on electric fencing

Finally! It is up and running. Jarvie came over to help me hook it all up earlier this week. And it wasn't that I couldn't do it myself, just that I was freaked out about doing it and needed moral support. And someone to touch it when it was all finished so we could test it and see if it worked! Of course, she refused, so I let everything sit for a few days until yesterday I decided to just go for it and let the girls out. The worse that could have happened was that it didn't work and they would have broken through it, and the best was that it worked fine.

It worked fine!

Here's the thing about electric fencing: it isn't a physical barrier but a psychological one. These girls weigh at least 200#, and at 135#, I get dragged along behind them whenever I try to lead them anywhere. They flip me like a rag doll unless I am really digging in my heels. And even then.

So here are these big girls with these little wires. A touch of the nose here, and then over there, and again over there was enough to give them a healthy fear of the fence. It was so awesome. Once they figured out the boundary, they just ran and ran. At first, they'd run right for me and I was sure they'd simply fly into the fence, but they'd turn at the last minute to run the other way. They were SO happy to get out of their pen. I can't quite figure out how they can run so fast being so fat, but they managed.

I wonder how much the world around me is like an electric fence. A shock here, a shock there, and suddenly I have this psychological barrier that keeps me from doing and being all that I can do and be. What limits me, really, save for a few strands of wire? A story about some events that happened in the past?

Ooops. As I was writing so philosophically about the electric fence, Hershey got out! Dammit! See, I don't want an electric fence to limit me, but I certainly want it to limit her! It's possible that the 5 strands being hot are making it not so shocking. I'm not really sure. It's got a 50 mile radius, so that should be enough. What do I know about these things anyway? I put her nose to the fence a few times, and maybe that will work. But she was actually standing on the wire and I'm betting she wasn't feeling the shock through her hooves. Well, we shall just have to see. I'll make sure nothing is touching it, perhaps put another ground halfway around, and see what happens.

Seriously, goats are the most stubborn, strong, annoying, delightful creatures that one can take care of. If this doesn't work, I really have no idea what I'll do, other than keeping them in a very limited area. That would be a bummer for them, but then again, at least they'd be safe there. As would my gardens, the ducks, the chickens, the turkeys, the house, the barns, and anything else they could get their paws on. Seriously, who in their right mind would possibly think of taking care of adolescent children who weight over 200#? I'm a freaking nut case!