Imagine my astonishment, if you would, as I bicycled along North Lakeshore Drive the other day and saw what appeared to be a pack of dogs along the top two terraces of the dam, only to see that they were brown and white goats, staring gravely in return in between grazing. Is this an ingenious way of maintenance, or did some rancher lose his livestock?

How about this 1985 news report!

Don't Let This Get Your Goat | News OK (http://newsok.com/dont-let-this-get-your-goat/article/2103746)

Well this really got my heart pumping when I read it. Some of us have proposed using goats to manage the greenery on the banks of the Oklahoma River and on the South Rockwell Land fill mountain but without any show of enthusiasm from the City.

The dam at Lake Hefner would be another great place to use goats so I contacted the Utilities Department and asked if there were in fact City goats on the dam. I received a reply from the Water Quality Superintendant that sadly there were no City goats on the dam. He suggested that they might be deer that crossed Hefner from Bluff Creek.

However, in his email I did find a compatriot in that he has been suggesting using goats to maintain the steeply sloped banks of the Hefner Canal! I'm thinking City Goatherder might not be such a bad job, but I guess we would need to Oklahoma-ize it to something like Goat Wrangler or Goat Marshal.

Well this really got my heart pumping when I read it. Some of us have proposed using goats to manage the greenery on the banks of the Oklahoma River and on the South Rockwell Land fill mountain but without any show of enthusiasm from the City.

The dam at Lake Hefner would be another great place to use goats so I contacted the Utilities Department and asked if there were in fact City goats on the dam. I received a reply from the Water Quality Superintendant that sadly there were no City goats on the dam. He suggested that they might be deer that crossed Hefner from Bluff Creek.

However, in his email I did find a compatriot in that he has been suggesting using goats to maintain the steeply sloped banks of the Hefner Canal! I'm thinking City Goatherder might not be such a bad job, but I guess we would need to Oklahoma-ize it to something like Goat Wrangler or Goat Marshal.

They were unquestionably goats -- or, at the very least, not deer. I don't know what happened, then! I would have to guess that some goats got loose....

Can you barbecue around Lake Hefner?

While living in southern Oklahoma in the early 80s someone ran a lawn service using sheep. They put up a temporary pen around the yard and let the sheep do what sheep do.

^^^^ I am having a horrible time with wild garlic growing in my yard. I have read that a good way to get rid of it is to let sheep/pigs roam in your yard for a day. I'd be willing to try it if that kind of business is still around!!

Find someone with sheep and see if they can bring them over for a couple of days.

On a side note, I wonder if this would be a profitable business today.