California Fire Evacuation Vehicle and Writing Shed: Help Make the Goat Boat Float! Wren’s Deep, Bummer Thoughts About Fire

Tonka and baby Ponder

So many campaigns on GoFundMe are to assist people who have experienced horrible, usually unforeseen events–illnesses, accidents, etc. I felt guilty as I put my post up to collect donations for The Goat Boat. Then I realized that I’m collecting for tragedy prevention. A fire that overtakes our herd is not unforeseen, it’s a small but real possibility here in Butte County, CA. How often do we pass up the opportunity to intervene and prevent tragedy? I wrestle with this when I meet someone who seems to need mental health assistance, whether or not they seem to be a threat to self/others. So often the impulse is to steer one’s sphere away from theirs and keep piddling at one’s own business.

Sometimes I step in and offer what I can, often experiencing that old adage, no good deed goes unpunished.

Simile

I can think of the young woman who applied to work for C.T.’s cleaning company, only to cancel her interview for personal issues that smelled a lot to me like domestic abuse. Instead of moving on in our sphere, we drove to her location, interviewed and hired her, and let her crash on our couch for about eight months. During that time she buddied up to C.T. while she snarked and bitched about me, even as I was the one advocating to C.T. that we should help her a little more. A big whatever…

I used to step up for stray animals, more than I do now, even as we operate our rescue goat ranch. When to help, when to drive on?

I think a big part of the question is snagged by the fact that we are individuals operating in an individualist society with so many social structures that create glaring needs. We want to help an individual but then we consider the bigger picture and our help seems to make little difference. In the case of these wildfires, there’s little talk of changing the structures that contribute to risk of losing property, pets, or human life. And all around Chico I see subdivisions going up with houses just a few feet apart, packing ‘em in while continuing the giant system of desert farming and moving water from the mountains to desert cities. That said, we’re simply not going to have a national meeting and decide the best use and carrying capacity of this land for the long term. We’re going to support this growth and be astonished if it should burn.

Rye and Levi

I could go on a long jag about how disempowering it is to try to help when the larger systems just perpetuate certain problems. What can we do about fires, anyway, except respond when and where they happen? Lots, it turns out. In California we get lots of information about preparing ourselves, homes, pets, etc., for fire and evacuation. Our cellphones are listed with CalFire and we get alerts. We rake fuel such as pine needles 50-100 feet away from our houses. We keep our evac binders updated with documents, credit cards etc. The Seldom Herd is working from a list of preparation steps provided by North Valley Animal Disaster Group, which includes identifying several evac locations where the herd will be welcome and safe.

In direct consultation with us, NVADG is concerned that we’re at the end of a four mile dead end road. They advise us to evacuate early. They have vehicles for livestock and they can theoretically collect our animals, but it would almost certainly be late in the game, after humans have already been removed. They strongly advise us to make our own plan. At the center of our plan is The Goat Boat, an RV that will hold all our animals plus food, water, hay, movable fencing, first aid supplies, and a bed for tired human handlers!

Tonka & Dana

The hearts of the nation were warmed when we saw news stories of the Livestock Guardian Dog who kept his small herd safe in last year’s fires, with only a few burns. I can imagine my LGD’s Tonka and Dana protecting their seven goats with like heroism. These dogs are not pets. They’re amazing working dogs.

Many humans respond to the innocence of other species. Would we be more motivated to consider the sustainability of our lifestyle if fire statistics included loss estimates of pets, livestock and wildlife in climate change effected disasters such as these mega-wildfires? Maybe, or not.

Kissy Levi

In the meantime, on the individual level, I have the power to get an evac vehicle sooner than later with help from other individuals! C.T. and I are setting aside savings. With a few offline donations, that’s up to about $2080. We’ve launched our GoFundMe campaign, Help the Goat Boat Float. Please visit our page and consider donating. Every little bit helps, and bigger bits are way helpful, too!

There’s an important way you can co-create The Goat Boat, whether or not you give: Please spread the link on social media and email, text, etc., friends and family who might be interested.

GoFundMe doesn’t list perks, like our Occupy campaign with Indigogo. But we are in the process of creating a petting pen so our more sociable goats can hang with visitors, by appointment. There’s also talk of someday doing critter cams, so friends of Seldom Herd can watch their hijinks online! Stay tuned for more news about how you can get to know these cuddly kids. And please donate and share!

Gossip (bg) and Eureka