As much as I love my dear goats, I am spittin' mad right now! I was walking past the library window today when my peripheral vision saw something very wrong, and an involuntary scream came from my mouth. I spun around on my toes, nearly hitting my forehead on the window as a string of expletives spewed from my lips. Two goats were in the midst of the apple trees happily gnawing at the bark!
We planted six apple trees and two pear trees when we moved here five years ago, creating a lovely little orchard. This past year, the pear trees and one of the apple trees died due to these two little goats and their friends stripping the bark from them. They have now stripped the bark from the remaining four apple trees. I'm so frustrated! Last summer was the first harvest from the trees, so in addition to having to buy new apple and pear trees, we'll have to wait another four years for a crop of fruit.
These two goats do NOT respect the electric fence, which is how they get into the yard. They just walk right through it as if it's nothing -- perhaps it's a tickley massage to them? I don't find it pleasant at all when I accidentally touch the fence. I don't understand how they can just walk right through it, but perhaps the taste of apple bark is just too delicious to be deterred by something as blah as an electric shock?
1 comment:
I think after the first time or two, I would have invested in some permanent fencing, chickenwire cages -- or a shotgun!
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