Less Irritated

I am somewhat less irritated today, which I suppose is a good thing. I'm still ticked off that some random guy stole Bruce's MP3 player. But whatever. He has already replaced it. Between it being on sale at Best Buy, and the Best Buy coupons he has earned buying all of these Garmins for the kids (and for ourselves) for Christmas, he got it for a really good price. That makes us less angry, I guess.

And the Body Flow class was less crowded today. It was full, but noone got all up in MY space, so I was extremely happy about that. I struggled more with it today though. Its funny how some days the exercise is just harder than others. It was the exact same routine we did Thursday (maybe on Thursday I was fueled by my fury at that stupid woman who was all on top of me). But my leg muscles were on fire today, and I was sweating bullets during the whole class. Diana (our favorite instructor) told us to be grateful for the pain. It means we are getting stronger. And so I got through it, tried to be grateful, and hoped that I was gaining something from it. At least I didn't die, even though I swear I felt like I might fall out at any moment there for a while. And I didn't slack off, even though my muscles were screaming. I wanted to, I thought about it, but I figured that since I had gotten up early on a Saturday morning to do this, I might as well do it right.

And then I came home to start the work on the fence (again). Bruce was already getting everything ready. We reset the posts so they were not only more secure, but we raised it a couple of inches. We added the full-height gate instead of the pretty, ornate one with the lower curved front. And that took us almost all afternoon. After that was done, we came inside and watched out the study window.

It took Chaucer less than 3 minutes to jump over it. Yeah, thats right. He barely cleared it, but he got in. Poe is too short and fat, and I don't think he can manage it. Ok, so at one of the ag-supply stores, the sales guy had told Bruce that goats CAN be trained and sometimes they respond to loud noises. Bruce got out his stash of firecrackers, and set off a round of those. So far, that seems to have done the trick. Chaucer hasn't attempted jumping over again....yet. We are keeping watch, and the firecrackers are sitting right beside the door just in case we spot him getting ready to jump. If this fails, we have 1 more option. Just 1, and then its bye-bye goaties.
And that is the electric fence. I hate to do that, but I might have to.....I am already horrified by having to scare them with firecrackers. I just went out and fed them corn chips to apologize. Goats LOVE corn chips. They will jump up and practically knock you down if you walk outside with the corn chip bag. They don't even mind that its the healthy baked kind. Ok, I gotta go check out the goat situation. I wish they were snuggled up and sleeping peacefully in their little shed, but I have a feeling they are out there stalking around and casing the fence again. I just don't see what the attraction is about this little courtyard area. They have a nice shed full of hay, and a whole yard to romp and play in. But they only want to hang out right here by our back door. Stubborn goats!