New Goat Jungle Gym - cause goats need exercise too!

Lily & Tink's babies demonstrate proper use of our new goat jungle gym!

I've been concerned that my goats are a bit on the lazy side and not getting enough mental and physical exercise.  This may seem a bit silly to some, but goats are much like dogs - and dogs NEED exercise.  As many of you dog owners know, dogs can get a number of health problems from being overweight, not to mention destructive & annoying behaviors when their exercise needs are ignored.

I've considered walking my goats, I know several goat owners who do so, and I might still try this once the kids are sold... however, I've been worried that my neighborhood might have one too many stray dogs running around that might try to attack my goats while out on a stroll... I've encountered several while out walking my dogs, but I can easily pick up my dogs if I need to save them from a mad pitbull. Harder to do with 3-4 goats in tow.

So, I started looking at various apparatuses that farmers have erected for their goats to climb.  Everything from beautiful spiral towers to very simple recycled wire spools have been employed... here's a photo of one of the fancier goat towers in existence:

Anyhow, I constructed our simple tower over the slow early winter months out of scrap lumber, and placed a very tall pole on one corner for our dove cote to raise the pigeons a little higher off the ground for safety from predators and encourage them to roost there instead of the much taller neighbors roof.  The current dove cote is too heavy for me to lift all the way to the tall pole, but I got it pretty high up and the doves are much happier.  The plan now is to construct a new, lighter, but more ornate dove cote that will be more suitable to place on the high pole.