The Whole Sordid Story of How a Goat Herder is Born

Reader Contribution by Annie Warmke
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One night when I was in high school (way back in the 1960’s), my dad came home late to his version of an 18?acre “gentleman’s farm,” and when he got out of the car he pulled a pregnant Nubian goat from the back seat. If that wasn’t strange enough, he promptly walked out to the barn to tie her up and feed her some sort of bagged feed. My dad was a city boy, and it turns out he’d won her in a poker game. (who uses goats as ante in a poker game??).

On the morning of what became the coldest night of the year, this beautiful goat delivered twins, which my

father promised me when I said I was worried would be fine “because the mother knows what to do.” The next morning, I was devastated to find the kids frozen to death, and that was the end of my goat career I hoped.

Those darn goats have taught me many important things about being a partner to the universe. If I get my job right, then I can step out of the way so they can do what they do so well: make babies, make milk and provide me with lots of great antics. I wouldn’t miss working with them for anything.

Note from Annie:

Since this is my first blog post for MOTHER EARTH NEWS, I want to let everybody who reads this know that I’ll be writing as regularly as farm life will allow, and I’ll be talking a lot about goats and other farm animals — how to keep them naturally healthy and showing up for their daily jobs. Since I live in an Earthship with lots of folks visiting, I’ll be sharing some of those experiences along with writing about life’s politics, because that’s what makes this life so darn good. 

If you have something to share with me, I invite you to write, and if you have kind words, I’ll especially appreciate hearing them. In the meantime, expect to hear some wild tales and homespun stories. I hope getting to know each other turns out to be as much fun for you as I’m sure it is going to be for me. Stay tuned…

Annie Warmke lives and works at Blue Rock Station, a sustainable living experiment that includes the first earthship east of the Mississippi. She’s a goat herder, a writer and a skilled lover of nature. For more information on her work and books, visit www.BlueRockStation.com.

Photo by Cat Harrier

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