Goats are great at keeping weeds, vines, baby trees, etc. chewed down to nubs–they will also get the things you don’t want them to get, like flowers and shrubs that are part of your landscaping.

One thing they love, which is one part awesome and one part not awesome, is poison ivy. They will eat it down to the ground. Awesome, right? Less poison ivy to find your ankles when you’re out and about. Except, while the goats are eating the poison ivy, they are also walking around in it. And when they are done walking around in it, they come to you for scritches and to share the brand new urishiol oil they bathed in!

Yuck. It looks even worse in the sunshine:

Lesson learned. Wash up after playing with the goats during poison ivy season!