William the Awesome Neighbor, Compromised Fencing, and An Exhausted Ellen.....

So let me begin by telling you about William. William is pretty much a badass dude. He is a handsome older man, has every piece of equipment you could ever possibly need, wears cutoff overalls with his work boots as his daily uniform and has a long, well groomed grayish ponytail that hangs out from underneath his straw hat. He is always out on his property and is always willing to help out. I first met William when I was putting up the new fencing. I was in the middle of this overgrown pasture and he came right on over on his tractor and cut the projected fence-line for me (I was using manual hedge trimmers - whew!) A few weeks ago, my 17 year old kitty passed away and the ground was bending every shovel that attempted to break through the earth. William came over with his backhoe that reads "Westside Choppers" and in less than 5 minutes had dug a nice place next to the garden for Puppy (my cat) and Helix (Lauren's cat which had passed on the same day of old age). So I already had a hunch this man was gonna be a great asset to my project. He and his wife live on the neighboring lot and keep an eye out for the acre.....and I am glad it is someone who is willing to help me rather than someone who feels that the chickens, goats, and sheep are a nuisance.

Yesterday while I was at work, I got a call from William. He said his wife was pretty sure she saw Eli out on their property eating some overgrowth. He had walked over to our fenceline and saw Eli on the farside of the 'acre' but not in the fence. I left work, drove to the 'acre', walked Eli into the gardenspace (he was so happy so be put back in the fence - poor thing seemed upset that he was out), and met William at the supposed exit spot where he thought Eli may have escaped. We tried to figure out what happened because Eli is not a jumper and wasn't happy to be out of his comfortable and secure fence. It was the muscadine vines...they had crawled all over the farside corner and the goats had eaten every leaf from the vines and the constant tugging on the vines had bent the fence down low enough to where Eli just happened to walk/hop out with little effort.
I had to get back to work, but left Eli in the gardenspace until I could get back to repair the fence. William offered to meet me there after work and I called my mom in for backup as well. I wasn't worried about the other goats or sheep escaping since it wasn't a gaping hole, and Eli was left to devour the garden.....I left him with a very large bowl of sweet feed in hopes I would have a few plants left when I was able to return........
***********STRAWBERRIES!*************

 **********RADISHES***********

 **************SQUASH!***************

 ***********CUCUMBERS COMING SOOOOOOOOOOON!*************

 **********OUR VERY FIRST TOMATO!************

 *******SUGAR BABY WATERMELONS!! **********

 After work I met my mom and William and we started loping and hedge trimming (and he was chain-sawing). We removed all the vines and overgrowth, added a few more fence posts and stretched the existing fence back to where it needed to be. Viola! I offered to pay William for his very needed expertise and help, but he refused. I asked if he would be interested in some grassfed, all natural beef (Emmet from Falling Creek Farms was about to make a delivery out to the 'acre'), and he said he would gladly accept that, so I paid William with a pound of delicious Falling Creek beef. Eli was returned to the field and he only ate a few of my tomato plants and okra. I can live with that......here are the photos of the "damage"...........

 Emmet came by with his beautiful girls and they had a blast in the field with the goats and chickens. They ran the babies and chickens until Ellen was pooped - Ellen has turned out to be quite the 'Energizer Bunny'. She is going nonstop if someone is in the field to watch. She is definitely an entertainer. She runs in loops, does fast spins, and even swirls off the top of the goat hut. I had never seen her so exhausted....

All in all it was a productive day and again the babies were happy to go inside the barn for the night with the new solar lanterns to give off some warm light.