This is going to be a little hard to explain on the computer, but I'll try.
We have a backyard which is only accessible through our sunroom. To get to the backyard, you have to go through the sunroom, either from the sliding glass doors that lead out of our bedroom, or through the sliding glass doors that lead out into the rest of the property that isn't the backyard. If you follow my drift.
The backyard is fenced, because that's where we usually put the dogs. But the grass is getting awfully high, and as you can (hopefully) imagine, it's pretty hard to get the lawnmower into the backyard to mow. If it even worked, which it hasn't since May.
So I decided to put the goats in the backyard for a few hours. I led them through the sunroom with some grain in a bowl, closed them in, and let them go to town on the grass and weeds. I myself got a nice cold beer and sat out in the "rest of the property" composing a poem.
After a while, Hope came running out yelling "Mom! Mom! Iris is in the house!" I thought she meant, in the sunroom. Nope. She wasn't in the sunroom. "Where in the house?" I yelled. "In our room!" Hope answered. By the time I got there, she was in the living room.
Luckily, I got her out of the house before she pooped. I'm still not sure of the exact sequence of events that let Iris get out of the backyard, through the sunroom, and into the house, but I think it's best to let them remain shrouded in mystery.
After all, it's not such a big deal. My sister has been living with two goats in her house for almost two months now.
This doesn't make sense: are you saying you have a fenced off pasture which has no gate? No access from anywhere except through the house? Because that can be fixed. Gates are widely available.
ReplyDeleteI've been to your property and I still can't imagine how you couldn't get the goats from the barn to the back of your house without bringing them through (or with fewer negatives: I think you can get the goats from the barn to the pasture other than through the house.). But I guess I'm wrong.
Did you build a moat or something?
No, the backyard is a small area right behind the house which is fully fenced so that the dogs can be in it. There is only way into it without climbing a fence: through the sunroom. The sunroom has a total of three doors: one to the fenced backyard, one into the house, and one out onto the porch. The goats usually are nowhere near this whole set-up. Their barn is way over on the other side of the property, and it is inside their own fully fenced pasture, which does, in fact, have a gate, but which does not communicate in any way with the backyard.
ReplyDeleteIs that clear?
Hi Aimee, I love to read your blog. We have much the same interests, the only difference is, we have cows, sheep and alpacas. (Ooops, almost forgot the hens and pheasants)
ReplyDeleteSometimes we purchase a couple of piglets and raise them. (Almost time to do that again as we are nearly out of bacon.) We make proscuitto and sausages as well. I like the idea that we know just what we are eating. I haven't tried goat, don't think I'd like it somehow, as I don't like the taste of lamb at all and goat meat looks similar. Goat cheese on the other hand, yummmmmmmmmm.