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Photo by Emily Featherston.
Jarry and Janet Taylor sit with a couple of their multiple goats outside their Vestavia Hills home.
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The view from Shades Mountain is the reason many spend top dollar for a Vestavia Hills home. Many of the residents of Monterey Place, however, think the best view isn’t the sprawling Alabama landscape in the valley — it’s a yard full of metal goats.
Jarry and Janet Taylor have lived on Monterey Place since 2006 and, like most, have strived to be good neighbors. But it was five or six years ago when they started to become famous in the neighborhood for the creative displays they made with their family of goat lawn ornaments.
“It just sort of started impromptu,” Janet Taylor said, explaining that one day while shopping at Myers Nursery in Pelham, she noticed a metal goat lawn ornament and decided to buy it.
The goats, a Myers representative said, are imported from Mexico and made of recycled metal.
Janet Taylor said the idea was to set it in the yard and let the grass grow up near it, like it was having a snack.
A few days later, Janet Taylor said a neighbor called to gush about how much she loved looking out her window at the goat, and how cute it was.
Jarry Taylor said he decided to move it around to see where it would best fit. That’s when the calls started.
Neighbors would call or stop the Taylors and inquire about what the goat was getting up to.
“We went, ‘Really? You’re watching the travels of our goat?’” he said.
After that, the Taylors decided to make it more fun, placing the goat on the wall at the edge of the yard, or hanging it from the tree.
Then, Janet Taylor said, a friend gave them a second, smaller goat, and after finding one to match, they decided the family of goats needed to have even more fun.
The Taylors said they aren’t positive about what the first display was, but think it was around Christmas, when they dressed the goats up as Santa’s elves.
The response, they said, was overwhelming.
“It was amazing,” Jarry Taylor said, “People would just stop when we were out there. We would get phone calls. We would get letters.”
Janet Taylor said she has a box of letters and drawings from kids telling them how much they loved the goats.
From there, the goat tradition has only grown.
“I guess it kind of inspired us, so we started trying to come up with themes,” Janet Taylor said.
Over the years, the Taylors said they’ve covered every major holiday, minor holidays, sports, seasons and more.
One of the highlights, Jarry Taylor said, was an Easter display where the goats had on bunny ears and were paired with giant Easter eggs. In the middle of the night, an unidentified neighbor brought the goats Easter baskets — complete with painted “Easter eggs” made of cans.
“To me, someone taking the trouble to paint cans, put them in a basket, wrap the basket and then deliver them to our goats … that sort of takes the prize for me,” Jarry Taylor said.
Janet Taylor’s favorite was the Winter Olympics display in 2014, where the Taylors’ handiwork of building a ski ramp was serendipitous when the “Snowpocalypse” hit.
“The goats just demanded it,” Janet Taylor said, laughing.
And the goats have made an impression on the community.
The Waltchacks have lived up the street from the Taylors for the past seven years and said their children absolutely love the goats.
“Think about the neighborhood you grew up in. What memories come to mind?” Derek Waltchack asked. “For me, I remember the folks who stood out and actually interacted with neighbors”
He said he thinks the Taylors’ creativity will have a lasting impression on his and other children in the neighborhood.
“I guarantee if you poll the children in our neighborhood in the year 2030 about their memories of growing up, most of them will mention the Taylors’ goats, and those types of memories are what make a community truly special,” Waltchack said.
And the Waltchacks aren’t the only neighbors championing the goats’ antics.
“I haven’t had a single complaint — in fact, more encouragement than anything,” Janet Taylor said.
Jarry Taylor said while he was putting up this year’s Halloween display, a woman stopped her car in the middle of the street to compliment the goats, telling him how much her twin sons loved to drive by and look at them. Janet Taylor said she’s had friends say the same thing.
Some, Jarry Taylor said, will even drive out of the way to see what the goats are up to.
“I’m just amazed at that,” he said.
One Christmas, the Taylors made a calendar of goat photos as a gift to the neighbors who have been the inspiration behind keeping the goat fun going.
“I certainly think … we wouldn’t have done as much as we have done without the public outcry, if you want to call it that,” Jarry Taylor said.
As far as the future of the Monterey goats goes, Janet Taylor said she is more than open to ideas.
“I’ve mentioned to people that I should put a suggestion box out there,” she said. “It would be nice to have a few.”
If the goats ever get to be too much to handle, though, she said she does have a grand finale in mind.
“I still think, the grand finale would be if I were to rent a goat — like a real goat — for a day, and put it out there,” she said, laughing. “I just think that would be so cool.”
