Meet Mike Martin

Burien's city manager with an imported four-legged brush remover. His thorny problem was solved with a herd of goats imported from Tacoma.

When he had problem getting machinery into his steep Seahurst hillside backyard, he called Don Miller at Hell's Half Acre. Don brought over 31 bore goats and turned them loose. They had a glorious feast leveling the blackberry vines and anything else green.

Miller charges $10 per goat per 24 hours (they never stop eating but do rest between bites) and Martin supplied an ample amount of water.

Thorns never bother the loving animals but they do leave a foot or two of the vine before moving on, so the finished hillside is not exactly like a putting green though it doesn't look too baaaaad. And they don't eat the berries.

The goats are fenced in so they can't sneak over after dark and munch on the neighbor's prize rose bushes. They are mostly does butt there are several rams also on the job.

The land clearing company is called Goatrunners and the phone number is 253-606-9314.

No, goats don't eat tin cans so you will have to dispose of those yourself.

Meet Todd Carden

He is proprietor of Highline's newest restaurant, the Elliot Bay Brewery Pub.

He and his partner Brent Norton also operate a popular brewpub in West Seattle.

The two entrepreneurs met when they were hired right out of college by a Ballard brewery to wash beer kegs.

The Burien eatery occupies two floors, is over 16,000 sq. feet, and they make 20 different brews. Todd is shown here in front of some of huge tanks in the lower level.

He was a Portland boy, went to Linfield College and now lives in West Seattle.

Meet Phil Ricci

You may not have met him but you probably have eaten his food. He is the owner of Angelo's Italian restaurant in Burien.

I met him when he was only about 7 when his father Angelo Ricci opened a deli at the corner of Sixth Avenue Southwest and Southwest 153rd Street in 1950. I used to drop in and buy Angelo's pizza long before Pizza Hut and Dominos came along.

Angelo started the kids early and Phil is doing the same thing. His son and daughter both wait on tables some nights and both are students at Mt Rainier High.

What started as a deli became an enormously popular Italian restaurant and Angelo opened a second spot in Bellevue.