Q: How many goats?
A: It was one goat but she was pregnant so now there are three. The funny thing is, I learned how to be an Emergency Medical Technician because one thing you want to know is medical skills to take care of people in an emergency, so I actually got to use my EMT skills to deliver the babies.
Q: I was going to ask you about that goat you killed. You stabbed a goat, skinned it. I guess in case you ever needed to kill for food.
A: I think there are a lot of things in the book I did that I’m ambivalent about and I think killing an animal was one of the most horrific things I’ve ever done in my life.
Q: So you wouldn’t kill a second goat?
A: Only if I was dying of hunger.
Q: You said you wanted to add something.
A: Yes, I wanted to add that what began in the book as fear and escape actually became incredibly character-building. I’m part of the search-and-rescue team now. I have a pager on my hip. If it goes off, we go try to find a missing child. I never knew how to do practical things. Knowing how to make a fire and and how to identify wild plants, if nothing ever happens, if the world hopefully carries on splendidly, at least I’ll be a cool dad or a cool grandfather and I can take my kid camping—which I never could have done before.
