After all, without her care and attention, would 79-year-old husband Gerald still be active enough to run their 2600ha high-country station almost single-handed?
And she laughs, Gerald might be one of the oldest farmers in the district, but he also has two of the oldest cars and one of the oldest wives.
Mr Goodger was sweeping up wool to a loudly played Michael Jackson song when the Otago Daily Times called late last week to see first-hand a man who is pushing 80 still thriving on a long, hard day in the shearing shed.
He had only a moment or two to talk because, with four shearers on the board, fleeces were stacking up waiting to be classed ... and there was a truck with 34 bales of merino wool on board waiting for a docket ... and there were sheep to pen up ... and more sheep to drench ...
Mr Goodger, the smallest person in the shed by a good few kilograms, has lived all his life on the property, once part of the giant Morven Hills Station.
When Morven Hills was broken up just over 100 years ago, Mr Goodger's grandfather took up a block that included Merivale.
His father, Jim, and mother, Lilian, began farming Merivale in 1933 and he took over in 1963.
As shearer Stu Rush points out, it is a property run in a traditional high-country way, without irrigation and not a great deal of supplementary feeding of stock.
And the tractor gets brought out only about once a year to run the dip, he said.
One of the major improvements that has allowed stock numbers to grow, and for the farm to be run without too much additional labour, is the 30km of fences Gerald has built.
''The farm was virtually unfenced when I took over and only had 1800 ewes on it.''
Now it is in 17 blocks and, with top-dressing and with rabbits under control, provides for four times that number.
Mr Goodger has experienced ''plagues'' of rabbits at times and describes them as the main ''inhibiting factor'' for farming the high country.
The solution had been 1080 poison and the release of rabbit haemorrhagic disease.
''There have been up and downs with the rabbits but the virus is still working and at the present time the rabbits are very low.''
Mr Goodger says with four sons and four daughters, succession is ''difficult'', but for the moment he is in ''perfect health'' and did not think he would be retiring ''anytime soon''.
''If I had a downturn in my health I'd have to look at something, but this property now has been in the family for 100 years and I wouldn't like to see it sold under my tenure.
''But what happens after I go, that's not my concern,'' Mr Goodger says with a laugh.
