Escape and Artist- aptly named?

Goats have a bit of a reputation in homesteading circles.  I had heard the stories of goats escaping, climbing on cars, eating the most expensive shrubbery on the place, and all the rest of it.

Well - good fences make good goats, right?  Shortly before they arrived, I bought a set of 10 sheep and goat panels - like cattle panels, except with smaller openings.  They certainly weren’t the cheapest option, but I’d read that woven wire fencing won’t hold up to goats, who like to scratch themselves on fencing. I decided doing it right the first time would be worth the extra cost, at least of their home base paddock. I mostly wired them to t-posts, although at the back I actually just clipped them together with metal clips, since the panels themselves are very sturdy.

Interesting side note: each panel is 16 feet long. Tractor supply sells them, and claimed to deliver them.  Fortunately, thanks to a glitch in the website, ordering them online didn’t work and instead I rented one of the 10 foot pickups from Home Depot.  When I got there and bought them, the fellows helping me load shared an interesting tidbit: The delivery service from tractor supply is not in house - it is contracted out to individuals who often show up in tiny cars.  I’m not sure how the 16 foot cattle panel delivery would have gone down… in any case, I tied them down well, and drove the back roads nice and slow, shuddering every time a bump made the 6 feet of panel  hanging off the back end clatter.

Initially, I only used 6 of the panels for their paddock.  The other 4, I dragged around to give them fresh pasture, which was the pits - those things are heavy!!! Eventually, I added 2 more to expand the permanent space, and kept 2 for the edge of the yard, where I could tie them to our permanent fence and get the wild roses and honeysuckle trimmed.  The gate I made out of cedar fence pickets, with the t-post hinges and a wired on latch top and bottom.

With all this preparation, I was hopeful that Escape and Artist would be contained, but I was still pretty nervous. 

Turns out, I had no need to be.  Not only did they not escape their paddock, the few times I didn’t fasten their portable pen correctly, I found them back in their paddock - I don’t know if it is true of all goats, but mine are homebodies. They like going out to graze, but they aren’t keen on wandering very far.  Once they decided they liked me, they started sticking with me whenever I was outside and let them roam. They didn’t want to be touched, but  they would follow me from a distance, and if I went inside they would come up to the porch to yell and poop. Stairs seem to hold a pretty strong attraction - if I let them in the back yard, they would actually leave me to climb the stairs to the second story back deck.  That was a bit of a non starter for us, so the back yard was off limits unless they were penned by the cattle panels.  But overall, they have done extremely well with fences.

Cars though… I’ve never seen them climb on top of a car, but they have an odd curiosity about the interior.  Artsy especially would happily jump into the back or seat of any car that was open.  Why?  No idea.  

And yes, they do gravitate toward the expensive plants.  They eat plenty of the weeds too, but somehow, they will always find the one blueberry in a field of brambles.  It is their gift.