A Health + Safety Announcement
A milestone worth noting
If you were to ask me what my secret is to the moderate amount to any social media success I have had, my official line would be about how I was an early adopter of social media and blogging, taking good photos and being an American in Scotland.
But we all know it is because my goats escape all the time.
For years, my camera and I have chased my herd of mixed-breed dairy goats around the fields and forests adjacent to the farm. My Instagram followers watched me fall into bogs, climb over walls, stuff goat kids in my pockets, edit clips of the goats running to “The Lonely Goatherd” from the Sound of Music, show down with horny billies and cry over destroyed vegetable gardens. Off camera, I have fielded hundreds of phone calls that fall along a spectrum of “your goats are out” to “keep your goats in or else”.
We have spent thousands on fencing in our field. The 300 year old stone walls that surround the perimeter have been reinforced and electrified. We have put in gates, dug new strainers, bought solar energisers, mains energisers and battery energisers. We have tried tethers and collars and strip grazing and supervised grazing. Each intervention brings with it a temporary reprieve. Usually long enough to lull us into a sense of smugness, until our hopes and dreams were crushed by a tinkling goat bell coming from the wrong direction.
Inevitably, like the raptors in Jurrasic Park, the goats would exploit some new weakness and the chase would begin again.
This pattern worked reasonably well for a few years, until the arrival of Alice and Bruce from Achray Farm. Alice the year old goat, we had been assured, had never escaped before. We were delighted with their addition to the herd. Achray goats are lovely and social, with great milking genes and it was nice to get a goat from a friend.
They settled in well, are lovely and social and generally delightful. The usual herd power plays didn’t feature and Alice and Bruce were welcomed with no problems by our usually territorial Saanens. They fit in so well, in fact, that within a week of arriving Alice had not only learned to clear the livestock fence into the veg garden, but had taught most of the other goats how to do it as well.
After the second time the runner beans were planted and eaten, Kevin was immediately sent to the feed store for even more supplies. All of my deadlines were forgotten and I spent the next 3 days installing a 5ft electric perimeter tape around the top of the fence line. I also amped the fence energiser so it was running at max. I was a woman on a mission…a so far successful mission.
Its been 27 days since our last goat escape.
Alice was big mad when she discovered she couldn’t clear the fence any longer. We have been huffed and puffed at as every so often she checks for weaknesses and gets nipped by the electric, but the beans are growing and we hardly speak to our neighbours these days.
This weekend we returned to Achray Farm for an ice cream stop with my visiting family. Nicola asked if we were still speaking to her after Alice’s shenanigans and we laughed about what great content it all made. Goats are going to goat and anyone who tells you differently hasn’t owned them for long enough.
After relaying our tale of how we’ve managed to keep them in for almost a month, my family and I headed back down the path to the car. As we walked past a man, he yelled “I know you! You are the girl with the goats!” My mom, Kevin and I laughed
If I have to trade my megre internet stardom for goats that stay in, it is a sacrifice I am willing to make.
If you didn’t see, we got an incredible review in the Times at the beginning of July that we are SO THRILLED about. We put so much into each and every feast, I can’t tell you how much it has meant to see that recognised.
We only have 3 dates left this year, so book now!!
We have also started pickle production with the arrival of cucumbers from Upper Ballaird farm! If you are localish, will be at Nick Nairn’s Foodie Fest on the 17th and 18th August and the Forth Valley Food Fest on the 24th of August and you will be able to get your hands on them, plus our new spice blends!