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(The Register) Amusing Google's new lawn maintenance crew bleats mowing   (theregister.co.uk) divider line 43
More: Amusing  
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11812 clicks; posted to Main » on 03 May 2009 at 2:24 AM   |  Make this a Fark FavoriteFavorite    |   share: Share on OMGTWITTER WEB2.0share on StumbleUponshare on Facebook  more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!

43 Comments   (+0 »)


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CnFlght 2009-05-03 02:26:36 AM  
honestly? Goats? How many comments can you make about lawn upkeep or goats.

I guess we can get an illegal immigration thread going. Or fetish sex.

 
ravenspore 2009-05-03 02:28:44 AM  
CnFlght: honestly? Goats? How many comments can you make about lawn upkeep or goats.

I guess we can get an illegal immigration thread going. Or fetish sex.


or both, now that's a fetish!


seriously though, I hope they don't have gardens, cause the goats are gonna destroy them.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 02:30:00 AM  
CnFlght: honestly? Goats? How many comments can you make about lawn upkeep or goats.

I guess we can get an illegal immigration thread going. Or fetish sex.


Or an 'illegal imigrant fucing goats' thread.

... Wait, what?.

 
Pestifer 2009-05-03 02:30:34 AM  
That's weird. Everybody knows goats don't like to graze--they browse on everything from low shrubs to trees, which they'll climb for food.

They'd be much better off with sheep.

//you can Google it.

 
zorlack7 2009-05-03 02:32:11 AM  
CnFlght: honestly? Goats? How many comments can you make about lawn upkeep or goats.

I guess we can get an illegal immigration thread going. Or fetish sex.


I am incredibly opposed to the use of goats in lawn care. They steal the work from the illegal immigrants, and as a result, the unemployed immigrants become fetish crazed maniacs. This could...fark it... you know what... Never mind.

 
ShawnDoc [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 02:33:58 AM  
Yeah, this doesn't sound right. Goats are hard as heck to keep out of places you don't want them, and they don't graze. Sheep on the other hand are easier to herd, not as determined to crawl under/through fences, and graze. Goats love to eat shrubs, flowers and things like that. Grass, not so much.

 
TheManofPA 2009-05-03 02:37:09 AM  
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE GOAT FLU???

 
saeufer82 2009-05-03 02:41:52 AM  
Pestifer: That's weird. Everybody knows goats don't like to graze--they browse on everything from low shrubs to trees, which they'll climb for food.

They'd be much better off with sheep.

//you can Google it.


In that area, there's not much other than grass and brush... Some of the shrubby stuff becomes quite flammable after a few months without rain, so they need goats to eat *everything*

/been raining for two days here
//dry season my @$$

 
funnypirate 2009-05-03 02:47:37 AM  
You've got to be kidding me

/came for the bad puns
//leaving disappointed

 
quixotal 2009-05-03 02:49:07 AM  
As long as they're fainting goats, I'm all for it.

 
boobsrgood [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 02:57:07 AM  
Folks around here lend out their goats for a small fee. They clear your land and get free food. Just don't leave any heirlooms out and it will be just fine.

 
TXTitan2001 2009-05-03 02:59:11 AM  
Thought there was a better mower's union than that.

 
How's THIS for a fancy nickname 2009-05-03 02:59:16 AM  
img142.imageshack.us

 
spidermann [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 03:20:19 AM  
Grew up on six acres. I had to mow those acres every summer. 120 degrees in the shade and you get tired of it.

Almost all neighbors around us had sheep, cows, and horses. One year I was sick of mowing and went across the street to the neighbor whose daughter I was having fun with and said, "hey man, how would you like to feed your animals for a week?"

He brought them over, sat in a chair with his beer, and we shot the shiat for a few hours each day while his animals grazed and mowed the lawn for me.

No charge. His animals were happy and I didn't have to mow the six acres. No goats present, thank god, cause I had some tree shrubs fresh planted.

 
RealFarknMcCoy2 2009-05-03 03:22:51 AM  
Not so much lawn maintenance as fire hazard reduction work, to be accurate.

 
Gelatinous 2009-05-03 03:43:21 AM  
What fresh, innovative technology.

 
maniacbastard [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 03:46:10 AM  
CnFlght: honestly? Goats? How many comments can you make about lawn upkeep or goats.

I guess we can get an illegal immigration thread going. Or fetish sex.


Or a cooking thread. Or a halal butchering thread. Or a grilling thread. Or a cheesemaking thread. Or a 'hey let's go fark some innocent animal because no one else wants our penis inside them thread.'

But that wouldn't be me. Well I would partake in the cheesemaking because it is fun and goat mozzarella is B.A.D.A.S.S.

 
MrSteve007 2009-05-03 03:50:10 AM  
I hired a herd of 100 goats to clear an area near my office for a week (even got a time lapse of the work). Unfortunately, even though the owner said he'd have them finish the work, regardless of how long it took, pulled his goats two days early and didn't finish the job. Now I know why he screens his cell phone calls.

So we've now hired 2 laborers to come in a finish the job for about one-fifth the cost of the goats.

/should take him to small claims court
//signed contract + video proof

 
anfrind 2009-05-03 03:51:40 AM  
Those damn dirty goats, stealing jobs from hard-working American lawnmowers!

/how'd I do?

 
berylman 2009-05-03 04:15:47 AM  
Local goat rental business? wut?

 
SVC_conservative [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 04:22:56 AM  
Idea is assuredly borrowed from Jaime Lerner and Curitiba, Brazil.

 
cedarpark 2009-05-03 04:30:54 AM  
I used to mow lawns when I was a kid too.

 
GimpyNip 2009-05-03 04:43:49 AM  
This will end baaaaahhhhdly

 
Freak Flag Fly [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 04:44:16 AM  
I work at Google, so I'm really getting...

Seriously, is using goats to cut down on tall grass that unusual in the rest of the world? I've seen it for years in the Bay Area. We've got a soccer field just across from the main campus where I'm sure the goats will do a better job than most mechanical lawn mowers.

 
Dwedit 2009-05-03 04:49:56 AM  

From the article:

...they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time...

Is "Fertilizing" Google's new name for White Pixel Production?

 
quadcam 2009-05-03 06:37:55 AM  
you would figure that someone at google would go to GIS and do a search on goats. They aren't really grass eaters, they eat shrubs, leaves, weeds they really dont graze. They should have gotten some sheep instead

 
srhp29 2009-05-03 06:56:06 AM  
Google...Where the men are men and the goats are scared

 
ElegantGoose 2009-05-03 07:37:29 AM  
Why I love Brits:

Yes, it's all eco-friendly fun and games until Googlers start spreading Goat Flu to the masses.

 
necropoultryac 2009-05-03 07:46:18 AM  
I can haz GOATerday

 
mynameistim 2009-05-03 09:12:55 AM  
goats are delicious.

 
archichris [TotalFark] 2009-05-03 09:26:28 AM  
Google lays off lawn maintenance crew, buys forced labor crew instead.

New crew kept locked on google property, denied clothing, forced to defecate on grass.

May be eaten at a moments notice.

I Love Libs..... :)

 
InfamousBLT 2009-05-03 10:13:35 AM  
maniacbastard:
But that wouldn't be me. Well I would partake in the cheesemaking because it is fun and goat mozzarella is B.A.D.A.S.S.


I think that you are thinking of donkey mozzarella

 
frodnonnag 2009-05-03 10:15:41 AM  
did someone say something about eating goat?
img297.imageshack.us
Shot at 2007-01-26

 
otto the bull 2009-05-03 10:55:19 AM  
quixotal: As long as they're fainting goats, I'm all for it.

That is the awesome!

 
TheGreatGildersleeve 2009-05-03 10:55:57 AM  
Amazing. What is now trendy, cutting-edge "green" landscape management used to be the mark of trailer-dwelling rednecks.

 
turtleking 2009-05-03 10:57:20 AM  
necropoultryac: I can haz GOATerday

gootse.cx ?

 
tpk2002 2009-05-03 11:04:50 AM  
Freak Flag Fly: I work at Google, so I'm really getting...

Seriously, is using goats to cut down on tall grass that unusual in the rest of the world? I've seen it for years in the Bay Area. We've got a soccer field just across from the main campus where I'm sure the goats will do a better job than most mechanical lawn mowers.


I'm gonna go ahead and play the BS card here. So they can get a better cut than a mechanical mower? I can't remember having to pick up the feces after my lawn mower either.

 
anfrind 2009-05-03 12:35:31 PM  
tpk2002: Freak Flag Fly: I work at Google, so I'm really getting...

Seriously, is using goats to cut down on tall grass that unusual in the rest of the world? I've seen it for years in the Bay Area. We've got a soccer field just across from the main campus where I'm sure the goats will do a better job than most mechanical lawn mowers.

I'm gonna go ahead and play the BS card here. So they can get a better cut than a mechanical mower? I can't remember having to pick up the feces after my lawn mower either.


1. I don't think very many people care so much about the perceived quality of the cut, as long as it doesn't come past your shins. Google has done a very good job of cutting costs by being environmentally friendly (and without sacrificing quality), and this herd of goats is just one more step along that path.

2. They said the feces were being left as fertilizer. Obviously that means that nobody wants to take a walk on the grass for a while after the goats have been through, but based on what I've seen of the campus, there are paved walkways everywhere, so walking on the grass should never be necessary.

 
Ima4nic8or 2009-05-03 12:47:22 PM  
Sounds like a good idea except for all the goat crap. Also if this is anywhere near a major road then its a dumb idea. Some idiot got the idea of using a bunch of goats to clear a field right next to the freeway in Fremont about 6 months ago. This was right at the base of the sunol grade when headed north. Since every moron driving by had to slow way down to stare at the goats as they drove by it created a traffic mess. The idiot with the goats had them out there every day for about a week, making a mess of the evening commute all week long. You would think that people would have seen a goat somewhere before, or at least not be so amazed by it the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th days.

 
goethe_helen_hunt 2009-05-03 02:25:45 PM  
The company that Google hired is probably Goats R Us. They are legit. They put up six foot portable fences and usually have someone live on site in a small trailer with one or two border collies. The goats quietly remove the vegetation and leave pellets (which don't stink too badly.) The bonuses with goats are that they really are fun to watch, they are quiet, and there are no metallic moving parts that can strike a rock and set the hill on fire.

I've seen them at work up in Tilden Park in Berkeley, along the Skyline Ridge, and near the Chevron refinery in Richmond.

http://www.goatsrus.com/

 
GrizzlyAdamsRox 2009-05-03 03:22:37 PM  
cedarpark: I used to mow lawns when I was a kid too.

img2.imageshack.us

 
Gridlock 2009-05-04 05:04:42 AM  
Great, so Leo Laporte is back in the tech sector earning some extra cash on the side.

("Goat Rental"???)

// Just teasing my lewd imagination.

 
beroff 2009-05-04 08:01:19 AM  
This sounds awfully familiar (new window). (For those who aren't familiar with the Frank-the-Goat reference, Brad Fitzpatrick, the founder of LiveJournal, currently works for Google.)

 
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