Goats! [Photos courtesy Blue Heron Farm.]

FIELD STORE—“Miranda’s a big eater, unlike her namesake,” Lisa Seger joked as she pointed out a brown goat with a white forehead nibbling some grass.

That goat, of course, is named after Miranda Lambert, the tiny blonde country starlet featured on the October 2011 cover of TEXAS MONTHLY. Many of the “girls” at Blue Heron Farm are named after country singers, a nod to Christian Seger’s time working as a roadie for musicians including Pat Green and, yes, Miranda Lambert. There’s also Emmylou, LeAnne, Carrie Underwood, Lucinda and Elle Mae, to name a few.

If you had driven by the ten-acre farm during the week after Labor Day, you might have noticed some different goats milling around that lacked country music monikers. The Seger’s idyllic farm turned into something of a goat refugee camp after they took in some 90 animals from two nearby farms threatened by the Waller County wildfires.

The tiny, unincorporated community of Field Store is home to three goat dairies, and the farmers are all close friends. When the evacuation order was called on September 5, the farmers from Fairwoods and Swede farms called Christian at the same time to see if they could bring their goats over.

“Our farm is surrounded by pasture that has been very heavily grazed,” Christian said. “There’s nothing to burn, so we figured the farm would be safe.”

A herd of 25 Nubian goats, known for their floppy ears and sweet milk, typically call Blue Heron Farm their home. The refugees from Fairwoods and Swede farms were a motley group of breeds, including Lamanchas, Alpines, Saanens and a lone Toggenburg. (more…)

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