The Rest of the Goat Story

I don't know if you remember, but back in February we bought some goats to clear our island. Joe had read that if you wanted to easily clear a parcel of land that you could put goats on it and they would eat everything that was within their reach. He further read that goats HATE the water and they don't swim, so he figured that since we needed an island cleared that he could put the goats on the island without a fence and leave them be and they would be set to clear it. They could drink the water in the lake when they got thirsty, and they could eat the vegetation on the island, so we wouldn't have to continuously feed them, so it would be a win/win situation.
Here is a picture of the island before we had the goats:
Here is a picture I took today, after the goats have done their work:

It was an adventure at first, however. Joe got the goats on a Saturday morning of a three day weekend. He took them up and carefully rowed them across to the island in our little aluminum boat, blindfolding them in the process- two people in the boat, one to hold the goat and one to row. He left them there overnight. The next day, we went up to spend the night at our cottage up there, and we all went out to the island to visit the goats. When we got back in the boat and rowed back to the land, we looked behind us and the goats were climbing in the water and swimming over to be with us. (they were pampered show goats before we got them and had never lived outside of a heated barn where they were constantly tended before so they were lonely).

This was so not part of the plan, so Joe had to do some quick thinking. He had previously built a metal shelter on the island so the goats had somewhere to get out of the rain, so he decided to temporarily put a gate on the shed and put them in it. That was a good solution for a few days, but he had to go up regularly to feed them and still didn't want to fence the island. We ended up putting a fence across the small area that the goats had swam from before, and started coming and going from the far side of the island. We kept them penned up for a couple of weeks so that they realized this was their new home, and then we let them roam the island freely.

They did great. When we would go out there we would check on them and supplement their food.

At first there were several people living on the lake that didn't like them. Someone told us that we couldn't just put goats on someone else's land (when Joe informed them that he owned the whole island they backed off). Things changed when people saw how docile and low mantenance the goats were. We were out there a couple of weeks ago and we saw someone ride a canoe over and stop on the island to pet the goats.
(Another cleared island shot:)

Today, Mohammed from Algeria came and purchased the goats. He didn't say it expressly, but it seemed like they were going to be dinner. Ellie and Nate kept saying very enthusiastically- "bye, goats!" I think that we will miss having them, really they were a great experience for us.

These last two are pictures of Joe and Adam bringing the goats across the water to sell them. Notice how you can see through the underbrush. The goats ate everything that was green on the island. There are still a lot of branches and sticks around, but Joe plans to take a hedge trimmer and trim it all up so that it is nice and clear, then I can only imagine the things those boys will think of to do on the island.

You know, if I tried I couldn't think up crazy stories that are as exciting as the things that happen because of Joe's brilliant ideas. Its a good thing I married him, otherwise I might find myself bored on occasion!