The wife is the poster child for weaponized incompetence. She put a mower on the side of a hill, after being explicitly told not to do so and it rolled into the lake so now she thinks she is exempt from doing it ever again because she did it so poorly. And this is despite it causing her husband physical pain and a 99% chance that her lawn is flat an nowhere near a lake. She also ticks the boxes for gendering things unnecessarily. She should mow or they should pay a company since it is actually hurting the husband and may cause long term shoulder issues.

I can't say how much I'd LOVE a goat to trim the lawn, that'd be the best day of my life!

Nothing is more ridiculous than caring what other people think. The goat is far less ridiculous than caring about what people think of the goat. NTA. And the *most* ridiculous thing in this whole story is the HOA. HOAs are the worst.

NTA. I wife is so concerned about appearances she can hire a lawn service and shut up. She's fully aware of your aversion to lawn mowing but doesn't care. However, you're supposed to do something you have an issue, both physical and emotional, with to appease her? Her issue with lawn mowers stems from her inability to listen to her dad's warning. Unless your house is on a lake her excuse about falling into the water is pure BS.

The wife sounds pretty toxic ngl.

Lost me at HOA.

I want to pet that little goat! How is a goat not the most brilliant idea for yardwork? saves gas and feed for the goat! We have an area that the city is "mowing" every year by releasing a flock of sheep to graze it down. I love it.

Portland Oregon used goats for grassy areas that are hard to get to and mow. It's considered "being Green". I bet the goat herder made more than $20 for the city service. The wife is out of touch and the husband could have bragged about being knowledgeable and concerned about environmental issues. The drawback of doing this on your lawn is poo pellets

My school pseudo owns a stretch of forest and river that we call “the gulch” we use it for science class filming and hiking and nature clubs a few years ago there was a big poison ivy problem so our school rented a bunch of goats and/or sheep (I don’t remember it was a little while ago) and not only is the area poison ivy free but a whole school of kids got to hang out with animals :)

Goats are a very effective and environmentally-friendly method of clearing vegetation, so good on OP for that. One could argue that goats saved the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA a few years ago. They regularly hire a goat herd to clear grasses on the hills below the museum. When fires swept through the area a few years ago, the Library was safe in part because the goats had already eaten nearly everything nearby that could have burned.

Brilliant! I wish I knew someone who had a goat

I just love how environment friendly it is! Your wife should be proud!

We kept a hard of goats to keep the brush knocked back in the no-man's-land around a high security facility I once worked at. They were fat and happy and by far the best thing about the place. That and the time my friend had to explain to a review board why it has been necessary to shoot his phone...I do not miss that place.

Dump her in a lake again. The job is getting done and if she doesn't like how it's getting done, maybe she herself should do it or hire out to have it done. Insulting the poster, calling him or a man is inexcusable.

There a lot of red flags here. He needs to get out. If they have kids, they should go with him. The mother doesn't seem like a good influence.

I LOVE cutting grass(zero turn) but can't weed eat for long so I just lead my horses around the fence and barn. They weed eat for me. So I can totally get behind renting a goat lol

NTA, but goats like variety. As in they are going to eat a little of the grass, then try to find anything else in your yard they can nibble on. Tree bark, furniture, siding... nothing is off the menu.

Unfortunately, his green lawn (and that of every home in this HOA) is a desolate wasteland that's HORRIBLE for our ecoysystem, goat or no goat. Maybe he could get around HOA rules by replacing the ugly grass with a diversity of plants and flowers instead? There are plenty of low maintenance options.

In The Netherlands they move herds of sheep around certain areas to eat the grass next to ditches and stuff. At a science park I used to work, they had goats moving from field to field to keep the grass short.

Are you kidding me? I'd love to have a lawn-goat!

Goats are great for keeping grass down and weeds away, hell even Google's headquarters got it's lawn mowed by goats. I have some goats so I know this is true.

It also sounds like he may have Misophonia?... with such a strong negative reaction to the noise.

My town rents some goats to clear out around the lake since it’s very steep. And insane bush growth.

But maybe hos should pay less for loan of the goat, since it is getting free food, but maybe the money was for the bringing it back and forth. Your wife sounds stupid, if she can't see, that it was a great idea.

Google did this in 2009, they hired 200 goats to moan their HQ.

Sheep are probably a safer option to goats; goats eat everything shep will stick to grass. I think this is a brilliant idea. Low emissions, natural lawn care and good for the animal. Also it's a lawn care system that hundreds of years of proven excellence

Back when I was a kid, in the early 60s, we had a patch of property that was hard to mow because the land was very uneven We lived in the country. So my father first borrowed a cow from a neighbor to eat up the grass. We got tired of having a cow, because nobody wanted to shovel up cow patties, so we sent her packing. My parents lived in the city all their lives. They knew nothing about farm animals. Then my father borrowed a goat from the same neighbor. The goat was on a stake and chain, but this little girl figured out how to get loose. A lot. Ever time she got loose, she'd head for our back door. She'd scratch at the door, trying to get in the house. We figured that she must have been allowed to go in the house at her residence. Needless to say, my mother had a sh*tfit, so we had to send the little goat back to her home. But we lived in the country, and not the suburbs. I wouldn't want to walk down the street and see a goat eating in my neighbors yard either.

This headline confused me. The story takes place in the U.S. and this is not a British or Australian publication. It should say "friend," not "mate."

One day when I was in university I stepped outside my apartment building and started walking along the sidewalk, only to notice a herd of goats on the hill across the street. I thought, "Hmm, that's unusual," and I went back inside to ask the internet what was going on. Turns out the community college down the block had hired a herd of goats to clear the hill so they could put in an additional parking lot. This is an actual business. They come out, set up a perimeter, and bring a couple of dogs to keep the goats from wandering off.

I've got an electric battery mower because of my shoulder and easy to start, quiet and lightweight too

Hmm where can I rent a goat? I want a baby doll sheep, but my hubs says no - we have a child instead.

Thanks for the morning laugh OP!

Sounds like you just need a robotic mower or to pay for a lawn service. I mean the goat thing works, but it is being a little extra. You bought the house knowing it had a yard and knowing you had grass height restrictions. I hate mowing and the smell of grass because I have bad allergies and I’m usually sick a couple days after I do it. But I still do it. I chose a house with a lawn.