[PeteSpencer]

@OCB

I'm not trying to get a date with a goat I was trying to find a lump of one to eat:
Proved nigh on impossible.

Peter (RP I'm afraid)

[Bill McCarthy]

Never stand downwind of a billy goat - they smell like nothing on earth.
To me, goats milk is bliddy rancid.

[mick w]

Give em Flippers & a Snorkle , & they can swim underwater .

[Bill Haddow]

Never stand downwind of a billy goat - they smell like nothing on earth.
To me, goats milk is bliddy rancid.

The Greeks had a specific word for the smell of a billy goat - kinabra κινάβρα

Bill H

[Pete L]

Looks like the walking curries haven't met their fate yet.

Lockdown Goats. Day 9.

0800 Note presence of goats. Farmer removes.
1800 Goats back. Eject. Start fixing wire / stapling / etc.
1900 Goats start climbing back in through one six inch gap between top of sheep netting and bottom strand of barbed wire - while we're fixing the a gap further up the paddock.
1930 Eject two goats with difficulty and make gap even narrower.

Unlocked Goats . Day 10

0800 Goats back. Can't get them out as whichever hole they got through now seems too small.

Trying to avoid replacing 250m of fencing with goat fence. What do you use, @stevelup ?

1000 Farmer removes goats. And leaves a few fence improvements. The story continues.

[Bill McCarthy]

Sheep are the same - they can get through a fence but can’t remember how to return. And once they start the torture, they will watch you go out of sight, then come back through again. Makes you pull your bliddy hair out. They only way to stop them is to put a framework round their necks which inhibits their passage. Then, once their lambs are away, she goes too. It’s the only way to save your sanity. Does the farmer apologise by the way .

[Pete L]

The farm and the village fell out over a planning application - unfortunately the missus was (and is) chairman of the parish council. We're starting to get on better with them again but wandering round to complain rather than do something nice isn't going to help...much better to quietly rebuild a friendship.

[PeteSpencer]

Kill and joint them, give farmer one and keep the other as commission/damage payment.

Peter

[Pete L]

There's a round dozen. It's almost amusing in a Jasper Carrott sense and would be perfectly OK if I could be confident we won't run out of grazing - got very close in last year's dry summer. Despite all that winter rain the clay is cracking already and we never got the usual flush of spring grass - bit cold just as the grass usually gets going.

[Propwash]

Despite all that winter rain the clay is cracking

Slight thread creep

My garden is the inevitable London clay, improved over the years with old compost from tubs and pots being dug in, but despite one of the wettest winters I can remember for years, I have already had to spend an hour or more hosing the ground every few days because it is bone dry and cracking up. With no rain forecast here for the next week, and it being only May, I can see a hosepipe ban looming if the hot dry weather goes on. Where did all the groundwater from the winter go?

PW

[Bill Haddow]

Where did all the groundwater from the winter go?

PW

Into the Thames, through kidneys, into the Thames again, through other kidneys, into the . .

You get the picture. The London area uses a lot of water compared to the amount available.

Bill H

[PeteSpencer]

East Anglia gets half its water from surface water and half from pretty massive aquifers which are currently full.

My (lockdown project -#3) automatic watering system recently installed is doing a fine job of keeping our borders ( most of our plot is a massive paved patio and paved pathways all round house ) nice and wet.

The 6pm watering hour has now become the 6pm glass (or three) of wine hour



Peter
Edited for @Miscellaneous

[Miscellaneous]

The 6pm watering hour has now become the 6pm glass of wine hour

You a slow drinker then?

[Propwash]

You get the picture.

Bill H

I do. It was really a rhetorical question, Bill, but thanks for the lurid image you have managed to portray.

I do my best to conserve London's water by drinking beer rather than water to stay hydrated. (And before you say anything about the content of the bottle, the beer is brewed in Suffolk not London).

PW

[Pete L]

Unlocked Goats . Day 10 continued

1800 Goats return to ours and neighbours field. Ejected. Ring farmer.
1830 Fix new hole in fence together. Nice. First proper chat in ages.

Turns out they really were an impulse purchase for Eid and he's had a really bad year - no communal feasting. Goats and sheep on offer. Anyone want something well fed and really fresh for the barbie?

Unlocked Goats. Day 11.

0800 No goats so far.