The Privacy Fence

Several Sunday's ago our preacher talked about a new neighborhood going up near his home.  He stated that the first thing everyone does (sadly) is erect large privacy fences in order to block off the neighbors and that the message it sends out is, "You mind your business and I'll mind mine."  His point being that we tend to wall ourselves off and don't reach out to our neighbors and can become isolated and self-absorbed instead of being out-going and neighborly.

I understand exactly what he's saying.  We need to make sure we're interacting and involved in the culture. We need to be others focused and engaged with our neighbors.  If we sequester ourselves away and are just concerned with "our four and no more," we aren't fulfilling the Great Commission.

James 1:27

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

We do like a certain amount of privacy, though, since I've been known to walk out to the garden in my robe or boxers to get cilantro or green onions for a breakfast omelet. So several years ago we erected a "living privacy fence" on the East side of our property by planting some yellow irises that grow to about 5 feet tall. In addition to having lush green foliage (that is prettier than an old brown fence), in the Springtime these irises bloom.  The blooms are spectacular and brighten the landscape.  And the irises don't block the ability for us to talk across the fence to one another or go around it for us to bring them eggs or them to bring us banana nut bread or homemade shortbread!

Top view of Yellow Iris

Here is a side view of the same yellow iris.  Ain't that pretty?

Side view of Yellow Iris

You can see that there are numerous, additional blooms that are about to burst open and beautify the area between my neighbor and I.  We'll be able to both enjoy the pretty irises and at the same time have a modicum of privacy due to the living fence.

Soon to bloom

This living privacy fence would be marvelous - except for one problem.  That would be Nellie, our Nubian goat.  As the photo below indicates, Nellie is being, well, a goat. Goats are browsers.  They like eating leaves from bushes, shrubs, trees, and privacy fences.  You can see how she's craned her neck through the hogwire and given the privacy fence a nice haircut.  You can also see at the two o'clock position in the photo that she's climbed up on top of the woodpile (that I've already re-stacked at least 3 times) and knocked it all down - again!

Goats can be a challenge.  Everything that works for cows, doesn't work for goats. We always laugh and say it's like having a toddler around.  You have to plan and put things out of reach or else you have chaos and destruction.  It is hard to stay mad at the goats though.  They are odd and curious creatures that you can't help but like.  

The iris that grows out of reach of the long-necked goat is healthy, tall, and beautiful. The iris that grows close to the fence looks like a "high & tight" clipper cut of a soldier in the military.

Business up front and Party in the back...

So, I've got "Plan B" ready to go.  I'm going to go up another 3 feet on the 2 X 4 welded wire perimeter fence on the East side, effectively stopping Nellie's iris eating. That little project will have to wait until I get the rest of the garden in though.  I've got yellow squash, zucchini squash, several types of cucumbers, loofah gourd, birdhouse gourd, and okra seedlings that I need to transplant and I also need to plant my sweet corn and sunflowers.  Those are higher on my priority list since all of those are EDIBLE, while the irises are not (to me at least - Nellie would beg to differ!)