:: This morning when I read this article about the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., using goats to clear a field of poisonous weeds, I knew that it was going to be a good day. Is this the best idea ever?
Probably yes.
:: Thinking about goats reminded me of a wonderful graduation party that we went to earlier this summer. The graduation girl was a graduate of a rural high school, so the party was at her parents’ house out in the country.
Many of the guests were farmers and at one point the conversation turned to goats. Show goats, to be exact. [Did you even know there was such a thing? I didn’t.]
Come to find out, 4-H kids raise and groom certain goats with the right disposition and the right looks to be show goats. These goats are somewhat pampered as I understand it. Loved by one and all. Winners of ribbons. Indulged. And kept around the farm as pets, not livestock.
An important distinction when you are an animal on a farm.
:: I have a goat necklace from Switzerland. Really. I’ve always liked goats. So when I was a girl in high school my aunt and uncle sent me a silver goat necklace purchased while vacationing in Europe. I don’t know where that necklace is now, but I’m sure that it’s around the house somewhere.
Misplaced, but not forgotten.
:: Not too far from here is a dairy that has cows as well as a few goats. Beside the goat barn is a machine that for 25¢ dispenses goat chow. [Yes, just like cat chow or monkey chow or dog chow.] One of my favorite things to do in life is to buy a handful of goat chow and feed the goats. Their little goat lips tickle the palm of your hand as they nibble. And they are always appreciative of what you have to offer them to eat.
So fun, so cute.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
I wish we had access to some goats to eat our poison ivy. (Though much of our poison ivy is the climbing vine kind, so probably the goats would have trouble reaching all of it. Unless we got them a really tall step ladder…there’s an idea…)
I enjoy see goats at various farms where we take the kids. (Ha, kids!) The petting zoo at our local zoo always has lots of little pygmy goats and kids, and they are adorable.
(I also enjoyed your miscellaneous thoughts on goats.)
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alejna, I like the image of a goat on a ladder eating poison ivy. There’s a children’s book in there somewhere.
I’ve only seen pygmy goats on TV, but we do have a garden nursery about an hour away that has fainting goats– which are pretty whacky.
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And the company that rented them out is called “ECO-Goats.” Notice that the goats have a red dot on them. Apparently they need to make sure they don’t confuse their goats with all the other goats in the DC cemetery. Really, that’s a problem? The penulitmate Bean theme and article. Thanks for sharing – and, yes, we need to go up and feed goats sometime soon.
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Zen-Den, I wondered why those goats had red dots on them, too. Maybe there are wild goats that roam around in that part of D.C.! As if…
Yeah! to the idea of going to feed the goats. I’ll start saving my quarters.
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I remember that Google tried something similar but ruined the green goals they supposedly had by shipping the goats in and out some silly distance. I love petting zoos because I can feed the goats and other critters. In fact, I love our local fishery since I can buy fish pellets and feed the giant trout. And the rats that live around the food dispensers.
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Zazzy, Google had goats?!! Glory be!
I’ve never heard of people feeding fish, although I do know about feeding me with fish! Which is entirely different. 😉
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I was an aupair in Switzerland for a summer and worked in the foothills. I use to take the kids to see the goats and sheep that roamed the fields next door. It was a nice memory.
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belle, you are the second woman who I know who was an au pair in Switzerland! What are the odds of that? Your memory of goats in a field sounds bucolic. Happy goats, happy me.
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I think that is a call for you to travel to Switzerland and yoddle to your hearts content 😉
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Fainting goats are a scream…but you can’t – scream around them.
They use goats in Dallas and Houston at the airports to keep the place mowed. There’s a guy near Austin ( big goat country) who has herds he leases out – with a goat herder! The goats have learned to ignore all the noise from the planes landing and taking off.
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philosophermouse, that is amazing. Goats who aren’t afraid of engine noise! Who’d of thunk it?! TX is a fascinating state.
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Not to be a Parade-Rainer here, but I am not able to share your delight of goats. I loathe them. They are untrustworthy, sneaky, sinister, and underhanded. I have held a grudge against goats—and they against me, seemingly—since the sixth grade when one ate part of my very favourite dress, made by my grandma, no less.
I am, however, personally acquainted with two goat farmers who do loan out their herds as mowers. They love their goats and have tried to change my mind on occasion. They have conceded that some goats are plain mean, but many are gentle.
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nance, I’m sure that your experiences with goats are the norm and my experiences with goats are idealized. I have only met the most gracious and well-behaved ones because those are the ones in the petting zoos. If I encountered a dress-eating sneaky goat, I’d have a different point of view.
Apparently, goats as lawn mowers is quite a thing. I hadn’t heard of that before, so learning about it in the D.C. cemetery seemed new and cool to me. I wonder if a mean goat eats more weeds than a gentle one?
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Like Nance, I don’t care much for goats either–The Three Billy Goats Gruff, hello? TERRIFYING. I may have nightmares tonight. 😉 I am from Puyallup which has a home town fair, so I know all about raising show goats. LOL
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Margaret, I’d never heard of show goats. And the conversation at this party was so funny as these kind farm people explained to me, the clueless city girl, all the nuances of raising and grooming one. They knew what they were saying sounded crazy to me, so they played up the humor of it big time.
[I don’t remember The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Maybe not part of my childhood?]
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Loved the goats at the local petting zoo. You could buy food for them, but they got so much food they looked pregnant. Big sign saying, they’re not pregnant, they’re fat. I have a friend in MA who lives near a lot of poison ivy, and I kinda think she hired some goats to come eat it. Why can’t I get paid to eat something yummy?
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J, good question! Of course, if we were eating something yummy all the time we’d be fussing about our weight all the time, too.
Love the sign. The goats who I feed are always hungry and look a bit emaciated, truth be known. But the idea of chubby goats makes me smile.
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