Today, Tirzah helped us round up the small herd of rams and bucks before we gave them all shots and separated the two we needed. She always takes such joy in her work that we have to remind her to settle down. She would prefer that all herding be done at a hundred miles an hour.

The first one we needed was a handsome young ram that we released into the yard with Sue. I'm afraid it wasn't love at first sight. Sue doesn't recognize him as the same species and he is too paranoid about being shoved into an apparently hostile environment to do anything but frantically snatch up grass and wildly bleat between bites.

We also captured a young buck that is too small both for breeding or eating so we're going to try to turn him into an adorable pet. Ellen christened him Hancock. If he was a sheep instead of a goat I don't think that we would have any chance of taming him but goats are willing to be bribed into friendship over time. He is really quite cute and unusually soft. Hopefully he'll relax and start enjoying our pampering soon.