We’ve been working our way around the state of Washington and even made a short trip to Beaverton, Oregon. Our longest stay was in the Issaquah Highlands. We spent a little over three weeks at four different locations. It was interesting to see how dry the sites were compared to previous years. Some of the residents were concerned about the risk of fire and were quite happy to see the goats working on the steep slopes near their houses. Craig was surprised himself at how well the goats ate the dry grass. He said their coats were shining, a definite sign there was adequate nutrition in the feed.
The goats have been an annual event at the Highlands for several summers now. People look forward to watching the goats and the parents bring their children to watch the goats do their job. Craig keeps Nessie and I away from the children because we want to herd them.
One morning when we were moving to the next location, Craig decided to use both me and Nessie. The trailer was all setup for the goats to go into the top deck of the trailer. With both of us working at the same time, the goats came running fast toward the trailer – coming too fast and they bunched up at ramp. The goats leaned against the netting Craig was using to guide the goats, and some of the goats pushed through and were out on the street. In the meantime Craig was trying to get us to slow down so the goats would slow down. He was not having much luck as we were excited and competing against each other. Craig closed off the top of the ramps so the goats in the trailer could not get back out again. He sent Nessie and I out to bring the goats back. There was a flurry of action as the goats ran up the street with us and Craig in pursuit. Craig opened up the pen next to the loading ramp and some of the goats went back into the pen, others went on the outside of the pen. Nessie and I are very competitive. It was difficult for Craig to manage both of us at the same time so he put Nessie back into the truck.
Craig and I have been working together for a long time. We got all the goats off the street into the open space. Some were in the pen and some where on the outside of the pen. Craig opened up the back side of the pen and with a little work I got the goats back into the pen. Craig closed the pen. Craig finished loading the top floor and then lowered the ramp to start loading the bottom floor. We loaded the goats that were in the pen. Craig knew that we did not have all the goats rounded up yet. So where were the rest of the goats?
We walked around the corner to look where the goats had been the previous day. There were a couple of goats headed our direction. Craig rearranged the fencing to funnel the goats into the pen. Once we goat these goats loaded more came around the corner. After a few minutes Craig felt that we had all the goats, but we made sure. We walked to the back end of the open area and found no more goats. Next time Craig decided not to use both of us at the same time. That’s fine with me, I like to work solo.
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