Feste...a foolsblog

Voracious Ungulates Invade Oakland Hills

"Eee-eee-eeeh, ee-ee-eeah, ee-eee-eeh".

Hundreds of multi-colored goats munch down the dense shoulder-high vegetation on our hill... not far from where the "91 Firestorm eruped. Prolonged spring rains carpeted the hills with an unusally lush growth of wildflowers and grass. Six-foot high stands of wild fennel and Queen Anne's Lace, acres of oat and rye grass, thickets of lupin and blackberry enterwined with young oak and pine trees are very pretty at the moment but in just a few short weeks it will dry, turn pale and become an inferno-in-the-waiting.

Happily the goats are a perfect solution...no more roaring weed wackers and chain saws at dawn for us. The Goat Guy first arrived with his gaggle of goats, Bernese herding dogs and an old but well maintained Airstream trailer three years ago. For the better part of this week, we will have the pleasure of arising to gentle bleating and the sight of goats scrampering about on the hill...joyful in their work.