Author: Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.

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Latest From High Reaches

Visiting Conservation Areas

This year I have been visiting conservation areas looking for new plants for my Dent County Flora project. Missouri is special having so many of them.

Since I do my plant research only in Dent County, I looked up the conservation areas in the county. To my surprise, there were seven of them.

visiting conservation areas like ShawneeMac Lakes
Walking along one trail around a lake, The distant dam creating the lake is visible. One of the parking areas where picnic tables are available is in the distance as well. Sometimes there are others walking the trails here at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area, but not on this day.

ShawneeMac Lakes

I have long been familiar with this conservation area. It is on the edge of town and popular for fishing, hiking and picnicking. The parking areas are large, the trails nice and the archery range is used.

There are several plants there I do not find at home. Much of the time the trails are quiet as they go around the two lakes with a loop through the woods.

Gerhild and Graham Brown

I found out about this conservation area by accident. It isn’t very large, but is a nice place to visit. I’ve found some new plants here too.

The other thing I’ve found out is how rarely some of these places are visited or maintained. There is a small parking lot. Sometime this spring someone ran a bush hog down to make a hiking trail. It is now growing up which is fine with me as I find several plants easy to photograph there.

Visiting Conservation Areas

I’ve asked around. Many of these areas have very few visitors. Some have trails, some have rutted roads, some have nothing. Most have visitors only during hunting season.

Perhaps I understand why few people go visiting conservation areas in rural areas. I spend most of my hiking time near home as I have lots of land to look over. And city people seem unwilling to go off into wild areas unless they look like city parks.

The media is full of warnings about ticks. I pick up a few, especially when I forget to spray up more than my pant legs.

People are afraid of snakes. I rarely even glimpse one. Besides, snakes are our first line of defense against ticks as they eat the rodents supporting the population.

Reason for Concern

This year the conservation/state park sales tax comes up for renewal. It isn’t much, only a penny on eight dollars spent.

Conservation areas are great places to visit. Perhaps, if more of us used them, there would be more trails. But, without the sales tax, there won’t be these places.

Please vote Yes on Proposition 1. Then go visiting conservation areas and find out what makes them and Missouri special.

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GKP Writing News

Too Many Projects

Especially during the summer, time seems to melt away. Too many projects need attention. Now there are more writing projects getting worked on.

Another dimension of summer is heat and humidity. It may not be raining much, but there is always humidity. Summer temperatures are creeping in and feel worse with the moist air.

Horseradish contribute to too many projects
The Garden. For years, the horseradish was content in its little patch. No longer. Now I have to enlarge the patch or start moving plants elsewhere. Just one of the too many projects on the never ending to do list.

My Normal Routine

I am a morning person. Mornings are when my writing is best so I work on it in the morning. But not during the summer.

Heat stroke is no joke. I’ve been very close several times. Gardening summer afternoons is not wise. So I work outside mornings during the summer and try to write in the afternoons.

Writing Projects

The draft is close to done for Life’s Rules. However, I put it aside for months to work on the Carduan Chronicles. So now I am reading through the part I have done. Then I can complete the draft.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. Several things included in the draft need checking by other eyes than mine. I am basing many events on memories from forty years ago. Things change.

Ship Eighteen is again being edited. My friend sent a list of suggestions and I am looking through the draft with those in mind. And I have found several other things needing changes as well.

Exploring the Ozark Hills

I thought this book was complete. It actually is. My problem is different as I consider getting more of these books printed.

Photographs are a major part of this book. To get good images in the book, all of them need to be at least 300 dpi. Unfortunately, because there are so many photographs, this makes the file huge.

Some time back I tried to shrink the size by lowering the dpi of the images. In all honesty, they weren’t as good as I wanted them to be at the lower dpi. So, I am going through the photographs and taking them back to 400 dpi. Then I will put them back in the book file so I can get more copies printed.

The Pumpkin Project needs the same treatment.

Too Many Projects

Between gardening, lawn work, house work, summer heat and writing projects, I am a bit overwhelmed. Then I added a couple of new online ventures.

There is Substack. And the picture book reviews have moved off my Goodreads blog and onto a new account set up just for them. That means transferring the hundreds of books still on the blog.

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Latest From High Reaches

Two Savoy Cabbages

I loved the picture, so I ordered the seeds. Alcosa Savoy cabbage is a nice, petite head with crinkly leaves. This year I found another Savoy cabbage and am growing two Savoy cabbages.

one of two Savoy cabbages
Alcosa cabbage makes a nice little head surrounded by crinkled leaves.

Cabbage Is Cabbage, Right?

No. Regular cabbage has smooth leaves and makes a tight head. It has a slight bitterness.

Savoy cabbage has crinkly leaves and a looser head. It has no bitterness I can taste.

Both are very cold hardy and I grow most of it for a fall crop. It survives to about twenty degrees without protection.

comparing sizes of two Savoy cabbages
Alcosa Savoy cabbage (right) is not that small. When I pick some to take to Farmers Market, I have trouble getting it into a plastic bag. Violacea is on the left, or rather, a leaf that dwarfs the Alcosa next to it.

Time Is Important

The Ozarks has spring. Some years it is very short. Other years it hangs around flirting with winter.

Cabbage likes it cool to cold. All the relatives – broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts – agree. Hot temperatures make them bitter, even kill them.

Time to maturity or harvest matters. Alcosa is 74 days. If I plant it in the garden in March, I usually get a few heads. It is a hybrid, but I plant it anyway.

Violaceo di Verona

According to Baker’s Creek, this cabbage is from northern Italy. It matures in 120 days. That makes it a fall crop in the Ozarks. However, I did want to see what it looked like, so one is growing in my garden now.

Supposedly this makes a medium-sized head. It dwarfs my other ones. The leaves are huge!

Two Savoy Cabbages

Summer is blowing into the Ozarks. My Alcosa cabbages are ready for harvest. The Violaceo has two months to go.

I did plant it in the shade house and will put the shades up within the next week. That may help a little.

Now I have to plan where to plant my two Savoy cabbages in September. Perhaps I will have fresh cabbage all the way to New Year’s.

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GKP Writing News

Joining Substack

Joining Substack is a bit out of character for me. I’m not much of a joiner and definitely not a big social media fan.

What Is Substack?

I’m still trying to find an answer to this. It seems to be lots of people doing informational or opinion blogs. The types of these is immense and mostly of no interest to me.

Another aspect seems to be to try to get people to follow your articles. There is even a push to have paid subscriptions to these.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper
As I get acquainted on Substack, I am posting about my books. This time I decided to do my first book, “Goat Games”.

Why Did I Join?

My first brush with this site was through a podcast by J.F. Penn with Anne Lamott. Authors seemed to be joining Substack.

When I went to Rendezvous on the River, two of the local authors there had accounts and were happy with them. It seemed a good place to meet other authors, possibly find beta readers, maybe readers.

Now What?

My website has two posts a week on it, most weeks. I do a monthly book review for my local library. There are several book drafts I am working on. This will be another post at least weekly to get written.

Most of the Substack people seem to have some topic they put up articles about. I have no idea what topic I would write about. Most of my topics are of little interest to other people.

My Purpose in Joining Substack

Although I love to write, I would love to have other people read my books as well. It is extremely hard to get people to notice my books among the millions published each year.

That brings up another difficulty for me. Although I have self published eighteen books, they are for many ages, on different topics, in different genres, fiction and nonfiction.

I want to find readers. Perhaps the authors on Substack can help me find some of them.

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Latest From High Reaches

Mule Jumping Competition

People love to compete. Who is better? Whose car or horse is faster. The mule jumping competition tries to determine which mule can jump higher.

Bonita being led to barrier in mule jumping competition
Bonita is a little under 52 inches at the withers. This jump at the mule jumping competition is a bit over 40 inches high. Her owner is leading her up to it.

Missouri Mules

A mule is a cross of a male donkey and a mare. They vary a lot in size from miniatures to big and tall. Height is measured in hands (four inches) to the withers or top of the shoulders.

Mules were popular for work in pioneer days. They were strong and didn’t need as much care and feed as a horse. Missouri bred many of the finest mules.

Stubborn as a mule is quite true. If a mule decides to not do something, it doesn’t do it. But this is also a bit of temper on the part of the owners as mules are smart and many of the refusals were because the mule thought a path was too dangerous or had another good reason.

Mule Bonita starting to jump
Bonita looked at the barrier at the mule jumping competition as she listened to her owner and the crowd urging her on. She decided to try jumping over the barrier.

Mule Jumping Competition

Horses have riders as they race to a jump and over it. Steeplechases are popular races around a jumping course.

Jumping mules are not ridden. The owner walks them to the jump and urges them to jump over it.

There are several classes for the mules. One is for little mules. Another is for those thirteen hands (52 inches) and under. The third is for the tall mules.

Mule Bonita going over the barrier
A clean jump at the mule jumping competition is one that does not knock the barrier pole down. Bonita has cleared it with her front feet. Now she is tucking her back feet up to get over the jump.

The Set Up

Two poles are set up, each with a moveable bracket. A third pole is wet in the brackets. A cover is over this pole making it look like a solid barrier.

If a mule doesn’t clear the cross pole, it will fall down. This way the mule isn’t hurt.

Watching the Competition

A crowd gathered at the Rendezvous at the River to watch the mules jumping. We sat around on hay bales or in chairs set up in the shade.

A mule was led over to the jump. It stopped and looked at the barrier. Then it jumped over this two-foot high pole. When all the mules in the class had jumped, the bar was raised two inches and the mules jumped it again.

As the barrier got higher, one by one the mules refused to jump it. The winner was the last mule that would and did jump over the pole.

One little mule was fun to watch even though the owner was very frustrated. It decided not to jump that day. However, it needed to go over the barrier to make the owner happy. It walked up to the pole, knocked it over and walked over.

There are only a few of these mule jumping competition events. The next big one will be at the Missouri State Fair.

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GKP Writing News

Author Event

It’s been years since I was last at an author event. Perhaps I should make an effort to go more often.

Author Event Book display
My book display for the author event used two tables. There was not enough room to really spread the books out.

Packing

Of course, the most important items to pack are my books. I spent an hour sorting, counting and packing five boxes with books. A plastic sheet was included to set the boxes on the ground.

Then there are tables to display the books. I own one and borrowed another small one. Both needed covers.

Food is an important item as well. Since the author event was an all day affair and my stomach demands lunch, I planned out food and herbal tea to put in a cooler. There would be food booths, but I prefer to not depend on them as I may or may not like what they offer.

If the event were held inside, this would be everything. This event was held outside. I borrowed a canopy.

Titus Benton had a popular table
Down the way from my booth was a table set up by Titus Benton for his book “65560”. It attracted many people. Next to him was Matt Ankney with his first book “Spooklight”.

The Art of Packing

I suppose everything could be stuffed into my truck. It could be sorted out once I was there and setting up.

However, it makes more sense to me to pack things carefully and in some sort of order. The boxes of books went into the truck. The canopy and tables plus a chair went into the truck bed.

Bluegrass music
Across the aisle from my booth was a music booth. I enjoyed listening to the bluegrass music.

At the Author Event

Fourteen authors set up at the event. Many had only a book or two. Several of us had many books.

I knew one of the authors: Titus Benton with his new book “65560”. This is very popular at my library. Eventually my name will work its way up the hold list so I can read it.

Everyone sold at least a few books. We got to talk to lots of people. Maybe some will check out our books later on.

It was a great opportunity to meet other local authors. We know there are quite a few of us, but we only get to meet each other at an author event such as this one.

Busy Place

Authors weren’t the only people there. Across from my booth was a music booth. I enjoyed the fiddle music much of the day.

The highlight was the mule jumping contest. This was something new for me and I joined the crowd going down to watch.

Although I didn’t sell very many books, I am glad I went to this author event.

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Latest From High Reaches

Cabbage Loves Cool

Ozark springs used to be warm and short. This year, like last year, is cool and wet. Cabbage loves cool and wet.

Garlic, Cabbage loves cool
Garlic is another plants that likes cool weather. This patch was planted last fall, started growing over the winter and is now getting ready to send up flower stalks called scapes. These are edible and should be removed.

Cole Crops

Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are all cole crops. When we lived up North, these crops grew big. They tasted great.

The summers up North were cool by Ozark standards. Frost could happen most months and did. That was one reason we moved to the Ozarks.

okra flower
Although okra is grown for its edible pods, the flowers are large and beautiful. Okra is a member of the mallow family like hibiscus. This plant loves hot weather.

Garden Experimenting

For several years we tried growing many of the crops we were familiar with. Cole crops taste bitter when they grow in the heat. In the Ozarks, these crops became fall crops.

New crops moved into the garden. Tomatoes are a real challenge up North as they love heat and need a longer summer. Peppers and okra joined the tomatoes. All of these are good summer crops in the Ozarks.

summer squash Zephyr
Surprisingly, summer squash doesn’t like really hot weather. It is frost sensitive and likes it on the hot side of warm. This is Zephyr squash, a hybrid between yellow and acorn squashes.

Squash

Everyone thinks squash loves heat. It is frost sensitive. Up North squash grew big. Winter squash got huge.

World record pumpkins come from places cooler than the Ozarks. You can grow giant pumpkins in Missouri, but they are not world record sizes.

Still, squash, both summer and winter varieties, do grow well enough to give good crops. The winter varieties store well. But the summer varieties are soon over producing and the gardener’s neighbors quickly learn they need lots of squash recipes.

one of two Savoy cabbages
Alcosa cabbage makes a nice little head surrounded by crinkled leaves. In hot weather, they can turn bitter and the heads can rot.

Cabbage Loves Cool

I started cabbage seeds the end of January. The little plants moved to the garden in March. Now there are small heads forming.

When the cabbage first moved to the garden, I had to water as the Ozarks, like much of the country, was in drought. Rain does fall every week now. Most storms only drop half an inch, maybe an inch. It’s enough

Each storm brings in cool weather. The last one brought light frost at the end. Cabbage doesn’t mind.

Frost is a worry now. My tomatoes have moved out into the garden.

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Latest From High Reaches

Spooky Goats

Last night I went out to milk. The chickens were glad to see me. Only one of my spooky goats was in the barn.

Spooky goats checking out something
My Nubian goat herd is coming in. Wait! What is going on over there?

Where Are the Goats?

Rose was most unhappy. Goats are herd animals and her herd was missing. She stood in the doorway calling. No one answered.

The herd had been in the front pasture a short time ago. They were not there now. And, why was Rose alone?

spooky goats taking off
The old bridge is in sorry shape, but the goats can still use it to cross the creek. When they get frightened, that is what they do. After crossing the bridge, they head up the hill.

What Happened?

There had been a truck parked in front of the house. People were around the truck.

Our creek is part of a research project this summer. A student working toward her master’s degree is studying cold water creeks, ones resulting from spring water.

lonely goat
Nubian doe High Reaches Rose evidently didn’t notice the other goats ran off. She was probably in the barn and didn’t see them turn a race off. Rose is about twelve years old.

Spooky Goats

When my herd came into the barn lot, they saw and heard these strangers. The herd went back out the gate and headed up a nearby hill. Somehow Rose didn’t notice and stayed in the barn.

I have defined goats as perpetual two to three year olds with a double dose of orneriness at a hundred plus pounds. Like young children, they are afraid of strangers.

Years ago, when I took my goats to the county fair, my goats weren’t spooky goats. They were used to noise and people.

None of my present herd has ever left the property. They rarely see anyone other than us. Everyone is a stranger and strangers are run away from.

what spooky goats?
The truck and the people left. The goats wandered down into the barn. everything was back to normal in the morning when sun basking and napping are the best occupations.

Now What?

I knew which hill the herd went up. Spring is usually the ringleader.

It was near dark. This is a very steep hill and loose gravel covers the sides. I am not about to go up this hill with a flashlight after these spooky goats.

Instead I went out and called. Usually the herd will come back when I call. They didn’t.

Poor Rose was left alone to have her dinner and wait. The herd did come back before morning pretending they had never been gone.

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GKP Writing News

Read Widely

I came across another book about writing by an author I am unfamiliar with: “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. Still, I checked it out of the library. Sure enough, one of the first things it has to say is that writers need to read widely and read lots of books.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
This book came about because we were watching old movie serials. I decided to write one with goats in it.

Fan Fiction

Lots of people love to write about their favorite characters in favorite series. Most of these never show up except, maybe, on a special fan fiction site for that series. This is one way for new writers to practice writing skills.

Sherlock Holmes still has fan fiction written about him. I recently read two. “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” is an anthology by many authors. Most of them were not even close to the original flavor of the stories. “The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes” by Adrian Conan Doyle (the youngest son) had a dozen tales that captured the essence of the originals.

Getting Ideas

Many genres have a rigid formula all the books adhere to. Think cozy mystery or romance. The challenge for an author is to write something within this formula that is still different. If you read widely, you get exposed to many different styles of writing, some of which can be adapted.

True, the author may end up using a plotline from another book. I just finished a Cat in the Stacks mystery that did this. The plot seemed so familiar I knew who the murderer was and what the set up was almost before the murder took place. There were enough new aspects to rescue the book.

Expanding Horizons

Have you ever met someone who has only one subject to talk about? If you have no knowledge or interest in that subject, being stuck talking to this person is deadly.

If you read widely, you get a chance to see the world from many points of view, go lots of places, experience life in other times and do things you would never dare to do for real. Then you can widen your conversation topics.

For the Writer

Yes, some books may not get finished. There are lots of reasons for putting a book aside without finishing it.

On the other hand, you just might find a book that really resonates with you. One you would never have encountered if you didn’t read something new.

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GKP Writing News

What Plot?

Usually, when I write a novel, something is going on. There is a definite plot carrying the story along. As I write about Ship Nineteen, my problem is simple: What plot?

cover of "Running the Roads" by Karen GoatKeeper
The plot happened easily in this novel. Ridge gets his car and starts driving. He ends up in trouble, stranded and helping someone in trouble.

The Premise

This is a survival story of these nine Carduans learning to survive on an alien to them planet. The passengers range from ten years old to seventeen. The crew know little more than flying a space ship.

Marooned on a planet with no hope of going home and, as far as they know, alone, they must find a place to live, foods they can eat, a source of water and a way to defend themselves against the monstrous beings living on their new world.

What Plot Makes This Exciting?

That is my problem. As this is a sister novel to the one on Ship Eighteen and both take place over the same timeframe, both are written on a countdown of days. It is set up by weeks counting down from fifteen, each week split into the six days of the Carduan week.

Every day things happen. Some are dull and routine and short. Others are exciting and dangerous. All do feed into the whole of learning to survive, but each is a separate incident.

One Goal

Obviously the two ships will meet up. That is no spoiler. Sola, the main character on Ship Eighteen, dreams of meeting Tico, her son on Ship Nineteen. He remembers this dream. Does anyone, but them, really believe this dream?

Yet, this may be a glimmer of a plot or, at least, a goal for both stories. Is this enough? I don’t know.

Other Events

There is a bit of a romance. The Carduans are snake-sized snacks. Owls see them as dinner, not to speak of coyotes.

What is there to eat out in the wilds? How would you find out? After all, some plants are deadly poison.

What plot can I find? Perhaps learning to survive is one.