A goat's moral integrity / New chicken Columbuses

In September I was on holiday. It was very enjoyable but then I had to return to Japan.

Holiday (Rackovo sedlo, Tatry, Slovakia)

Now I'm back in Tsukuba and what a surprise, nothing changed, chickens and goats are here, as cute as ever, doing the same things as when I left a month ago. The only change is that the rice fields around were harvested and the grass and weed-trees on the farm switched to autumn mode (= slightly withered).

Sunny autumn mode.

Here are some recent happenings.

1. Minto-kun kindly keeps weeding neighbors' plots

When I'm at the farm, Minto-kun is allowed to go out of the chicken run. The intention was to have him help with vegetation control in the back of the farm, which is not part of the chicken run so the weeds tend to run wild.
Alas, there's a gap between intentions and reality. Instead of showing some integrity and helping on the farm, in 9 cases out of 10 Minto-kun strolls away to the neighbors' plots. We tried to explain that that's not what's expected of him, but Minto-kun has hard time understanding the puzzling human concept of dividing land into mine and yours by imaginary lines. "There are no boundaries. Follow the grass," is Minto-kun's credo.
Then he has to be carried back to the farm.

"I want to break free" (The white dot in the middle.)

"I want to break free" Close up.

One of Minto-kun's favorite locations is the road.
Drivers are not happy.

But the flowers taste good!

2. New Columbuses among chickens

Right now there are two chickens who noticed how easy it is to fly over the fence. Interestingly Christine, the very first explorer on the farm, is not among them.
This time we haven't panicked as we did last year when Christine started her exploration journeys. We've been hardened by a year-long experience, and it seems that our neighbors too. Now I rarely get calls from strangers telling me about chicken-strolling-on-the-road emergency.

The two chickens spend most of their days out of the run, but always keep close to the farm and none have gone missing yet.
When it's mealtime, they shamelessly come back and ask to have the gate open so they can have their lunch, please.

Runaway chicken in the back of the farm. (Acceptable)

Runaway chicken in the rice field. (Somewhat acceptable)

Runaway chicken near the road. (Unacceptable)

That was about the news.

Btw I found this video of our chickens from about a year ago, when they were much younger and much inexperienced. It's all complete with an interpretation of the chicken's mental processes. You'll enjoy it.