I'm not saying you have to be particularly tough to be a goat farmer, but it helps. To be a goat farmer, you have to have Attitude. No matter how hot or how cold it is outside, you are there to care for your goats. No matter how little sleep you've had, you are still there to keep an eye on kidding. No matter how much that goat doesn't want you to worm her or give her a shot, by gosh, she is going to get that shot or worming. No matter how many times you get pushed over a hill or knocked down by a goat, you have Attitude.

Lee and I are compassionate people, but we have a saying around here when one of us gets hurts. Well, two sayings: "Rub dirt on it!" or "Walk it off!" It's amazing how those two statements can get you going again. Either you are so mad that someone would dare say something like that to you while you are in great pain, so you have to show them you are tougher then nails, or you firmly believe them and they are words of encouragement. Either way, it works, because you are a goat farmer and you have Attitude.

When Lee went flying over the hill, hanging onto a yearling buck that did not want to be wormed, getting dragged and pounded into the ground, and he finally was able to stagger back up the hill where I was standing, I encouraged him with, "Walk it off!"

When a herd of weanlings decided it was easier to stampede over me then to go over Lee, and afterwards I was able to pull myself up off the ground by hanging onto the fence, battered and bruised, Lee knew just what to say. "Rub dirt on it!"

When we really needed to worm this particular young buck, even though he was trapped in a corner of a run-in shed he was still uncatchable, Lee had a flashback of youthful days playing football. When that big youngster ran by Lee the fifth time, Lee dove and tackled him! Usually fifty-five year old men aren't taking a running go and tackling anything, but Lee had had it up to here with both of us unable to get our hands on this big youngster.

Both Lee and hefty young buck went rolling, but when the dust settled, Lee still had hold of the strong young buck and the buck had given up. I swooped in and hurriedly wormed him, Lee then tied him to a post and trimmed his feet. Oddly enough the big youngster seemed to enjoy all this and kept chewing on our clothing and begging for more attention. Go figure.

After we finally turned him loose, I looked Lee over with his torn clothing and badly scraped appearance and said, yep, you guessed it, "Rub dirt on it." Though, it was obvious he had rubbed more than dirt in several places. So, he was even better than good to go.

I realize that visitors to the farm haven't got quite the Attitude yet of goat farmers, so I am a little more lenient with them. For example, when my young niece came for a visit and somehow, accidentally, slightly mashed a finger when shutting a drawer inside the house, I did not shout, "Walk it off!" or "Rug dirt on it!"

Thinking back to my much younger days, I remembered how I dearly loved wearing a band-aid. It was a sign of toughness. You had survived a calamity and have lived to tell about it. Back then we didn't get very many band-aids, either they were too expensive or us four kids used them up faster then mom could buy them. I can't remember which. Yes, that's right, we also had head injuries back then from playing on swing sets and pretending to be rocket men. We could get really high before we fell out of the swing or the swing set tipped over. I suppose you had to have Attitude with a swing set, too.

Anyway, back to my niece's slightly mashed finger, I hurriedly got a band-aid and put on it, though it wasn't cut, it was just a sign of great courage and she had survived. Much to my surprise, she hadn't been crying before this, when she saw that band-aid on her finger, she broke down into such a howling, crying fit, that I was totally flabbergasted. Her mother came to my aid and quickly took the band-aid off and the niece's waterworks immediately dried up and she was as happy as could be. Absolutely mystified, I looked at her mother for explanation.

"She thinks a band-aid means she has really seriously hurt herself. Now, if she ever really does seriously hurt herself, leave the band-aid off and go ahead and doctor her and she's the best child in the world to treat, but don't show her a band-aid."

Well, I never ....... Hmmmm, maybe saying, "Rub dirt on it," or "Walk it off", would have worked on this child! This child has Attitude! She's going to make a great goat farmer some day.