Small town living as I remember it involved neighbors bringing over apple pies when you moved in but honestly I am sure that is a fantasized version of how things went even 40 years ago. We were both a little surprised though that after two months of living in the house we had only met one neighbor. Turns out he was also our Fed Ex delivery guy and it was super sweet when he made a point to say hello while making a delivery. I felt vaguely guilty about how much work we had created for him in the last month with all our Amazon purchases, (yes I know its his job but still!) and didn’t enjoy the meeting as much as I could.

Part of the reason we moved so far out was we didn’t want close neighbors but still you want to know who is around you, just in case. I even mentioned it to my new hair dresser in Mt Sterling (side note seeing the same hair dresser two times in a row was a novel treat) and her response led me to believe that the country folk friendliness myth was just that. Anyway a couple of days later we were pleasantly surprised when we got an invitation to a neighbor’s annual back yard “block party” (country mile party?) in the mail. The neighbor not only put a real stamp on it but also added a note and said we hadn’t met but wanted to make sure we were included. That’s when I learned that the small crossroads right down the street (can’t even call it a town) was it’s own unincorporated community with about 100 people considered part of it and I was one of them! It even had its own Facebook group I learned later but I will get to that.

Everything was going right along and we had 4 blessed nights with no goats escapes, when we were on the phone with Lee’s aunt and he saw the goats across the street! Yes that’s right. What ensued was one of the most insane evenings of my life which is funny if you weren’t me in the scenario. The goats started going down the road, which gets a fair amount of traffic and we were chasing them. They can run pretty fast when they want to and there was no way like in a pasture to get in front of them. Finally I stopped cars in both directions and had 4 people trying to catch the goats. Two were neighbors and ultimately one (who was an electrician and had a work van) popped the mom into the back of the van and drove slowly back to our house while the baby followed.Yes it was funny, but honestly I was scared to death someone would get in an accident and country road or not people drive fast on it. The momma goat refuses to be on a lead and the baby wont let anyone touch her at all so it wasn’t great. We got them home and immediately went and bought twenty more 16′ long and 50″ high cattle panels. We managed to get them in our truck by hanging them over the top and Lee’s plan was to install them the next day. We know the gates we have are a weak point so we also planned on adding more snow fencing and lowering the gates a little.

The next day went fine and I checked on them routinely. At 3:30 I even went out and gave everyone a watermelon treat and things looked pretty chill. Finally at 5:30 I went out for the evening feed and the goats were gone. I don’t just mean out of the gate I mean gone. So I drove all the roads and ultimately hat in hand asked our neighbors if they had seen them. Our neighbor across the street was mowing for several hours and he was in his early 30’s and very nice but had not seen them. He remembered them from yesterday though! Then I drove down to the neighbor next door with the 35 acres and explained I thought it was possible they were on his property. He also had a young family and definitely could relate to animals getting out. We gave him our phone number and then went back home and watched Clarkson’s Farm (available on Prime Video) which is our new favorite show because it proves we aren’t the only idiots.

At 9pm we got a call from our neighbor and they said they saw on the small community Facebook group someone had found the goats. That’s how I learned we had a Facebook group. Lisa (who also works from home) only had a name so she got on the State auditor website and found and address it was .1 miles down the road and there we met another neighbor Ruth who had a huge farm with our goats in her barn. Ruth was also very nice and told us her neighbor found them on the road and had assumed that they were hers and put them in her barn. I could see why because she had goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, a mini horse, and dogs all over her property. It was controlled chaos in the best way and she obviously knew what she was doing. As another side note while we were there we saw goats jumping over 4 foot fences with relative ease and when we asked why they didn’t wander off she stated because they knew that’s where the food was. Since we are feeding the Momma goat the best quality hay and corn we can find and have beautiful pasture I didn’t know what to say to that. Honestly I think she is just trying to get to a bigger herd, which I don’t have.

After receiving some more helpful advice we got the goats home (thankfully we had picked up a large dog cage at an estate sale and we got our truck back from the shop) so we had a way to transport them. We both knew though that something had to change so after a sleepless night I decided to call the man who originally sold the pair to me. I know he is under no obligation to help but my plan was to pick up two more babies for my birthday on Saturday so after explaining the situation I asked if I could bring the Mom back. I should have gone with three babies from the beginning but in a misguided attempt to have some protection for the goats I had insisted on a Mom and a baby. I like the Mom very much but we can’t keep doing this and in my mind at least she is obviously looking for something. She also has some very bad habits that I don’t have the time or energy to train out of her but with babies hopefully we can start fresh. This isn’t unlike getting a puppy versus a full grown dog and since I do work 50 hours a week I just don’t have the time to put into her.

With some reluctance the seller agreed but we had to go that evening because his remaining goats were going to auction Friday. That was no problem because my intent was to leave them locked in their stall all day anyway while Lee fixed the fencing. The dog cage (on our wagon to transport) is already down there so this would be relatively easy. I truly had a sleepless night over sending this goat to an auction, but practicality won out and we loaded The Momma (notice I stopped calling her by name. There is a reason people don’t name farm animals) into a large dog crate we got at an estate sale and placed it on our wagon and put her in the back of the truck. Her baby went crazy bleating so it was all pretty dramatic, and we loaded her into the back of the truck by the window, Lee strapped the crate down and off we went.

The seller is about 20 minutes away and a really nice guy Rob who invited us to tour his small farm. I wish I could show you picture of these setups but that’s not really cool so let me try and describe it. He has two different small pastures and a couple of mixed barn areas with goats, cows, two HUGE hogs, and chickens. His animals (except for the pigs) all grazed together, and Edith was thrilled when she was let loose into her home. He had isolated the three babies (with one Mom) in a side room and after some difficulty we caught the three and put them together in a cage.

One thing we have noticed is most people have a hodge podge of building structures. What they spend their money on is fencing and after our experience I understand why. The previous owners spent their money on the building, but the fencing is a mix. You know that saying “good fences make good neighbors”, I always thought that was kind of weird but now I totally get it. Animals on the loose can cause all kinds of destruction to crops, landscaping, and gardens and it’s our primary responsibility to keep these animals on our land as much as humanely possible.

We got home and saw our baby was out and in the chicken area. Thankfully she had stayed close and we put the other three in the stall with her. Immediately two of the new ones got out through a REALLY small hole in the fencing. When I say hole I mean it is part of the fence design and we were both amazed they could wriggle through it, so we piled up straw bales all around to get through the night and went into the house. We have a camera to monitor and the baby threw herself repeatedly against the bars trying to get out but was locked in thankfully. We went out to check them one more time and then went to bed.

The next morning Lee woke up and went to get snow fencing (not always easy to find this time of year but Menards a local hardware chain we love had it) and then he put that along all the new fence he had just put up the day before. I have to say Lee has put everything on hold to help me fix this problem which is the only thing that make it possible with me working full time. The snow fence stops them from getting through the small holes and has worked on both the chickens and the goats by the way. Also way cheaper and easier than chicken wire although we know it wont really be a predator deterrent. Anyways, Lee got all that up and we were finally able to get them out of the stall. That was of paramount importance because it was going to be another humid 90 degree day and we wanted them to be able to get out of the stall.

Finally the goats can run free and although they are testing their fence so far no escapes. In some places we have triple fencing and if that doesn’t get it done I don’t know what will. The babies are super cute and Lee named them Jane, Paula Georgie, and Ringa; The Bleatles. That goes really well with my Spice Girls chicken group. I’m really hoping they all settle in quickly so I can start working with them and I even ordered a cow bell to train them to. Let’s face it everyone needs more cow bell in their life!

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