goat patrol

We hired the Goat Patrol! From Monday to (probably) Thursday goats will clear the out-of-control overgrowth in our backyard. We've got english ivy, honeysuckle, wild brambles and tons of poison ivy, and the goats will eat all of it. They cost less than the quote we got from landscapers, and no fossil fuels!

The goats' handler came by yesterday to check out the yard. She said she would use electric fencing to contain the goats in the area we want them to clear. There's only one plant we need to protect inside the goat zone: a small fig near the shed. Otherwise it's all wild growth back there. She said that if they have too large of an area to roam in, they'll just wander around, nap in the driveway and so forth. If she keeps them in the area with the overgrowth, they'll stay focused on the task at hand: eating.

She saw a couple of toxic plants that will have to be removed: an azalea which we'll dig up and stick in a big pot, and a volunteer tree called "chokecherry." She said that when the chokecherry leaves wilt, they form cyanide. So if the goats eat the chokecherry, at first it's okay but as they damage the plant it wilts and becomes toxic. We have to go around the yard, find all the chokecherries, limb up the big ones so the goats can't reach the leaves, and cut down all the small ones. And be sure to remove all the branches we cut, we can't leave anything lying on the ground.

Unfortunately the azalea and the chokecherries are in the middle of the poison ivy thicket. Georg is already sporting a severe poison ivy rash on his legs, and I may be immune (as far as I know, I've never had it) so I get poison ivy detail tomorrow. I'm going to wear long pants tucked into socks, long sleeves and gloves, and hope for the best. Fortunately it's all in shade, and I'll try to do it early in the day before it gets too hot.

Also we have to move Georg's old car, which has been sitting in the backyard forever. We've been trying to get someone to come tow it away for months, but no one ever comes through somehow. Well the car is right in the middle of where the goats need to be. She can fence around it, but then they won't be able to eat the brush right around it. So we're going to have to try to push it out of the way until we can (finally) get someone to come get it.

I wonder what Janey will think of the goats! My suspicion is she'll be excited and bark for a few minutes, then be all "eh, whatever. I have to go watch for squirrels."