Unfortunately we have to keep these beasts fenced in.  Anyone who has every had goats knows you have to have good fences. They are masters at getting through gates too.  If they can’t get through them they will slowly work on destroying them whether they intentionally know they are destroying them know or not.  Does that make sense?  There is an art to opening the gate when 7 goats and a burro are behind it.  Especially if you have some sort of edible. If you don’t have edibles they have to get out.  Either around you or through you. Once out of the gate they go right to work.   Dublin is a master at creating our browse line.   One challenge besides opening gates with goats is getting them to eat where you want them to eat.  That is why the entrance to Sundog will soon be FENCED IN!!!  When you live on rural property with lots of animals fencing is your best friend.   Take this beautiful oak forest near our entryway.  As you can see the Sundogs have no problem with the way it is now.  They have worked hard over the last ten years blazing their own trails and now enjoy hunting a variety of wildlife through it on a daily basis.  But the problem is do you see what else grows besides the towering Black Oaks?  That is Poison Oak only about 1 or 2 feet tall right now.  It is the goats job to keep it under control so it does not reach 10 to 12 feet high.  Do you think they are doing their jobs eating the poison down?  Why of course not.  They can just breeze right through the gates of Sundog like Mr. Lassen is doing right now and go eat a goat delicacy called Western Redbud….which is across the road.  While Rosie and the goats are doing road work they have been known to stop traffic.   God help the poor souls who stop to pet them.  I’ve had to warn the neighbors NOT to stop.  And have told them to honk and act like they are going to run the goats over instead.  The goats but not poor Rosie need the fear of death put in them to get them to go back onto Sundog to eat the poison. So we think this entry way has to start being a little more functional than just awesome looking.  Like keeping 5 dogs, 7 goats and 2 horses IN.  Yes the horses too!  They will be allowed to roam the ranch once we get the fence done.  I have not told them yet.   Can you tell I am kinda excited about the fence? Poor Rockin’ Roy cannot work fast enough to get it up.  We will have traditional rail fencing in front backed with wire.  You can never use enough wire, welded or woven for a ranch.

And here is where a lot of hard work comes in.  The fence has to go from the road clear through the poison to the edge of the ridge and down the hill where pounding in fence posts through basalt flows and lava rock gets a little challenging.

All for these guys?

Adios Amigos!