Goats On A Hot Green Roof
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09.21.07

After you really get the green roof thing down, and you're saving energy and reducing stormwater runoff, and the blogs are all agog, what's the next move? Extremely locally produced goat meat could be it. Or just tourist bait. Either way, its an old tradition with a big future, we think.
Door County Wisconsin is a major summer tourist destination, especially for Chicago area people looking for a respite from the summer heat. Can't really say it's "eco-tourism: but:- "At Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant, the roof is covered with grass. All summer long the goats have a ball up there grazing away wondering why people are staring up at them! Quite a few people were stopping to photograph and watch the goats. The goats just sit up and there and graze nonchalantly!"
Via::Lake Breeze.org, A Trip To Door County. Image credits:: Lake Breeze, and Pbase.
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Hmmmmmmm.... I have always wanted a goat or two AND a green roof. Maybe this is how I can win the goat argument with the wife.
Very Cool ... I wondered what the easiest way would be to keep the grass trimmed.
Eaten there dozens of times, unfortunately, the goats are only up there about 25% of the time. However, the swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce is awesome!
I wonder how they keep them from jumping off.
Mann's Mercantile on Washington Island WI, which is also in Door County just north of the peninsula that is Door County, also has goats on their green roof. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen! They have a decent size pen behind the log building and there is a bridge/ramp from the ground to the roof so they can go up and down as they please. There really isn't any grass in their pen area, only dirt so if they want to graze they have to trim the roof. As for what keeps them from jumping off the roof.....nothing. I'm not sure what was implied/imagined with that question but I hope it wasn't implying that goats are so stupid they'll jump to their death or get injured. Some people don't give other species the credit they deserve.
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Washington Island was settled by Icelanders. The restaurant is Swedish. Goats on roofs: Nordic thing?
goats are naturally good climbers, and are adept to steep terrain so I doubt that they have to worry about them falling or jumping.
hahah...it's really funny. I've never seen this before. how they put grass there? : P Sometimes people are really creative, like what i am doing in my work. http://youmonitor.us it's proud to be creative, especially in IT area, isn't it?
Don't goats destroy vegetation or something? Maybe that's only when there are huge numbers of them. I'm a little fuzzy on the details...
Curry goat....Mmmmmm....
Goat cheese.
Goats, at least wild ones, are quite accustomed to mountainous terrain, and, as far as I know, aren´t in the habit of jumping off cliffs.
This sounds pretty cool.
In the old days in Sweden there were a lot of cottages with a green roof and the folks actually just to put there livestock on the roof at night to protect them from predators.
Iceland on the other hand the old green roofs go down all the way to the ground so no help there against predators but the sheep had no problem eating the grass.
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Tell us more! The idea of combining the cool roof function with making the space biologically productive, offering predatory defense is amazing. Perhaps the smoke from the chimney in Iceland was enough to deter predators. The work of having to get the goats up and down every day is eliminated with free access.
We are talking about a few hundred years ago. Here in Iceland the livestock was kept inside over night for protection, and often in the same building to help keeping the place warm. How the swedes got there animals up and down I don't remember, but having free access ramp or something would help the predators as well.
This is not a big deal, they have goats living on green roofs on Vancouver Island in BC, Canada.
yeah and before the winter season comes we butchRAWR the goatse to make good soup/ fuzzy warm long underwearez
I've been to that restaurant many times. The food is awesome. If you're ever in Door County, and want to see goats on a roof in person, go to Al Johnson's because that's where these pictures were taken.
Mostly tourist bait. I remember those goats (well, not the same actual goat, but you know what I mean) since I was a few years old. As others have mentioned, grass roofs are a Scandanavian thing. Don't worry about the goats, they won't fall off.
I was at a WWI battlefield memorial which was completely hummocked in portions that were off-limits to people. The hummocks were shell holes and were never cleared for shells. Seriously, people are still dying and getting injured regularily from WWI ordinance. They had goats keeping the grass short in the area. I asked how often they lost a goat. The attendant said he wasn't allowed to say.
I'm a Wisconsoner myself, and it's a beautiful site =) You just haven't lived until you've seen a goat standing on top of a cow though.
It is a great kitchy restaurant. I was always worried as a kid that a gutter might spring a leak though....
Goatum! Sloatin!
I just posted this in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner to GreenDeals Daily (http://www.greendealsdaily.com) - can you imagine how much this would lower your monthly goat-meat bill?
Tiger, Georgia also has a Goats on the Roof store.
woaawww,I have always wanted a goat or two AND a green roof.