Adaptations and observations

When Jace stopped by to check on the herd Monday, Erika and I happened to have already been back there, hanging out and commenting on the progress. She noted that the area was starting to get that barnyard scent (in a good way!) and that immediately tied a lot of other observations together for me. Organic matter is getting worked into the topsoil, stalks are tromped down and dried, droppings are being dropped (though unless you find a large flat rock, it's hard to tell), and we're starting to be able to see the ground between stripped stalks of stickweed as you look out across the field. We get the sense that something healthy is being accomplished.

The goats have also started eating more bark and are grazing the thorny stuff a little more. Jace helped them out by snapping down some poplar saplings; all the goats rushed over excitedly, ba-a-a-a-ing, and chomped away at the leaves.

This, and the fact that the goats have done-in a handful of juniper trees that have been caught in the action, got me thinking about some of our earlier conversations about what to clear and what not to clear. Regardless of the impracticality of having several small trees sucking water and casting shadows in an area that we may one day garden on, it's never easy to just cut down a tree. But, having made the decision to let the goats clear this piece of land, their natural appetites are making some choices for us (with the exception of the red bud trees that were protected by some extra fencing). And this feels good. Or at least, it feels better. The goats are getting fed, and they're returning the trees to the soil in a form that will be usable to the next generation of plants. We have lots of saplings, but we have little soil. So this feels like a good trade off. Also in our case, there's another few acres of this type of growth, so it's not like we've extinguished the poplar and juniper population (and it's not like we couldn't wait five minutes for another poplar grove to spring up if we had to).

And the experiment rolls on!

- John