Aug 14, 2009: Boeing's Grifftopia

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey...
but goats eat every damn thing they can reach.

Boeing's Renton, WA, plant had acres of undeveloped land, overgrown with blackberry briars, weeds and saplings.
Clearing that mess would be an expensive, labor intensive job... or take a lot of really nasty chemicals.
The solution was to hire a herd of 120 goats.


(Marian Lockhart photo.)

Goats are capable of eating an enormous amount; the herd worked in acre-sized plots
over approximately three weeks, clearing each acre in approximately four to five days.

(Marian Lockhart photo.)

Goats also thoroughly remove all debris -- seeds, seed pods, grasses, branches, bark, stems --
effectively controlling brush, tree suckers, and weedy trees such as alder and poplar.
According to Dunakin, goats' digestive process sterilizes weed seed pods, so there is no danger
of them being passed through the digestive tract and re-rooting in the soil.

Even the birds benefit;
as the goats lazily munch their way across the lot they stir up bugs that the birds love to eat.

Sometimes being politically and environmentally correct, is also cool. ;)

Look at the look on that goat's face!

"Eeeewwww! This tastes like crap!"

SPUCK;587791 wrote:

Look at the look on that goat's face!

"Eeeewwww! This tastes like crap!"

"No, it tastes fine, but my buddy Fred in front of me just lifted his tail and farted."

But then who had the job of going through the field after the goats and cleaning up the land mines that were left behind? Interns?

Goats are so cute. I want a goat. And a cow. And a horse. And an Irish Wolfhound. And about 10 acres.

What a great business plan! Someone pays you to feed your goats and then you get to sell the goat milk and such. Win, Win. :2cents:

blackberries, yum!

Goats are cute. They are also noisy, always pushy and sometimes agressive.
They are famously hard to contain, so that when they finish your neighbor's blackberries and weeds, your roses and veggies are next.
That is when the term "chevon" takes over.

Diaphone Jim;587861 wrote:

Goats are cute. They are also noisy, always pushy and sometimes agressive.
They are famously hard to contain, so that when they finish your neighbor's blackberries and weeds, your roses and veggies are next.That is when the term "chevon" takes over.

I only have roses and lollipops.

Why do you hate goatness? ;)

Our local wastewater treatment plant has a fenced area around one of the settling ponds. Within that area, at one time or another, I've seen sheep, goats and even llamas acting as lawncare maintenance staff. :eek:

MMM. Roast blackberry goat.

I thought Eeeewwww's were sheep?

I hear they fire frozen chickens at the windows of their planes to test the strength of the glass. Maybe they could just use the old goats instead.

MrsBug;587873 wrote:

Our local wastewater treatment plant has a fenced area around one of the settling ponds. Within that area, at one time or another, I've seen sheep, goats and even llamas acting as lawncare maintenance staff. :eek:

I think that's great! Welcome to The Cellar MrsBug! :)

xoxoxoBruce;587779 wrote:

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey...

Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.:headshake

I had that 45 when I was a kid. My grandma and I sang it together. The beauty of it was that when you were young, you thought about how it sounded vs how it was spelled. Actually kind of brilliant. I think it was my induction to listening to the subtleties of the English language, because I could actually hear the difference between "Mairzy doats" and "Mares eat oats" when I parsed it out in my head.

I know a ditty nutty as a fruitcake
Goofy as a goon and silly as a loon
Some call it pretty, others call it crazy
But they all sing this tune:

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
Yes! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy"

Oh! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you-oo?
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?

:)

eta: when I think about it my grandma played it on a big old record, on her console stereo she had. It looked a lot like this:

I thought I remembered reading that several communities were trying to use goats to keep the kudzu in check as well.

My goats love to eat everything! Including Kaluha, who decided to eat the shed one day...

hulk;587960 wrote:

I thought I remembered reading that several communities were trying to use goats to keep the kudzu in check as well.

Sort of an "immovable-object-meets-irresistible-force" kinda-thing. I like!

I read some communities in CA were hiring goats to clear the flammable brush, especially on steep hillsides, around their homes. Partially because it's cheaper and more efficient, and partially to get around CA's laws.

Our local municipal reservoir can only use goats on the face of the dam because anything else can injure the face causing rapid erosion, followed by a burst dam, surging maelstrom, fleeing victims, etc., etc.

xoxoxoBruce;587976 wrote:

I read some communities in CA were hiring goats to clear the flammable brush, especially on steep hillsides, around their homes. Partially because it's cheaper and more efficient, and partially to get around CA's laws.

It's ok to let goats do that, because illegal aliens won't do that kind of work anyway.:2cents:

Looks like a great place to be a goat. Pete just put the big goats in our temporary electric between the house and a permanent enclosure. The little guys were in there all week but were too busy playing on the rock pile to decimate their surroundings.

Guess they weren't hungry enough, probably because to feed them too well. :haha:

Yeah, kids today...

Griff;588062 wrote:

Yeah, kids today...

:lol2:

You've been holding that back waiting for the perfect moment, haven't you.

There is a goat farm at Ft. Bragg. Goats are good for lots of things.

Griff;588062 wrote:

Yeah, kids today...

dar512;588072 wrote:

You've been holding that back waiting for the perfect moment, haven't you.

I may have been years, butt it was worth it.

The police station at Bryon Bay, Australia, has a sheep in the yard as a lawn trimmer.

Its name? Bob.

Well, Ali might get it. For everyone else:

Pre-1966, Australia used non-decimal currency, including a shilling, which (a) had a picture of a merino sheep on one side and (b) was referred to as a "bob". There you go.

One night some rapscallion abducted Bob from his yard. The cheek! He was safely returned.

Then Bob grew old and passed away. His replacement?

Two Bob, of course.

TheMercenary;588074 wrote:

Goats are good for lots of things.

Yeah, if ya bugger 'em on the edge of a cliff, they push back...:sheep:

Gravdigr;588126 wrote:

Yeah, if ya bugger 'em on the edge of a cliff, they push back...:sheep:

Um... And you know this how? :thepain::rolleyes:

Suggestion!

Acquire a box of Mexican chocolate.(it's very hard and looks like a hockey puck)


Grate two tablespoons of the chocolate into a LARGE tumbler.

Obtain the services of a lactating goat. Milk said goat directly into the tumbler.

You will be gifted with a large foamy chocolate drink.

OHMYGAWD!! You'll think you died and went to heaven. It is soooOOOOOO GOOD!! We'd milk our weed whacker goats into chocolate until we could NOT drink another drop.

Seriously - everyone should have that once before they die.
And any children will be enthralled.

Noted, will get on that... err the mexican choco not the cliff hanging.

My grampa used to have an island he would let a goat or two run loose on to chew up the brush, after you leave them on their own for a year or so they'd turn wild though so he'd "have" to eat them. This story was always followed by a list of various delicious things you could do with goat meat.
I think he would have fit well on this forum. :P

Gravdigr;588126 wrote:

Yeah, if ya bugger 'em on the edge of a cliff, they push back...:sheep:

And if you shoot a hole in them they bleed just like humans.;)