I call the area outside of Pip and Caper’s stall the goat paddock. It’s where they spend most of their time. Yes, they have a pasture filled with grasses and briars and pine trees, which they do like to eat. But they also get a flake of hay a day, so hunger doesn’t drive them out in the morning. They leave the paddock when they get bored or when they have a twinge of stomach rumblings. They forage several hours a day. However, the goat boys prefer to stay close to home. They like to chat with the hens and Phoebe. Caper stands in the corner of the paddock and watches the house. If he glimpses me while I’m at the kitchen sink he bleats for me to come out. (Do you see the screen porch? He looks through that to a window. Really. Goats have very good eye sight.) So, despite the fact that they have plenty of space, the boys spend most of their time standing around in just a couple of spots close to the barn.

Although the goats mostly stay near the barn, you might not see the boys on the GoatCam because they sometimes stand on the big rock, gazing out, as if they have plans. Which they don’t.

Or, they might be scratching their bellies on the smaller rock.

But, usually, they are standing and staring at the house. Waiting for the Goat Maid. The ground where they stand is bare and packed down. Goats pee and poop a lot, so you can imagine how nasty it would get if I didn’t clean it up frequently. In order to minimize smells, flies and to prevent parasites from multiplying, I keep the area as tidy as possible. But, it’ll soon be muddy and partially frozen, which makes cleaning difficult. Goat manure comes out like ever so many bouncing beans. It can’t be shoveled or raked, it needs to be swept up which becomes impossible in the winter. The goat paddock needed improvement, and so I put the human teenage boy to work.

Last weekend he laid paving stones and more than doubled the area of the goat patios. See the “goat berries?” Now I’ll be able to easily sweep them up!

Where there had been mud mashed with manure, there’s now a tidy surface. The goats like it. They hate getting their feet wet. This winter I’ll be able to shovel that space, and they’ll be able to stand there to talk with their friends.  (Do you see Phoebe in the pen?) Every evening she and the goats have a confab by the fence.

The teenager was paid for his efforts. He’s saving for some computer thingy that I don’t understand. But that’s okay, because I have some more improvement projects to send his way. Win-win all around.

Phoebe is ready for winter. She’s put on a layer of fat. She’s grown a thick coat.  Bring it on.

The other day the Goat Maid found one goat in the backyard. Caper was happily eating crabgrass.

His brother, Pip, was still in the paddock, standing in the sun on his bench. The gate was closed.

Was Caper some sort of magician? No, the bottom chain had been inadvertently left unlatched. Pip said that it looked closed to him, and that the opening was far too small to squeeze through.

Caper, however, saw it differently. Caper said that the gate was wide open. Really. He said that the Goat Maid wanted him to graze on all of this lovely green grass. He’s a well-behaved boy. He wouldn’t go far. He wasn’t even eating the parsley!

The Goat Maid’s geometry skills are not up to calculating how that belly could fit through the gap in the fence. But, she did know how to get him back. Chard. Notice that Pip is eager to eat the greens, but that he does not go through the gate.

Caper, clever boy, tried to figure out how to eat the chard while staying on the grassy side. However, he was not as clever as the Goat Maid (at least not at this moment.)

The gate was closed (and about to be latched, top AND bottom.)

The goats ate chard. Good boys!