Courtesy of Danielle Langloism, Wikipedia CCLApocalypse Goats
GRANT COUNTY, N.M. — Doug Fine, the author of “Farewell, My Subaru,” loves his digital-age comforts and his self-sufficiency.
A commentator for NPR, Fine files his stories from a 41-acre solar-powered ranch 23 miles from the nearest town. His solar-powered refrigerator is filled with local produce. His solar-powered pump pushes water to a drip irrigation system.
He owns “healthy if rambunctious goats” that ravage his roses but give him more than half a gallon of milk per day. Yet, with a family to support, he wonders in this essay for The Washington Post about a world run amuck in which oil no longer flows and big-box stores no longer exist.
“What if my family gets its survival cards in order — and hordes of former Wal-Mart shoppers don’t? What could we do to stop them from treating my ranch like a buffet line,” Fine asks, thinking about an armed ranch.
His worse fear, however, is that he can barely change his truck’s oil, let alone wire a solar panel, so he figures he would have to bargain with more capable people in exchange for goats.
“I think I have a priceless asset in my expanding herd of goats, which will make up for supply gaps,” Fine said. “Whenever I need something I neglected to stockpile during the boom times of globalization, I’ll barter off a goat kid like someone out of “The Red Tent.”
