HAZEN - If weeds have got your goat, perhaps you'd like to reverse that equation.

Have a goat get your weeds.

Lynn Winkler, of rural Hazen, has a 2-year-old male Nubian she's giving away free for the asking.

His name is Hugs, he's got a funky multicolored coat and he's been to church already.

Winkler calls him her "holy goat," and he was pretty well behaved the time he was trotted down the center aisle for a Sunday missionary program at English Lutheran Church in Hazen.

The Winkler family keeps goats and has used goat milk to make a soap product that's high in vitamins A, C and E, and good for the skin and for conditions like eczema. It was the soap preferred by that ancient siren of the Nile, Cleopatra, Winkler says.

They're planning to restart their soap-making enterprise that was put on hold while she had a baby and few other things were going on.

Turns out Hugs has what 80 percent of all goats have. It's the antibody for caprine arthritis encephalitis, a condition that can swell the animals' joints and compromise their white blood cell counts and immune systems.

She's striving for purity in the soap and so prefers not to have Hugs in the goat herd, though there's no proven transference of CAE to other livestock or humans.

Whoever takes him can safely keep him with other livestock, like horses. He'd cost between $50 and $100 at a livestock barn.

When he's tugged out of his pen on a lead rope, he heads right for the greens, chomping weeds like there's no tomorrow. He's a little picky about his weeds, but if he likes the taste, it's definitely weed-be-gone.

He's an OK dude, as far as goats go.

"He has a really nice temperament," Lynn Winkler says.

Her daughter, Savannah, said she doesn't want to see him go. "He's nice and friendly," she says.

Anyone who wants a free weed eater can call the Winklers at 748-5739.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@;westriv.com.)