I don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but goats have a tendency to climb on things. You can fight it or try to argue them out of it, but they climb anyway. Here’s a guy who has decided to go with the flow:
I admire anyone who is willing to put some effort into improving the life of an animal, though I’m guessing the goats don’t truly appreciate the clever names he has given all the parts of their obstacle course. He might think of it as a feather in his capra, but I suspect these are puns they’ve all herbivore. The structure they are most grateful for? The fact that he provides rumen board.
And here’s another goat-centric amusement. If this bridge-to-over-there was in my back yard, I’d be concerned about keeping the (human) kids off it.
When I was 8 years old we were fortunate to have a park nearby with swings, slides and a jungle gym. Unfortunately it was right by a river and before long we had left the safe thrills behind to go clambering over the high, sheer rocks that rose out of the water, daring gravity to humble us. It was nothing but luck that kept me from slipping off the moss covered stone face to go crashing into the boulders strewn riverbank below.
What was your greatest climb? (or is it still ahead of you?)
Trail Baboon 
even when i wasn’t quite as gravity-challenged as i am now, i was never much of a climber – social or otherwise. i’ll climb six bales up to get a kid down but otherwise i’m pretty much earthbound.
very adventurous goats and the builder made a nice course for them. i see he has a bee hive in the first picture, tempting them to experience stings also? Cynthia – is that good practice?
i wish i were that cleaver, to build such great entertainment for them. this spring a project is finding more electric wire spools – they have beaten theirs to pieces. and Kona likes to surf on the truck topper. they’ll take advantage of any fun toy you present them (and some you hadn’t thought of).
this very cold, cold morning i climbed out of the warm bed. does that count?
a gracious good morning to You All – and stay warm!
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brrrrrb-er, the Sustainable Farming Assoc. is helping sponsor some meeting on agri tourism. You could build some of those fancy climbing structures for your goats and have that as a featured attraction for tourist that would visit your farm. How about that?
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that’d be fun, Jim! but i’m a terrible carpenter (even though that was my Dad’s lifelong work) so the goats would be up there capering and suddenly the whole thing would fall down. they surely enjoy the electrical cable spools though. and they are entertaining animals, no doubt.
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I climb only in metaphors, and not very well then.
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I really don’t like heights, so I try to stay low. It was quite a hike when I was in England many years ago and I went on a back stairs/attic tour of Salisbury Cathedral. We had to climb up countless circular stairways and even got to walk (very quietly) in the very back of the cathedral at the clerestory level during a wedding. We got pretty high up in the tower, but we were indoors so I wasn’t anxious. I am happy to report that the winter storm is graciously holding off until this evening so our day trip to Bismark and back should be ok.
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Climbing-love it, but don’t go the route that involves a lot of equipment and probably not a lot of risk. I’ll climb, but don’t ask me to stand near a drop off.
When we were kids, we took a vacation to the Rockies so my dad could do continuing ed at the Luther Academy of the Rockies, leaving my mom with the two kids during most days. We stayed in a cabin at a resort and went hiking every day. There was a rock face with a little waterfall we would climb everyday to have lunch by the stream at the top. The lunch was packed in plastic beach buckets we carried in our teeth.
Haven’t gotten the brass together for the trip to the Rockies with the s&h, but did go to the Black Hills when he was in first grade. Climbed all over the Badlands trails and to the top of Harney Peak-not bad for a six-year-old.
Like you, Dale, he cannot resist the siren song of a bunch of rocks on the shore-the best parts of Duluth and Madeline Island in his opinion. Can spend hours just clamboring around on them.
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Rise and Shine Baboons:
Like Brrrrb-er I am gravity challenged, but I have had a few safe, fun climbs and zip lines. It was very fun to have a child and go to Hyland Park Chutes and Ladders in Hyland Park in Bloomington, although I enjoyed the Chutes more than the Ladders. There is a park in the NW Metro with a zip line that was really fun, but also close to the earth. My uncle used to take us to places to climb in my childhood, but they were not at all high. He also introduced us to ropes that swing out over waters, then allow you to let go and splash.
One of my cousins has a rope like that at her house at the lake near Shetek in SW Mn. It is quite a riot to see all of us cousins in our 50’s and 60’s doing that, in our bloated cellulite-ridden bodies that can still experience a thrill!
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love those ropes
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Good morning to all,
When I was a kid I liked climbing in trees. I thought I was really climbing high, but that was from a small kid prospective. I think the trees I climbed were not real big ones. As an adult I don’t care much for getting too far off the ground in a tree or any other place.
I did some walking in the mountains as a volunteer in Bolivia. I like walking and I am in fairly good shape, but I could not keep up with the people in Bolivia that do a lot of walking in the moutains. The Bolivian farmers I visited, farm small patches of land on the sides of the mountains. I did okay when they went slow to accommodate me. On one long walk I was left behind half way up the mountain with my translator and they joined up with me on the way back.
A Bolivian woman farmer, who was on the trip where I was left behind, carried a young child slung on her back in a large piece of cloth all the way up the steep trail and back. One woman farmer told me she has to walk for two hours to get to the field that she farms. The first field I visited was down a very steep trail from the road. I was barely able to climb back up that trail on the way back.
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🙂
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saw many similar things in china. interesting to see how other people live isn’t it?
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The traditional dress for Bolivian women includes a sort of shawl that goes around the shoulders as well as a wide skirt, a small hat, and other items that are very colorful. You probably have seen pictures of Bolivan women dressed this way because they are kind of a trade mark of Bolivia. The shawl is what was used to make a sling to carry the young child and it can be used to carry other things. Modern Bolivan women don’t usually dress this way. It is actually a colonial style of dress, but some women wear it proudly to show that they identify with their culture and don’t think of it as tied to the repressive colonial era.
MID, if I lived nearer to the school that your son attends, I would be interested in meeting the students from Bolivia. Most Bolivan farmers live on a very low income, but some do better.
They have a very progressive goverment in Bolivia headed by Evo Morales, the first Bolivian President from the indigenous population which makes up a high percentage of the total population of Bolivan.
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What a tremendous experience! My son’s school hosts college students from Bolivia as interns-they are from farming communities and the ones I have met are very fine people indeed.
Carried my baby in a sling and highly recommend it as the way to go-never climbed that way, but his first trip to stick is toes in the Mississippi, I hiked out to the point where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mighty Miss with him in a sling-thanks for the memory.
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That’s a special spot that isn’t widely known. I think they are improving the “gorge” area and might make the walk prettier.
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MID, I made a mistake and put my reply to you above your reply.
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You know that place in Tettagouche Park on the NS where you can watch people rock climb? Well, I don’t.
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Like others, I enjoy climbing but cannot tolerate heights, which limits my climbing. My best climbing feat dates back to when I was about eight. With Richard Kelso, I entered a stand of lilac bushes that formed the front wall of a city cemetery. We climbed from lilac to lilac, never touching ground. When we came down, we had gone two city blocks via lilac bushes. I wonder if that record has been beaten ever.
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That’s very cool Steve. I hope your record still stands.
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Reminds me of when I would make forts under the honeysuckle by the side of the house – very cool, Steve.
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I scaled the late lamented Green Stairs on the West Side many times on my way home from work. The view from the top was magnificent, if you weren’t too dizzy and breathless to enjoy it.
The trip down was much easier.
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Where are these Green Stairs on the West Side, Linda?
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The stairs went from Hall Avenue and Prospect Boulevard on top of the bluff down to Wabasha Street near the caves, not far from the Healthpartners Clinic. The structure was about the height of an eight story building. It sustained some damage from storms and falling boulders, and was torn down a couple of years ago when the city decided it was unsafe. At the time, the neighborhood was assured it would be rebuilt, but there’s no movement on it now – no one can come up with a way to make it ADA-compliant.
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Greetings! I loved climbing trees as a child and we had some great climbing trees in our yard growing up. Then my younger brother had to fall out of tree and break his arm or something stupid. I never fell out. It would have been so cool to have a tree house. But even without one, you could find a perfect nook to kind of sit and relax in the tree, listen to the wind whisper and feel like you found a special place in heaven, surrounded by greenery and an always cool breeze — a great place to be alone and read a book.
There was also this cook park a few miles from Green Bay we would go to called Wequiock(sp?) Falls. A lovely spot where they had trails going alongside the riverbed with rocks (yay!) and cool places to sit and think.
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With lots of slab from our sawmill and lots of woods to play in, we build many tree houses in my childhood. Something special for a child up in a tree house, isn’t there, Joanne. Funny. I do not think tree houses have made it into much of kid lit. Who wants to take a foray into the impossible-to-get-published-in world of kid lit? I know of one adult poem.
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Celebrities have no problem getting published.
(You’re a celeb in my world, Clyde.)
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My daughter has several kid lit books published, and several of them have been published in many different languages. But Molly has a special setup there since her mom sleeps with the publisher
:). I should probably add that these are “picture books” with a small amount of text.
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You are correct, Donna; every celebrity believes they have a child’s book in them.
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Clyde and Joanne, I am a big fan of tree houses. I built them as a kid and also made some for my children. The last one was a nieghbothood play house and I was glad to see it used by nieghbor kids after mine were grown. Once I had to run off some girls from another nieghborhood who didn’t ask to use it and redecorated it with paint before I told them to leave. Also, a tree house I made when I was young was taken out of the tree by some other kids and moved away for their use.
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I gave some information about some friends who belonged to the Hell’s Tunas earlier this week. For a while some of the Tunas lived in tree houses that they built. We called them the Tree Tunas.
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Holy cow, I think we’ve got a kid lit classic half written here.
“There are Hell’s Tunas in My Treehouse”.
What would an 8 year old do if she found out her fort in the sky had been invaded by ominous squatters?
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Hell’s Tunas might look a little ominous, but they are more or less kid friendly. One of them helped with a parent organized school for young children and told them they should never put anything smaller than their elbow in their ear.
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My grandsons have a whole series of young reader books called the Magic Tree House. A brother and sister find books in the tree house and when they read them they are transported into the story and help out in resolving the conflict. Pretty light weight but good to get kids reading.
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i can’t remember the spots but i sure remember the feelings. you are out on a ledge and the circumstances surrounding you are very clear and the footing slips and the hand holds disappear and the rain and the winds and the details make you wonder what you were thinking. thought i was dead a couple of times and then found a way to turn back or go forward and live to see another day. the tingle in the thighs and the knocking of the knees make me laugh at the moment i am most terrified. the body plays amazing games with you if you aren’t careful. the rocks play amazing games with the body if you are not careful too.
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Though I once lived at 10,000′ on the side of Colorado’s highest mountain (Elbert), two of my most memorable “highs’ were climbing one of South Dakota needles and looking down on tourists…one of whom said “Does your mother know where you are?” (I was 28 at the time). The other was on tour in Ireland with Robert Bly who had us write a poem while sitting on the edge of an Aran Island ledge, some 300 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.
But more to the point, have you seen the goat farm in Kasota MN? It is a must-see tourist attraction and goat heaven.
Is it going to be another pun day?
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A tour with Robert Bly would be cool, or with Carol Bly, for that matter.
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It was cool…two weeks in Ireland studying Yeats with
Robert and Celtic folklore with Gioia Timpanelli.
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those needles are very cool too. the ones right by the road?
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I don’t mind some heights, and seem to mind them less when I don’t have to climb a ladder to get to them. Being up in the World Trade Center looking out over Manhattan (and beyond) was pretty cool – but I had some nice thick glass between me and the outside world. As a kid we had a pretty high retaining wall behind the garage (it was about the height of the garage roofs behind us – but those were too far away to climb from wall to garage…which was probably for the best). Wasn’t much room behind the garage, but enough to sit and contemplate the world (and the steep drop). We could go one or two houses to the north before the brambles and such made it impassable, but not south. The neighbor to the south got *really* cranky if we climbed on his wall. Our parents, of course, hated having us climb back there. Not that it ever stopped us.
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Steve and other BBCers: As long as weather cooperates, it looks like hubby and I will be coming tomorrow. Thanks for the ride offer, Tim — but the final train leaves downtown for Big Lake at 4:55 pm which would make for a short visit, I think, but I’ll keep that option open for the future.
Steve, I saw that you were making tabouli — would it be OK if I made my Quinoa Pomegranate Tabouli? It is such an awesome recipe — although I’m sure you make a great tabouli as well. Anyway, neither of us have read the book, so we’re just there for schmoozing and eating if that’s OK. If it’s OK with you guys, I might bring my stuff to do foot soaks and foot massages for a couple lucky folks. Just a thought …
I’m really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!
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Joanne . . . I haven’t made my tabbouleh yet, so I will yield the honor to you!
We will be honored to include you!
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Morning everybody–
There was a tree on the farm here that I think had three generations of steps and tree house parts nailed on to it.
When I was very young, there was the stump of a tree that had been dug out and pushed off in the weeds. It was a great spot to climb up that root clump and sit on the stump.
Also a rocky hill that had been sheared off to accommodate a barn site and I spent hours climbing that hillside. Lots of little fossils in the limestone… had a twine string rope tied to a tree at the top… over the years the hillside has eroded so it’s just a grassy slope now…
Fun stories everyone!
Have a great day tomorrow Readers~~
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In my early twenties I was on a week long backpacking trip in the Sierras with then boyfriend, who really knew the ropes. We were both surprised that I actually had quite a lot of stamina for the uphill stuff, so we covered pretty good ground each day. Don’t remember the elevation, but that and hikes in the Rockies with my dad would have to be my greatest climbs. My dad’s claim to fame was twice going up Longs Peak in the Rockies…
Have to agree about the magic of being up hidden in a tree. There was a picture book that said it well, maybe called Apple Tree House, anyone remember it?
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Apple Tree House doesn’t ring a bell with me….I do remember a book in which the protagonist lived for a winter in the hollowed-out trunk of a tree. I think it was My Side of the Mountain.
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Really? If I’d known that’s what that was about, I woulda read it! Will find…
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bbc folk i just put 2 and 2 together and realized that my not plugging sunday into my brain has put a chink in the armpr. i will be heading over to steves with the chili and wine pre meeting and returning to a program in progress. i am the coach on my sons basketball team and we have a game with the rival team at 130-240 so i will be able to get over by 315 and pick up on the discussion in its midst. save me some pomegranate and some candied nuts please. steve i will calll in a minute to see when i can stop by. otherwise it will be in the snowbank in front of the front door. see ya in a couple hours.
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huck ho
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