Not to take away from the perfectly adequate linked article, but as a philosophical musing on keeping goats, it reminded me of the fabulous book "Goatwalking" b

Not to take away from the perfectly adequate linked article, but as a philosophical musing on keeping goats, it reminded me of the fabulous book "Goatwalking" by Jim Corbett. It's a hard to describe book that covers a lot of territory in not too many pages. Here's a review by Mark Schlenze that I think captures a lot of it: --- From the premise that is it possible for individuals with sufficient knowledge of range-goat husbandry and edible plants to depend only upon a couple of milk goats for the nourishment and liquid necessary for survival in the desert wildlands, Jim Corbett draws dramatic implications for the practice of a viable land ethic and the wholesale restructuring of society upon communitarian and ecological principles. In the process, Corbett somehow manages to deliver an intriguing autobiography, detail nuances of desert survival, challenge and reinterpret Western and Eastern philosophic traditions, negotiate the convergences of Catholic liberation theology and Quaker belief, and depict the struggle of the sanctuary movement to assist political refugees from El Salvador in the 1980s. From pastoral nomadism to political activism, Corbett explores the possibility of discovering, adopting and maintaining a right way of being in the world. Though Larry McMurtry once called Edward Abbey "the Thoreau of the American West," Jim Corbett may perhaps be more deserving of the title. At any rate, Goatwalking can certainly be read as a western Walden. Corbett's ruminations upon wilderness and natural history lead as inevitably as those of the New England sage to thorny issues of ethical judgement and social action. Corbett, however, even manages to work beyond Thoreau's curmudgeonly isolationism and symbolic civil disobedience to articulate the dynamic workings of what he calls the "covenant community" and a process of "civil initiative" as foundations for healthful identity, revolutionary involvement, and a right relation with the earth. Goatwalking is a difficult book, dense with data, speculation, and moral imperative. The text defies taxonomy, but one recognizes---among other interwoven genre---the continuity of the confessional. Corbett's severe self-scrutiny of a life lived in the demanding and fragile landscapes of the Sonoran desert and the American Southwest challenges attentive readers into honest confrontation with the social and ecological contradictions of their own existence and points to no easy way out. Though the terrain is treacherous, Corbett is at least a competent, if exacting, guide, and the example of his personal quest for a peaceable kingdom should serve to inform and inspire fellow travelers. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/532483/pdf https://muse.jhu.edu/article/532483/pdf --- If you liked the linked article enough to be reading these comments, you should probably track down and read Goatwalking. It's out of print, and doesn't seem to be anywhere online, but it's worth it. Buy a used copy or submit an inter-library loan request. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and reading it may very well change your life.