I'm not nearly as sick of the goats as E is at the moment, but last night he was heard to scream to Lucretia that he was a. going to sell her and shortly thereafter, b. he was going to kill her. I guess the first option was at least better for her health... She is just so skittish - once we get close enough and grab her collar she's a joy to milk, and easy to lead, but grabbing her collar is an event in and of itself. We don't keep our goats in the barn, partly becasue there's no stall to put them in, but mostly because we don't want our milk to get contaminated with all the hcicken manure and dust, since the barn mainly serves as our very large hen house.

After another long battle this am (which I'm gald I wasn't present for), E caught her and put a dog harness on her, then attached that to a lead rope, and the lead rope to one of the run-in sheds. Not a perfect solution - leaving a goat tied up for any length of time makes me nervous, but it'll do for now. I'm thinking about sinking four posts into the ground in an 8 foot square and nailing boards to that three or four high - it won't make the pasture look too junky, and we'll have a "stall" of sorts for Lucretia till she calms down and also for any bucks we rent so theyr'e not with the girls 24/7. It might also make a nice creep feeder for the kids if we ever need that. It's even more frustrating since her sister Gibby is so well trained after less then a week that all we have to do is open the pasture gate and she runs out, down the driveway, into the garage, and jumps up onto the milking stand!

We've decided to sell Dharma and Esme, and maybe Faunus, though I may keep him till we get a buck kid to wether next year. I'll miss the minis, but the Toggs are so much more practical for what we use them for. We cultured some milk with yogurt and rennet and made some delish molded goat cheeses this weekend - they were a hit when L and A came over for dinner as well as at my mom's brunch the next day.