More Than Just a Pretty Picture

I do think this is a pretty picture. I spent most of the day on the hill cutting the grass and pruning trees and bushes to get ready for fire season. It doesn't feel like fire season is right around the corner. We have rain in the forecast and it was a little brisk today, and of course we have a bunch of perfect clouds that look like I painted them there.

The fire department will start sending inspectors out at the beginning of may to check that we've cleared the brush. So even though everything is still green I'm trying to get a head start and not have to do everything the last weekend of April. So that explains what I was doing up on the hill but not why I took this picture. I take a lot of pictures of my valley because I can't get over how pretty it is. I could bore you with whole slide shows of puffy clouds against turquoise skies, wildflowers, Redtailed Hawks, orange purple sunsets and lost birthday balloons.

But that's not why I took the picture. Take a look below. Follow the red arrow. (click on image for higher resolution, it's worth it)

See that white speck? That's a goat. It's totally a goat, and you can't see the second one that was with it. They both were ambling along exploring the hill. No fence, no tether. They acted like they belonged there, and although I'm happy to agree with them it seemed a little strange that a couple goats were wandering around on the hill.

The reason that I'm so interested is because I'm totally goat crazy. I've been obsessing about getting a couple of milk goats. I've already drawn a little goat shed that will have an even better view than the chicken coop. I would need to fence off the top twenty feet of my property but then the chickens could run around too. It sounds like paradise.

So I got excited when I saw goats in the neighborhood. It would be nice if other people were already doing it so it wouldn't seem so strange when I get a couple of little dwarf Nigerians. Look how F-ing cute they are:


I sat and watched the goats for a while and eventually someone came out looking for them and chased them back down the hill. I'm thinking that maybe they escaped from a pen further down the hill. Maybe I'll go for a walk tomorrow and see if I can spot them.

Update 04/10/11:

Yep, goats. Alex and I walked over to spy on the goats. There were two does wandering on the hill and one billy tethered not far away. The billy was bleating and causing a bit of a ruckus but the does didn't seem to be bothered by us at all.