Life With Goats

Most of us don’t herd goats anymore. Go far enough back in time, and a whole lot of humans did.
Brad Kessler left a rent-controlled apartment in New York’s East Village to raise goats in Vermont. He took it seriously — even spiritually — for himself, and now for us, in the pages of a wondrous little book on goat-herding.
There’s a reason, he writes, that Jesus, Moses, Krishna and Mohammed were all tied up with shepherds. There’s something magic here. And the cheese is pretty divine, too.
This hour: bucks, does, birth, herding, and life with goats.
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Joining us in our studio is Brad Kessler, a novelist and author of the new book "Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese." His other books include the novels "Birds in Fall" and "Lick Creek," as well as award-winning children’s books in the "Rabbit Ears" series.
You can browse excerpts from "Goat Song" at the publisher's website.

More links:
Brad Kessler won the 2009 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Rome. The Academy's blog posts this image of a goat on a silver didrachm, from Paros in the Cyclades, 4th-3rd century BC: