The Goat Photo That Sparked a Rural Storytelling Movement
Sometimes the best stories start by accident. For ag journalist Rachel Gabel, it was a photo of a goat with an underbite and a silly backstory…
“Three a.m., I was sitting out in the goat barn waiting on a goat to kid and there was a goat with an underbite. She kept looking around the gate at me and she looked pretty glamourous for a goat. I took a picture of her with my iPhone on the portrait setting, so the back was kind of gauzy, and she was up on the gate with her underbite and she looked just magnificent. So I named her Linda and said she was a divorcee and a good bowler and she makes a mean pina colada and a chocolate lasagna and believes that the man of her dreams would come into her life in a less than practical car and custom bowling shoes. I was just being a smart aleck. But I posted it and that was the start of Cow Bios.”
It actually turned into two books, each one full of humor, heart, and a whole lot of rural truth…
“I don’t know that that’s a social media plan: I’m going to make fun of middle-aged rural women and post them with pictures of goats and cows and I’m going to bring together women from across the country, but that is totally what happened.”
You can learn more and order your copy at RachelGabel.com.
Interested in writing a book? Rachel explains the process in the Ranch Stewards Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/2166701/episodes/17042752-add-a-chapter-and-income-to-your-ranch-life
