Honey, the fence is leaking again

Oh to be young and innocent again. I lucked into the innocence with my four relatively new goats this weekend. I found their escape route. Let me explain.

My ol veteran goats have become crafty through the years. I mean they have made escape an art form. Some day, you’d see them dragging their butts near a fence, most would say “Oh, she has worms”. I know better, they’re just trying to cover their tracks from another escape route. I have become a more experienced tracker too. I can spot a potential hole from 100 yards…. Well usually……

This last week, they had me buffaloed. They’d end up in my neighbor’s yard most everyday. I looked and looked, and mended and mended, but had no luck. They still escaped. My neighbor threatened to start shooting if I didn’t do something, so I told him to give me to till the weekend, and if they were still getting out, he could have at it. I’d even paint targets on em to make it easier.

So not seeing where they were going under, I guessed they were going over. I had miles of electric fence wire from my failed six-strand venture and decided to put a wire on top of the fence and hook it up to my old solar charger. So Sunday, armed with butt paste, spandex, and my fence stretcher, I decided to make a day of it.

I made great progress and towards the end of the day ended up doing a successful fence test using the “Bachelor method”. This is where I had hooked up the fence to make sure everything works, then while pounding another ground rod, I accidentally lean over with my sweaty forehead and touch the wire, then try to guess the voltage. SWWWWWAAAAPPPP!!!!!! OWWWW, that felt like around 4000 volts, The tester said around 2500, I’m a little bit rusty…..

I was pounding the last ground rod, when I heard some fence rattling and some commotion near me. One of my veteran goats made a Bawwwwww. I knew that that meant “NO!!!! He’s too close!! He’ll find out!!” Sure enough, one of the new goats was outside. I sprinted over to see what was going on. OK, I say sprinted, and for a 44 year old it might be considered a sprint, but here’s what actually happened:

I took off running, then my toe caught on some leftover bushhog stubble. I tripped and finally regained my balance in the middle of a fire ant mound. Realizing where I was, I went stomping and running right into a briar patch, which, with some strategically placed briars, will stop your stomping in a hurry. After untangling myself and making sure I was ant free, I came to near where the goat had escaped. Sure enough, there was another new goat about halfway through.

These guys were pretty clever on this one. The hole was under some small brush and it wasn’t very high. It was a loose part of the fence, and the goats were going under. All except Billy, who can jump a five foot fence (I’ve seen him!!). Well a post and some fence ties did the job, and hopefully that will stop the leak. Thanks new ones for showing me the way.

Just in case that wasn’t the only hole though, I picked the most ornery goat I know of to appease my neighbor.

Billy is probably still wondering what that painted on red spot is for……..