Of Gardens & Goats, Part II...

This morning we worked in the garden again. I had a few tomatoes and peppers left we wanted to plant out there. I had put them in big pots to give them more growing room while waiting for the repair shop to finally fix the rototiller, so we needed a shovel to dig holes big enough to accommodate the balls of dirt without disturbing the roots. Farmer Jess dug holes and plopped the plants in. I helped cover them back up, and we were good to go.

I reckon this is about as late as I’ve ever planted hot weather crops in a garden, but we should get some produce from the stuff we planted today. Better planted late than left in the pot to rot.

As for the goats, it’s like this. Yesterday afternoon I went out to walk a bit and take some pictures. I made it as far as the driveway when I heard that distinct bleat that signals a goat in distress. It didn’t take me long to find the problem:

Yes, even after I’d added a second bungee cord to secure the gate, one of the goats had returned to the scene of the crime, and discovered yet again that once in the aviary, he couldn’t get back out. I’m not sure how long he was in there, but too long.

He obviously tried to get out by jumping through the net. He knocked down one of the supports for the hoop in the very back of the aviary but must have just bounced back off the netting that time. He tore a hole in the netting in the front, and that time he didn’t bounce back. Nope, there he was, hanging in a pocket of netting, until I got him on his feet…

I had to untangle horns and legs from the netting, then pull him up and out. I left the door open when I went inside the aviary to rescue the Houdini Wannabe (after all, he got IN where he shouldn’t be, but then got trapped and couldn’t get back out), so once I had him loose and his feet touched ground again, he was out that door faster than I could get my body back in the upright and walking position.

I added a third bungee cord to the door’s security system. I hope that takes care of pushy goat kids, because the aviary and my back can’t take many more trapped goats and rescues.

And I’m not kidding!