Slowly building for the goats

[sagetrecker]

I built this a couple months ago. My goats run across and play on it is very cool to watch them.

[Nanno]

The sure love climbing on woodpiles, don't they! I have some spools like that, but I don't pile wood up for them. However, this time of year I always have a firewood pile near the house that the goats love to play on, especially when I've just added to it. I sometimes stack my firewood, but I'm finding more and more that stacking is a futile act when you have goats. They only insist on tearing it down.

[sagetrecker]

I was nervous about them falling down. Hurting themselves. About a week they would run across it. I was impressed. They only butt heads to keep each other of the spools.

[GoldenTreePackGoats]

Hmmm maybe I'll have to get some throw away log rounds and pile them up for our goats. We use spools too, I like to place a rock under the spool so that it's angled and moves when they get on it. It seems to help them with balance.

[Nanno]

Hmm... I like the tippy spool idea! We had a teeter-totter out for a long time until the wind blew it down and broke the fulcrum. I'd like to get a new one welded from metal this time so it can't break and would also be heavy enough to not blow over. I know some people worry that their goats will get hurt on things that move or have holes or gaps in them, and while it's certainly possible for accidents to happen, I think the benefits outweigh the risks. I think it's important for goats to learn how to watch out for themselves and learn how to navigate tippy, potentially leg-trapping things without getting hung up or injured.

One thing I'd love to build someday is a spool hung on a suspended bar at the right height for goats to jump on. It would spin and force them to either balance or get tipped off. I watched Finn jump onto a spool laying on its side and roll it from one end of the yard to the other. I wished I could have left it down like that for him to play on but I couldn't risk him to rolling it into one of our electric fences or off a hillside. So I thought it would be great if I could hang it from a bar between two posts so he could roll it all day without destroying anything.