Goats....Ugghh!!!!

Sometimes goats are and pain in the neck and yesterday half my herd almost got themselves killed.....by me! It is a really good thing that I didn't have the gun with me when I heard my 4 year old yell out, "Goats in the garden! Mommy, goats in the garden!" I ran to the garden wondering how they got in there. The gate was still closed and latched. 3 of them were still happily in the yard munching on grass. I got into the garden and immediately started to see red. They were not only in my garden but were in my oat patch and had trampled all the chicken wire that kept the ducks out not to mention the oats were no longer standing up....trampled. I ran them out only to discover that most of the oat crop is gone. I had just admired it this morning thinking that in a couple weeks I should be harvesting oats. I might find enough seed that got trampled before it got eaten to start over next spring, but there will not be oats for flour or oatmeal this year. I was mad....really really mad. Then I saw my pole beans and got even angrier and then I saw my broccoli and got livid. I came very close to killing goats. I was so angry I could have done it barehanded. Then the task of finding out how they got in the garden. I started looking and searching and finally concluded by the wooden fence being pushed over at the top in one particular spot that they climbed onto an old wooden deck that was left by the previous owner and jumped the 3 foot span between the deck and the garden fence....right into the oat patch. Stinking goats. Sometimes they are smarter than is good for them or me. Sometimes I just don't know which is more aggravating...smart goats that can analyze a situation and come up to a solution or a dumb cow that will just bulldoze its way through anything!I hope my pole beans come back and I have some broccoli plants that were spared although all heads are gone. Today I will pull the one that were completely stripped only to leave the stems. I will plant some more pole beans just in case the plants die since they were completely stripped halfway down (everything the goat could reach). They also ate one of my cantaloupe plants and two of the melon plants so I guess I will have to replace those. Just one year I would like to not have critter issues in the garden. How much more of a fortress do I have to build? Oh, well...off to milk the juvenile delinquents and I am not in the mood for any milk stand shenanigans so they had best be on their best behavior. They just might find themselves grounded to their pasture lined with hot wire!!!! Blessings from the farm, Kat