Sunday, May 12, 2013

Dude, where's my goat?

We've been blessed with some much needed spring rains the past week.  Of course, it just so happened to be when my sister and her husband were visiting.  Go figure.  But it just gave Christine an excuse to not do yard work.  Moving sticks, buckets of rocks and "fluffing" the burn pile is hard work.  Not to mention it curtailed her search for the elusive Wabblenuts bird.

Even though the rain put a little bit of a damper on the human activities, it did wonders for bringing out the jungle in the back yard.  I had been putting the goats out there on lines, but obviously not often enough:
I thought I put the goats out here.
Oh, there you are!
New Goat trying to eat her way out of the back yard.
I can only put three goats out in that area at a time otherwise they get tangled up.  Although, even if only one of them were out there she'd manage to make macrame out of the ropes.  In like fifteen seconds.  They will get their lead rope knotted around a twig stuck in the ground and then wind themselves around it four-thousand times until they are left with only six inches of rope.  This is why I cringe when I hear of someone thinking of getting a goat and just staking it out someplace instead of having a fenced area.

When you stake your goats out on a lead, you have to be within sight or hearing distance.  Because they will get tangled in something or end up having it wrapped around their foot.  Or head.  Or horns.  Well, at least mine do. But maybe my goats are just exceptionally stupid.  Or I am for letting them out there in the first place.  It's just that all that lush, green grass is going to waste if they aren't eating it and it drives me nuts just to mow it down.

You know you're an owner of grazing critters when you drive down the road and see the all that "wasted" grass and sob.  The tall grasses on the side of the roads, the lawns surrounding homes, the utility easements and even the state parks.  All that beautiful, green, yummy grass that just gets mowed down.  And every stinking time (much to Paul's annoyance) I say aloud, "Look at all that grass my goats could be eating!!"

Speaking of which, I need to swap out the goats.  Pickles is screaming (imagine that) to be let out of the pen and I think Nettie has stuffed herself with enough clover for now.

PS - Bonnie Williams, you were the winner of my giveaway, please email me your mailing address so I can ship your goodies to you!

12 comments:

  1. Agreed with all you said. My husband's favorite saying in the summer is, "Where are a couple of sheep when you need them?" I mean if sheep were good enough for George Washington's front lawn, they would be good enough for ours. (However, I speak from experience when I say sheep are dumber than goats. Apologies to all you sheep shepherds out there.)

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  2. Oh, my, our goats are still babies, but we will have them out in the pasture soon enough! This post made me laugh!

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  3. It does make a livestock owner cringe to see perfectly good "feed" going to waste.
    I think Miss Newgoat should be called just that, all one word of course. ;)

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  4. I love your sense of humor. Just what I needed on a dreadful Monday morning.

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  5. We stake ours out too. The recent rain has already made the grass grow even more.

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  6. We tend to just pasture our goats and mow down the rest with the horses. It's jus so relaxing to have the horses haltered and throw their leads over their backs, sit in the yard with a cup of coffee or tea and listen to and watch nature.

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  7. I am a big fan of electronet and solar chargers. I am the same way about lawns - as far as I'm concerned, lawns are mis-used pastures.

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  8. "But maybe my goats are just exceptionally stupid." Not! They are just exceptionally goats! LOL. I hear you about "wasted" grass, And brush, and branches, and forage. Actually a front lawn is a waste too.

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  9. Last time I staked out a goat I had the worse case of poison oak I have ever had in my life ........ all those twigs the goat had wrapped his chain around were poison oak. Now I use 16 foot cattle panels for temporary fencing.

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  10. I'd love for someone to bring a goat or two over and eat all the tall weeds/grass that is in places where it's difficult to cut!

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  11. I think about that 'wasted' grass on my cellar. It is much too steep to mow. I think it is brome and the seeds blow all over creation (my flower beds!) and I hate it. I asked DH if he thought I could tether Willow to graze it. He looked at me like I was crazy. I guess goats would work.....but I don't have any goats. Maybe we should buy a couple of donkeys?

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  12. Hey, about those peppers coming up? Maybe you could try them again now that its warmer. Pepper won't sprout unless the soil is around 75 degrees. If you'll plant them in a good size pot they will actually grow for a couple of years. You just have to move them inside during the cold spells.

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