Scene & Herd

By Zach Dundas

A GREAT DAY TO BE A GOAT: a sunny fall afternoon, a vacant lot at SE 10th Avenue and Belmont Street with a smorgasbord of weeds and garbage. Dozens of beasts ruminated over the expanse cleared after fire destroyed the Monte Carlo restaurant in 2002. A sign on the fence declared “Banquet in progress,” and outside, goat-fanciers gathered. One woman chucked fresh (and, she noted, local) vegetables into the lot—to little avail, as one Texas longhorn–colored creature chewed cardboard. Over two weeks in October, Belmont’s goats drew many admirers. “If I’m there for an hour, I see 70 people,” said Brett Milligan, the feast’s founder. After observing the lot’s sprout/mow cycle for three years, the landscape architect connected the owners and Goat Rental Northwest, which offers goat-to-plot service. Afterward, Milligan marvelled at the caprine possibilities. “I was interested to see people attracted to landscape maintenance, rather than repelled,” he said. “Could you have a roving herd, walking from block to block?”