I was rather unimpressed with my goaty experience. I was hoping they'd clear a lot of the brush here and mow the lawn. Granted, they're not grazers, but our lawn is more like a forest. Especially the back yard. The back yard is nothing but ferns, bramble, milkweed, ragweed, and maybe some grass. And I'm trying to make our front lawn mostly moss anyway. But there's clover everywhere.
The problem I had with goats was trying to keep them away from the poisonous plants we have: specifically, rhododendrons. And then I kept on finding out more and more plants they shouldn't eat. Apparently they shouldn't eat hydrangea or milkweed or um, a lot of the other types of plants they ended up eating during their stay here. But they remained healthy and happy. The only time they had digestive issues was when they ate a bunch of dried beans. That was a very bad experiment...oh so gross and smelly...So, do not feed goats dried beans. At least in excess.
One of the goats stole my bag of rainbow twizzlers. That bummed me out but also was kinda funny.
I do like goats and would love to have my own some day, if I could have a place that would allow them and also have proper and sufficient fencing, because I like gardening too.
Oh, they also broke into one of my gardens and ate the beautiful tops off of the few tulips I had. That made me sad.
By the way, I got those tulips, and there's a hyacinth in there too, from the garbage if you can believe it. In the grocery store, in the florist section, they
throw out plants that have dropped and spilled out of their containers, or ones that have gone past their blooming prime and whatnot. I saw these in the garbage, along with all sorts of ribbons. So I took 'em. The spring bulb plants weren't in that bad of shape, and all that needed to be done was get them more back in their pot and dust off the soil that spilled on them. My mom was in the hospital at the time and I brought them there to cheer her up. Then, a few months later I planted them in the ground. That wasn't before I just left them outside on the lawn sorta to get all eaten up by slugs, so I thought they'd never grow, but as luck would have it they did and they're still growing. So huzzah for plant magic.
I think I want a cocker spaniel. Of course I'd love a golden doodle or something similar. Or an afghan hound mix. Or an old english sheepdog. Swoon.