every morning and slog out to the barn to milk…
THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
XO,B
It sure makes things easier.
Hugs,
Karen
Oh boy, I think I have barn envy! Congrats on the terrific set up, and thanks for the inspiration!!
You’re welcome 🙂
There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of inspiration….it’s usually the money. This project was nice though since the sink and faucet were already here.
Thanx for following along,
Karen
You milking machine setup looks really nice. And now you can clean it easily. I’ve been milking Daisy by hand twice a day. It seems like a lot of work even with one goat. Great looking barn.
Thanx!
Hand milking is a lot of work. It is a lot faster with the machine but then you have the clean up time. We will breed four of our goats soon so hopefully we will have six in milk. Then it will really be worth it.
Good to hear from you again. I’m assuming your summer was crazy busy like ours?
Take care,
Karen
You and your hubby are amazing; great attitudes, quick learners and very productive farmers!
Love ya, Pinky
I’m kind of ready to stop producing and start sitting 🙂
Winter will be appreciated.
hugs,
Karen
Awesome progress and set-up in the barn. Love the sink out there, so convenient and will make things that much quicker and more efficient. Isn’t it “necessity is the mother of invention”? Or something like that. This is how I learned to wall paper, can, cook, sew, write a blog, garden, etc. …..ha ha. And how my husband learned to paint, change oil, replace rotten wood on the house, a stone patio, and the list goes on and on. No one else was going to do it and the bank account couldn’t hire it. We have found google to and youtube to be so helpful in these projects. Love seeing the great progress you are all making on your beautiful homestead. It does not come without a lot of sweat equity and will be appreciated all the more for it. XOXO
Youtube is great for learning things (good things). I do much better when someone “shows” me rather than reading about it.
Glad you can relate to the whole process of learning and doing it yourself. I too love to learn new things….with homeschooling most of the day it is usually things like math and grammar and history.
Thanx for following along and have a great day.
Karen