Please share your goat housing, milk room, etc

[mom25kiddles]

If you have pictures available, would you please share them with me? We have 2 milking does currently, but hope to have 1 more girl and possibly a couple wethers for meat next year. We are getting ready to move from our place here in So Cal to Northern Idaho at the end of this month... and will need to build the goat housing and milking room before bringing the girls up. Currently, our *barn* and milk room are the smallest they can be and still be comfortable due to having built it on posts/piers on a hillside... we live in the mountains on a small 1/3 acre lot and have NO flat land. So... now that we will have flat land and a few more goats, we would like to build something that is more comfortable for the goats, easier for me to keep clean and roomier for milking. Also, considering the weather is quite a lot colder in Idaho with ALOT more snow than here... I'm thinking the girls are going to be inside quite a bit during the winter. I'm looking for real life pictures/ideas... my books have a lot of diagrams and such but I have a hard time envisioning with just drawings!!

Hee hee... I remember calling a friend of mine who has goats in Idaho the first time it snowed here after getting goats... I was panicked because I couldn't DRAG them out in the yard. For three days, the girls stayed inside and I was so worried about them not getting exercise, more fresh air, etc... She said her goats hate snow and ocassionally won't come out for a week in the heavy snows!!!! Finally, one of mine decided she liked the snow and now comes out and plays in it and makes fun of the other one!!!!!

Carmen

[steff bugielski]

Here are some pics of my milk room and milk house. They are as small as possible and as inexpensive as possible and still within Regs.

[mom25kiddles]

Thank you for sharing pictures... so organized and looks pretty roomy!!

Carmen

[mom25kiddles]

Bumping this up to the top just in case someone has pictures they want to share but didn't see my post... this forum moves fast!!! Goat people *must* be some of the friendliest around, I would say!!!

Thanks ~
Carmen

[petaddict]

I wish I had a milking room. Right now I just have the milking stand against one wall of the barn. It gets dirty because everyone wants to stand or sleep on it. I can't put it in one of the stalls because I need the lighting from the doorway. I'm getting electricity out there soon so I can move it somewhere away from everyone and I'll still be able to see what I'm doing.

[Wags]

I'll post picture for you in a week or so. Construction on my bargain basement pole barn starts in the morning.

It is only going to be 12x24 - and is mostly out of used materials. I had org. planned for something in the 20x24 range with a concrete floor, but even at half the size and with a dirt floor what I'm going to end up with is sooo much better than what I've been working with for the past few years.

[hayjade]

Love this thread...keep the pics coming...its dark out now so my pics will have to wait til morning.

[desertshi]

Bump....anyone else wanna share????

[mom25kiddles]

FYI... Someone named *Chalk Creek* if I remember correctly, posted pictures of his/her beautiful place in the Colorado mountains... and in those pictures was her goat house... very nice!!!

And I'm glad you bumped this... I will try to get pictures of our *goat house on a hillside* that my husband built here at our home in So Cal. He is looking to building structures on somewhat level ground in the future... I think it will likely take all the fun out of his projects... hee hee

Carmen

Forgot to say... the post I'm referring to is on the Countryside Families forum

[Tallabred]

My DH converted one of our stalls for the goats. It has worked great. I can either divide them and have 3 areas, I can make one stall only so babies can get in and it has worked great for separating them at night.

Just recently I got 2 of the canvas feed bags that I attach together with a leather strap at the top and on the back loop. They have worked great and really no waste.