There’s an old saying that if you throw a bucketful of water at a fence and any gets through, it won’t hold a goat. Well, there might be a lot of truth to that.
Litha walking through a fence several years ago.
When I bought my farm ten years ago, the first thing I had to do was fix fence around the Back Forty. And I did replace fence on three sides.
Right after we put the fence in.
That left one section (on two sides) that did not get replaced, but I did my best hobbling job, and it actually worked really well until last summer. Last summer I think I had to open the panel by the lane to let goats in every day. Seriously. It was quite a pain.
leaning and hobbled, but still working when this image was taken a few years ago
It started again this spring as soon as they went out to pasture, so I followed them to see where they were getting through. That little spot is where they were sneaking under.
Penelope and Hera were my two main offenders.
Hera and Penelope
I added a little section of panel and figured that should do the trick.
Penelope checking it out.
Penelope tried going through before I even had it secured. Luckily, she can get her head back out from the panel.
When I got done tying it tight (with Moose supervision),
Moose
I stood up and turned around to see…
Dang Penelope! I couldn’t do anything until she came back through, so I decided to just hang with the rest of the herd for a little bit when I turned to see…
Hera
She’s almost five months pregnant (which is why I didn’t grab a leg and wrestle her back out).
Hera with Caroline on the right side of the fence
Don’t worry; she got back through, and I did some more hobbling. I’m sure that will take care of the problem until the next time they go out to pasture. My hope is that this last stretch will get replaced this summer.
