Al Martinez: Goats go the distance in getting rid of weeds

If you should see an old blue Ford pickup loaded with goats and a mule and maybe a sheep or two chugging through Woodland Hills or other parts of the Valley take a moment to smile and wave for it is probably being driven by either Karen or Lisa on their way to a weed-eating job.

The animals will be delivered to a place fenced off by a temporary electrified mesh and will begin chomping down on unwanted vegetation on one end of their bodies while fertilizing the ground with the other.

The mule will stand guard against predators like mountain lions or coyotes. Their bite and kicks are more lethal than a bodyguard's muscles. When the job is done, off they go to another.

They are the menagerie of Karen Simer, owner of the weed-eating business Hire a Herd, and Lisa Bialac-Jehle, its field manager, who have access to about 180 of the animals, mostly goats, they will happily rent to you to clear either your yard or a mountainside of weeds and brush. They - the goats, not the women - will eat the stuff down to the ground baaing contentedly to almost everyone's delight.

The two goat herders, both in their 50s, are unlikely partners in a business which, Karen says, has become quite "vogue," due partly to its eco-friendly nature.

Karen is a transplanted Brit who has studied as a veterinarian technician and Lisa is a vocalist with a UCLA degree in design who creates and sells jewelry. What they have in common is their love and, well, respect

for goats, and sometimes sheep.

They created Hire a Herd three years ago with jobs in Calabasas and Westlake and it has been booming ever since. They charge $1,500 for the first week and the rest is negotiable. As we spoke, their animals were busy at six different locations clearing varying amounts of acreage. In the past few weeks, they have worked at a dozen locales throughout the Valley and the West Side generally.

"I'm proud to be a goatherder," Lisa says cheerfully. "We make money and have fun too. It's labor intensive and there's a lot of hill climbing and slipping, but there's nothing like sitting with the goats in the soft twilight with a bottle of Cabernet watching the sun go down."

Not everyone loves the goats. There are jobs where neighbors will holler at the women to keep their damned animals away from their gardens, since goats are known to eat just about anything, including roses and pretty blossoms that pop out in the spring.

"We move them," Karen says, "not to please the neighbors but to save the goats."

Having once owned two goats, Melody and Lucy, at our home in Topanga, I can tell you that farm animals are hard for me to love, but my wife adored them. So maybe it's a girl thing.


Al Martinez writes a column on Mondays and Fridays.

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