Where Vintage Never Gets Old...
Goat instead of Lawn Mowers!!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128411947&...
Goats deployed by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles have been hired since 2008 to crop a hillside city park in Bunker Hill.
munching some brush in a Los Angeles park.Goats deployed by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles have been hired since 2008 to crop a hillside city park in Bunker Hill.
July 10, 2010
The peace of an otherwise quiet summer weekend is often muddled by the sound of lawn mowers and leaf blowers. In Los Angeles’ business district, an old-fashioned method of ground control
provides an alternative soundtrack — the munching of goats.
In a steep hillside city park on Bunker Hill, right next to the world’s shortest railway, 120 goats are about to be deployed. "Oh my gosh, they're so cute," Nate Giddings says as he makes his way to
work in a nearby skyscraper.
There are baby goats and mama goats, but they're all hungry goats. This natural landscaping crew was trucked in from a farm in San Diego. Their assignment: mowing down the unruly growth of brush on these 2 1/2 acres. "I've never seen them used for this," Giddings says. "I think it's hysterical."
The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles thinks it's smart — not to mention ecological. This is the third year in a row the agency has hired a herd to tend this unwieldy land. The goats belong to Johnny Gonzalez, who says they get an undeserved bad rap. "Goats are great survivalists," he says. "They learn to survive on meager means, so people tend to think of them as doing something destructive. But the goats allow the natural plants to take hold and pretty much do away with all the invasive weeds and grasses."
They also entertain thousands of passersby in the process. For these few days, Bunker Hill has become a mix of the fiercely urban and charmingly bucolic. Just ask Finney, one of several homeless men who sleep here. Today, he's right beside where the goats are working, and he likes how they make the big,
busy city more human. "They make everybody smile. Normally people come and go here to the Metro. It's so nice to see people stopping and smiling and laughing," he says. "It creates this kind of warmth, this unity. People talk about it, you know. " And the goats save the city $3,000 over the environmentally unfriendly alternative of weed killers and weed whackers.
But no matter how good a job they do, the goats won't have this gig forever — the site is slated to be developed into an office tower.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by CheriShops - Admin on -
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now that is real cute "greening"!!
I detest the sound of power lawn mowers and weed-whackers and blowers -
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Permalink Reply by Out Of The Attic 2u on
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I wish they would send them to my house lol there are so much weeds in the back as it is not landscaped but wild with trees and weeds. We only do the front. The back was never graded when we had the house built and none of us go back there anyways well except for the deers and the bears and the rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks snakes bugs and birds and bees and whatever other creepy thing that crawls around and my neighbors cats.
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Permalink Reply by MTippingAtelier-Admin on -
Love this story!! I adore goats, and we are seriously considering getting a couple of goats in lieu of mowing our grass. A gentlemen sells his artisinal goat cheeses at a local farmer's market each week and he said he has two young goats we could buy for $40 each. It's so tempting...You have to get two--just like potato chips (and basset hounds;), you can't have just one! I don't know how the bassets and the goats would get along so I am a bit nervous. They are very destructive to trees and flower beds, but you just have to get your mind around that and plan accordingly. They are not much trouble, they just need a lean-to for shelter and hay to supplement their diet in winter but they just do their thing on the grass! They also eat noxious weeds such as poison ivy...
Mary, future shepherdess:)
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Permalink Reply by MTippingAtelier-Admin on
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Oh, I would dearly love to have chickens too! My friend, Margaret, had five of them and Philip built a wonderful coop (more condo than coop;) with nesting boxes, etc. She fed them all kinds of leftovers, fruits and vegetables and they wandered around her property. Alas, she had to move and couldn't take them with her (one had been killed by something as well). She offered them to us, but we, again, were worried about our dogs and especially the foxes and I couldn't bear it if anything happened to them. You have never, ever tasted anything as delicious as freshly laid eggs from truly free range, cage free hens! And the most delicate colors--pale, pale blue and green. Someday I'll have my chickens! {sigh}
Mary
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Permalink Reply by ElsiesAttic-Admin on -
I wonder if bunnies would do the same thing??? I could get into that!!! :)
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Permalink Reply by LilacsNDreams on -
LOL! Funny this was mentioned. My daughter lives about 12 miles N of us on the same gravel road at a hog confinement her husband runs. Anyway, they have a section between the house & confinements that the grass just grows fast, and accumulates. So, the owner brought out a few goats, and put them right there, I think it started off like 10? of them. Well, he just brought some more in...they have a whole herd of them now, and are they sooo cute! All sizes, and some of them like to walk with you when you are walking around the fence too. They come up to the fence by you, like to lick on your fingers, and they are just adorable & a colorful herd too!:)
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Permalink Reply by MTippingAtelier-Admin on
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LilacsNDreams, what fun! Each week we go to a local dairy farm to get our milk (Jersey cows!) and they have a herd of goats--chickens, and some donkeys and the cows, of course--that I love to watch and talk to (yes, I do talk to animals;) Last week there was a little girl who lived across the road who was watching two mamma goats and took me around and told me about them, that they were pregant and ready to have their babies. It was so sweet:) I want to go back today to check on them! Goats are intelligent, and very dog-like, as well!;)
M.
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Permalink Reply by Gilty Girl Vintage on -
I've seen them near Mulholland Pass on the slopes across the 10 lane freeway just southwest of the Getty Center and before the famous round apartment house that used to be a record company that you would recognize from TV and films. Ah yes, every now and then our tax dollars are put to excellent use!
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Permalink Reply by LilacsNDreams on
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I love it!:) Don't worry about talking to the animals...on my grandparent's farm I use to do it with the cows:) and many of the other animals too. 1 cow had a big old ugly lump on her leg I would call her beefy, I would stand down by the 1 side of the fence where the apple tree was, and throw apples to them all to eat. Now that I am older, I understand why they liked me LOL!
Also, at 1 point I felt bad cuz the cows got to mooing, and I was mooing back to them from 1 of the old hen houses. They would moo, I would moo, and so on. When I later turned around, I had to run up to the house to get grandma & grandpa as the cattle had gotten out from their gates, and were in the yard. While Grandma, Grandpa & Lady..the dog...got them rounded up again, I jumped up on the big old septic tank & watched. Secretly I felt bad cuz I thought my mooing to them was some how talking to them that they got out.....I am older now, and know better:)
MTippingAtelier said:LilacsNDreams, what fun! Each week we go to a local dairy farm to get our milk (Jersey cows!) and they have a herd of goats--chickens, and some donkeys and the cows, of course--that I love to watch and talk to (yes, I do talk to animals;) Last week there was a little girl who lived across the road who was watching two mamma goats and took me around and told me about them, that they were pregant and ready to have their babies. It was so sweet:) I want to go back today to check on them! Goats are intelligent, and very dog-like, as well!;)
M.
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Permalink Reply by LilacsNDreams on
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LOL! Love that about the tax dollars! Hey, cheaper tax dollars too:) This one is not quite so costly for us, right:>)
HighDesertRose Vintage - Admin said:I've seen them near Mulholland Pass on the slopes across the 10 lane freeway just southwest of the Getty Center and before the famous round apartment house that used to be a record company that you would recognize from TV and films. Ah yes, every now and then our tax dollars are put to excellent use! -
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Permalink Reply by MTippingAtelier-Admin on
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LilacsNDreams quite rightly pointed out "...cheaper tax dollars too:)"--which is exactly why this could never be allowed to be a permanent situation;)!
It sounds like you had a perfect childhood, how I envy you having cows around you--I love them, too! Well now, you never know what those cattle were thinking--they could have been responding to your calls;)! That's your story-- and you should stick to it;) BWAHAHAHAHA! Whenever I can get close to the cows at the dairy farm, I always "moo" as well and they gaze at me quizzically, but I know that they know what I'm talkin' about:)
M.
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Permalink Reply by LilacsNDreams on
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LOL! I am laughing at this, and sooo loving it too! Thank you soo much for making my day! I have had about 2 hrs of sleep, and am gonna try to sleep a bit more...quiet house. But, you gave me a smile, some pleasant thoughts, and I should relax to sleep a bit.
By the way...I agree about the cheaper tax dollars. Unfortunately, good things that are not so costly will never last for us as the government will mess something else up, and find a way to charge us for that too. Thought we lived in a free country? LOL! Ok, I am out of here everyone! I'll be back.....Just thought I'd warn ya'll!:) Later..........
Kim
LilacsNDreams
MTippingAtelier said:LilacsNDreams quite rightly pointed out "...cheaper tax dollars too:)"--which is exactly why this could never be allowed to be a permanent situation;)!
It sounds like you had a perfect childhood, how I envy you having cows around you--I love them, too! Well now, you never know what those cattle were thinking--they could have been responding to your calls;)! That's your story-- and you should stick to it;) BWAHAHAHAHA! Whenever I can get close to the cows at the dairy farm, I always "moo" as well and they gaze at me quizzically, but I know that they know what I'm talkin' about:)
M.
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