# Show me your invention!!!



## bleatinghearts

Let's take a minute to brag a little about our inventions! :greengrin: It could be as simple as an idea you've had. Maybe something that has to do with goat housing or a tool that made a chore easier. Maybe something for the goaties to play on. It could even be something you tried but found that it didn't work out like you thought. It's all good stuff!

I'll start&#8230;my first invention is a mineral or baking soda holder. It took two 1gal plastic buckets, a razor knife, two screws and two large washers. It's nice to be able to take out the inner piece to wash it in the house. I have two in each stall and love them.
[attachment=1:3gx2bvmk]Min. Feeder.JPG[/attachment:3gx2bvmk]

I had to come up with a hay feeder quickly one day. I needed to separate a doe from the others and that stall didn't have one. I used a Rubbermaid tote, a few pieces of 1x2's and a few pieces from a dog car barrier that I wasn't using anymore. I used a drill, a hand saw and some fencing pliers to crimp the metal pieces before drilling. Works good but doesnt hold much.
[attachment=0:3gx2bvmk]Hay Feeder.JPG[/attachment:3gx2bvmk]

I cant wait to see yours!!! :leap:


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## freedomstarfarm

Clever! I like the hay feeder.


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## Willow

Fun! I like the mineral holder...

Simple play structure..old stairs, $3 tag sale coffee table, board - painted. easy to move around to mow. Fun to climb, slide down, race through yard and
leap up and fly down the slide...also a nice place to nap.


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## GotmygoatMTJ

Wow I LOVE your mineral bucket design! Something to think about! Clever way to make a hay feeder too. Do you put the hay through the top?


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## bleatinghearts

Willow…I’m so jealous of your yard! I would love to have a flat spot for a lawn.Your goats look so happy on their toys! What cuties!!! 

GotmygoatMTJ…Ya, the top (side) of the tote was cut out with a razor knife. Gotta really stuff it to get the hay in there.


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## NeedONEmore

bleatinghearts said:


> Let's take a minute to brag a little about our inventions! :greengrin: It could be as simple as an idea you've had. Maybe something that has to do with goat housing or a tool that made a chore easier. Maybe something for the goaties to play on. It could even be something you tried but found that it didn't work out like you thought. It's all good stuff!
> 
> I'll start&#8230;my first invention is a mineral or baking soda holder. It took two 1gal plastic buckets, a razor knife, two screws and two large washers. It's nice to be able to take out the inner piece to wash it in the house. I have two in each stall and love them.
> [attachment=1:29tk3sb6]Min. Feeder.JPG[/attachment:29tk3sb6]
> 
> I had to come up with a hay feeder quickly one day. I needed to separate a doe from the others and that stall didn't have one. I used a Rubbermaid tote, a few pieces of 1x2's and a few pieces from a dog car barrier that I wasn't using anymore. I used a drill, a hand saw and some fencing pliers to crimp the metal pieces before drilling. Works good but doesnt hold much.
> [attachment=0:29tk3sb6]Hay Feeder.JPG[/attachment:29tk3sb6]
> 
> I cant wait to see yours!!! :leap:


I really like the Mineral bucket idea,In the corner out of the way, you could radius the top corners a bit to make it safer for your stock. Very good Idea!


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## HoosierShadow

Wow great ideas!! I love the mineral feeder idea too! This is something I NEED! And the hay feeder, very very clever! I like it a lot!

I don't have any pics, but I had to come up with a quick hay feeder for my kids 4-H goats. So I took a pallet that had most of the boards missing. I hung it in the corner off of the ground, put some scrap pieces of OSB on the bottom so the hay doesn't fall out. Typically the girls have to stand on their back legs to get the hay, which they don't mind - and it helps keep them from climbing into it.

Our barn isn't much to look at but it's made out of pallets, very very sturdy, and we use pallets inside. The thing I like about it is if I need 2 stalls I can build them out of pallets...if I need 3...I can build them...if I need to divide the barn addition into 2 sections...I can do it....and undo it as I want... Pallets and rope work wonders..heh  We also blocked our backyard entrance off with pallets tied together and they are put at an angle so they overlap each other <harder for them to knock down>. So far nobody has gone over a pallet, not even our buck. We also use pallets as gates for getting into the wooded area...works great!


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## KW Farms

Not sure if this really counts as an invention...but I haven't seen it done before. 

I took t-posts, ran them along side the fence, then put upside down hog panels up to make a feeder. I can just drop hay over the fence into the feeder. :thumb:


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## bleatinghearts

:clap: Very nice! Pallets are a wonderfull thing. Their like gold where I live though so we don't get our hands on many good ones.It's nice when there made out hard wood too. 

I think we all have something that gets us back into "child" mode. If I get an idea in my head, I almost can't think of anything else.  My poor husband.

KW Farms...it Totally counts as an invention!  with that many beautiful goats you would have to get creative. They don't poop in it, lay in it or fight over it. These are great ideas!


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## AlaskaBoers

LOL, pallets are like gold here haha

hm, I'll have to go out and take pics tomorrow. I have made a grain feeder out of plastic 30 gallon barrel, easy to clean and doesn't look too bad either


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## NeedONEmore

I don't know who invented it but, I just installed an electric fence hot wire at 12" and 12" from the top of my 6' chain link fence that I have tried and tried to contain my 3 month old escape artist. Eight whole hours and no escapes... 
I have one that could be 101st Airborne Mascot. She could climb the 6' chain link fence then over the goat panel's before I could get to the porch after just putting her back in. But She has had a set back for NOW.
I got a feeling she will find another way out sooner than later. :angelgoat: Not!!!


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## HoosierShadow

I wouldn't be able to do anything out there without pallets LOL You can find them just about anywhere, but the horse supply store is where I usually get them, they are free, and I love recycling! My dad once built an entire 6 horse stall barn with pallets...worked great! thats of course what made me think of building our barn with pallets  

Instead of mounting the trough feeders on the wall I mount them on a pallet, and if I need to move the feeders in a different place, all I have to do is untie the pallet from the wall and move it....so very simple. Especially with the youngsters - as they grow you can move the feeder higher off of the floor.


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## Willow

I would love to see some of these pallet structures...I cant quite picture how you would make a pallet barn or shed or feeder.


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## HoosierShadow

Willow said:


> I would love to see some of these pallet structures...I cant quite picture how you would make a pallet barn or shed or feeder.


Getting started with the two goatie supervisors..hehe..
We measured the area we wanted to put the barn -- right at 16'x12'









We cut down a LOT of trees to extend the back yard <which is now the goat pen>, my husband used seasoned stumps from trees that weren't too wide, and buried them in the ground spaced apart, nailed the pallets to them so the pallets aren't sitting on the ground <they'll rot if they sit on the ground>.

Day 2 we started building the bottom walls of the barn. 


















Sweetheart wasn't happy when I told her that her 'mountain' of pallets was about to be used...heh...had to throw this pic in there 









Bottom walls done, hubby's brother helped him put the top walls together. They nailed them to the bottom, and used long thin tree trunks to support them.



























I wanted the back door to be on the same side as the front door but my brother in law didn't know and came over one day to help...we almost ended up with only one doorway...not a good thing! WHEW.









Along with the pallets nailed together, they also took some scrap posts and wood and wedged/nailed them between the pallets like the following picture to help support them. This structure is S.T.U.R.D.Y! 









BTW...we did the above in 4 days.
Total cost of above? Just the nails. And gas going to get pallets <I hauled them all in my SUV so it took a few trips!>.

We had to wait for dry weather to start again, hubby did buy 2x4's for the roof frame, it did cost a couple hundred dollars for all the wood. We pre measured everything and had it cut at Lowe's - made things easier, plus it was cheaper buying the large 2x4's and having them cut <for free>.



























Not sure how many hay bales we can fit up there, but eventually we'll be finding out. 









We used Ondura roofing that we bought from Lowes. It was easy to install, and I think the 4x6' sheets were around $18.00 each, cheaper and easier than using shingles.


















We didn't put OSB siding on it until closer to cold weather.

We built an addition onto it between the barn/fence. It's 16' long and 7' wide. All it cost us was nails and some OSB for the roof, sides/ends. We put a tarp over the roof, and it just started leaking a couple of weeks ago where the boards come together. I fixed the leak for now, and planning to get Ondura to finish it up, just haven't had the extra $$, and honestly not in a hurry to get it done until closer to fall.









I'm actually getting ready to go out and work inside the barn <eventually making 2 large stalls into 3 smaller ones>. I'll try to get some pics to show how I have it set up.
Nothing fancy, but saved us a lot of $$ building.

We have pallets we use for a gate leading into the woods, works great, and none of the goats have ever been able to get over a pallet. I've been tempted to build a small pen out of pallets for weaning, or if I need to seperate someone, as I could build a pallet fence, but I could never dig posts and stretch fence myself LOL


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## bleatinghearts

John...I'm with you! I love electric fence. I'm happy to say I dont have any goats as determined as yours though. 

Candice...your pallet barn is really impressive! I'm glad you posted pics. Awesome way to recycle too. 

I'm working on a foot bath structure today. It was eather go out on the river or built something. I'll post pics when I'm done.


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## bleatinghearts

OK. We're not 100% done with it but it did just do its first job. We have this goat that has some serious feet problems. Holding her feet in a ziplock of iodine isn't going to happen often due to busy work schedules so we're trying a daily foot bath. I have sooo many foot bath questions that I'll probably start another topic just for those questions. But, today I wanted to show what we built to make life (ours) a little easier.
[attachment=0:24jsow8h]Foot Bath.JPG[/attachment:24jsow8h]
[attachment=1:24jsow8h]Brian cleaning Pennys feet.JPG[/attachment:24jsow8h]
It needs finished and while using it on Penny tonight, I realize we need to make some modifications. But it's a good start. I welcome any advice that anyone has regarding foot bath structure construction!


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## Willow

Amazing pallet barn! What do you use for siding?


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## HoosierShadow

Wow what a great foot bath! I'd love to make something like that! Especially when we get periods of rainy weather and it starts getting the goats sore!

For the pallet barn we use OSB siding, they are super cheap. BUT you need to either stain them or prime & paint to keep them from rotting. Ours looks bad because we never finished it, started staining it then stopped LOL It'll look great once painted. Planning to do that before cold/rainy weather hits again. 
I wasn't able to get pics today to show what it looks like now, I'll try tomorrow


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## Ember

I came home 2 weekends ago and my boyfriend informed me he had bought an entire pallet of foundation blocks at a yard sale...LOL

So we built a staircase for the girls since we didn't need them for anything else.



















I didn't build it but I revamped it and remodeled.

This used to be a chicken coop 8 years ago when they had chickens. I had to clean it out, tear the chicken wire off the top, clean it top to bottom.

Here is the before picture..EWW









After I cleaned it, took me over 2hrs


















I removed all the crap his mom pack rats / hoards in the animal barn and threw it in the other barn that is full of her crap too. 


















There is a little door going to the outside that you can see in the pictures, we are working on fencing the area in between the barns so when its dark I can just pop the little door open and they can go outside whenever the sun comes up. When I put them out in the back yard in the morning they bawl and the other morning they didn't get put out because there were Coyotes by the pond and they would have attracted them in no time. This way at least they can stay in the barn until they want.


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## freedomstarfarm

Well that was nice of him! I love the stairway! 

My what a great cleaning job you did on that chicken area and barn!! Way to go! :hi5:


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## Ember

I am so anal about the barn around my goats I think it drives his mom crazy...haha I am out there with a broom at least once a week sweeping the floor and knocking down spider webs.

The girls LOVE the stairs, when I go into the pen with them they go into speed mode and book it towards the stairs and run up them because they know I come out and sit with them. The white one is WAY friendlier now and lets me pet her and she will rub her face on my face :-D I do have to laugh my boyfriend on Saturday bought me a double lead rope for them and hes like they will not lead for anyone but you they run away from us or plant themselves and we have to pull them...LOL He was like they only like you..haha

I have a video of Lucy hauling butt towards the stairs I will have to upload...but I will go outside (when its not 1300 degrees) and lay on the staircase and they will lay with me 



Oh and best part is I just got off the phone with my boyfriend and we are going to the fair in Alexandria, IN this weekend and he said a guy he knows from high school told him he would have pygmys for sale and he told the guy that we would come look at them!!!! This is awesome since he told me no more pygmys on the farm! YAY! I might be getting a new baby(s) this weekend!


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## DavyHollow

I really like the cement blocks!! I have a few around the barn (mostly so that the NDs can reach averything the Alpines can) but not enough to do something fun like that. Plus my girls would probably knock it over :/ I had a bad experience with goats and cinder blocks


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## Ember

Mine are to small to do any damage with knocking them off


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