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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GKP Writing News

Delicious Book Research

World building is part of planning any novel. This means doing some research. My planned NaNo novel called for some delicious book research.

Delicious?

One of the possible scenes in the novel will involve the main character doing some cooking, a simple Arab recipe. Except I don’t, or didn’t, know any simple Arab recipes.

Of course I could just do a search for such a recipe. What’s the fun of that? Finding a good cookbook to read or browse is much more fun.

I checked out “Arab Fairy Tale Feasts” by Karim Alrawi and Nahid Kazemi. This began my delicious book research.

My Plans

I had thought I would use a chicken recipe. This made it tempting to just look at those sections in the cookbook. I’m glad I didn’t succumb to this.

Instead I spent time enjoying the Arab Fairy tales. They each ended with a moral reminding me of Aesop’s Fables.

Each tale had the flavor of “The Thousand and One Nights” yet the familiarity of fairy tales I’d read long ago. The illustrations made the tales come alive, even though they were simple colored sketches.

New Plan

The chicken recipe idea got canceled. Instead I found a meatball with a honey glaze recipe. It’s fast to prepare and sounds delicious.

My main character will prepare a variation of this one as she will use a tomato sauce glaze, something the recipe notes tell me is another way to prepare the dish. One of the honey glaze ingredients called for would not be found in a regular kitchen not set up for Arab recipes.

That doesn’t mean I won’t try to make the original recipe. I’ve already tried out another recipe from this delicious book research, a lentil soup.

It would be great if the rest of my world building research was delicious book research too. Unfortunately it won’t be.

cover for "Broken Promises" by Karen GoatKeeper
Food is universal. Cooking can be relaxing or therapy or other things for the cook. In “Broken Promises” cooking helps Hazel cope with the death of her father.
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GKP Writing News

Fall Pumpkins

My first science activity book was “The Pumpkin Project” which I’m presently going back over trying to see how I can turn it into teaching units, all 215 pages. Seeing the fall pumpkins encourages me.

Porch Displays

Several houses on my town routes have porch displays out. Many include pumpkins and other winter squash varieties. These come in so many shapes and colors.

These will sit out for people driving and walking by to admire at least until the end of October. The sad part is that these pumpkins and squash will get dumped into the trash.

cover of "The Pumpkin Project" by Karen GoatKeeper
Writing this science activity book was a great experience. It did give me a chance to use my science teaching. The best part was meeting via email so many interesting people and going to the Weigh Ins. The next best part was trying out all of the delicious recipes.

“The Pumpkin Project”

As in my other science activity projects, this one includes pencil puzzles, trivia, stories, activities, projects and investigations. In addition, this book includes pumpkin recipes.

In the U.S. pumpkins are thought of as dessert, usually pie. Searching through my cookbooks, I found pumpkins can be cooked in many ways.

The flowers are used in a Mexican soup. The roasted seeds are a great snack. Pumpkin soups taste good.

There are several pumpkin breads. In fact, I just found a new one, a yeast bread using pumpkin puree and little sugar so it’s not a sweet bread. The Caribbean one has nuts, raisins and dates in it.

My favorite recipe is for pumpkin cookies. These taste a lot like pumpkin pie, but in cookie form.

fall pumpkins
Pumpkins have been around for centuries. Native Americans in South America were the first to plant them. They moved north and were planted by tribes in North America. Europeans adopted them and spread them around the world. This is no surprise as pumpkins taste good any way you fix them.

The Main Ingredient

Doing the activities and investigations require having pumpkin seeds, plants and pumpkins. The seeds can be purchased in the spring. Pumpkins are available in the fall.

But growing pumpkins is fun. The mini types can be grown in a big pot on a porch. Giant pumpkins take lots and lots of room and care as the stories about giant pumpkin growers explains.

I grow sugar pie pumpkins. These don’t get really big, but they are the best for eating.

My Plans

As I walk through my pumpkin patch admiring the many pie pumpkins, I picture them as breads and cookies. There are enough to share with the goats as they love pumpkin pieces. Perhaps I will ask for some of those display pumpkins and winter squashes for the goats to enjoy.

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Latest From High Reaches

New Garden Beginning

My garden isn’t moving. My new garden beginning is the start of next year’s garden. It isn’t next year yet, but my garden begins when I plant my garlic patch.

Garden Preparations

Lots of things are on the ‘To Do’ list for next year’s garden. On top is clearing out the remains of this year’s garden.

Once killing frost arrives, the cucurbits, tomatoes and peppers are gone, what is left of them. The groundhog continues to evade capture thanks to squirrels removing the bait from the traps.

New cardboard and mulch are next on the list. Weeding is not the way I like to start next year’s garden. My method doesn’t eliminate the weeds, but does get about 90% of them.

Both raised beds need frameworks for plastic put up. The lumber is waiting. The workshop is being renovated.

old garden resists new garden beginning
Sugar pie pumpkins are supposed to be smaller vines, like butternut squash. These seeds didn’t know that and promptly started taking over part of the garden including racing across the garlic patch to climb up the fence. The pumpkin vines will be gone with killing frost, but the pumpkins will be in the pantry.

Fall Planting

There are greens planted for fall harvest. I don’t count these in my new farden beginning projects as they are a continuation from this year.

The Chinese celery looks great. That’s because the groundhog doesn’t like it. The other greens get eaten the day before I want to pick them. That’s another reason to put frameworks up over the raised beds.

garlic is the new garden beginning
As my garden is surrounded by lawn and pasture, weed seeds move in by the handfuls. The mulch helps keep the weeds at bay while keeping roots cool in summer and warm in winter. The trench in the mulch has garlic cloves planted in it. Once the garlic leaves are up, the mulch will be pushed around them.

Planting Garlic

This year the sugar pie pumpkin vines overran the garlic bed. As summer wanes, the vines are dying back.

There are four varieties of garlic this year: Hard neck (name unknown), German, Romanian and soft neck (probably California white). The patch wasn’t big enough so a row of walking onions left.

Rain has been scarce for a few months. It comes in quarter and half inch showers. The patch was a bit dry even under the mulch. Rain barrels supplied water.

The cloves are planted between piles of mulch. In a few weeks garlic leaves should tower over the mulch.

That will be my new garden beginning to grow, promising a first crop for the new year.

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GKP Writing News

Native American Stories

Sometimes reading the history of the New World gives the impression no one lived here before the Europeans came. This isn’t true. Lots of people lived here and I’ve been reading some Native American stories to find out more about them.

There are many titles to choose from. Many are written by white people from their point of view. I came across a list of Native American authors and decided to check out one of them.

Fancy Shawl dancer at Cheyenne Pow Wow
The shawl swirls and swings around this Fancy Shawl dancer at a Cheyenne Pow Wow. At times she turned fast enough to level the shawl out in billowing waves.

Beginning With Picture Books

The nice thing about picture books is being able to see what is talked about in the text. These simpler approaches can be good introductions to topics as well.

So I requested several books by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve about different tribes. All of the ones I’ve read so far, “The Cherokees”, “The Cheyennes”, “The Hopis”, “The Navajos”, “The Nez Perce” and “The Apaches”, have a similar approach.

Grass Dancer at Cheyenne Pow Wow
Grass is bison food and important to feed the herds. The long fringe moves with this Grass Dancer at a Cheyenne Pow Wow as wind blows the grass. It ripples and sways, bends and sweeps up.

In the Beginning

The books begin with Native American stories of creation, where the people came from. All of these tales reflect a strong relationship with the natural world.

How these different tribes lived, their tools, the roles of men and women in the tribe, some customs and activities are described next. I was surprised at how many tribes let their women have a strong presence and influence in the tribe. This changed with the coming of the white man.

Sad Commentaries

Europeans considered the Native Americans a problem to be removed. Even tribes that tried to adopt white ways and beliefs were still just Native Americans. Although these books do not dwell on the many broken promises, treaties, massacres and forced relocations, they are mentioned as they are part of the Native American stories.

Native American stories told through dance
This man is performing a Fancy Dance at a Cheyenne Pow Wow held in Salem years ago. All of these dancers had colorful attire and intricate footwork.

Looking to the Future

Although most tribes have reservations, many members are educated and work in a wide range of careers. This is also part of the Native American stories.

This First Americans series may be picture books, but they are beautifully illustrated by Ronald Himler. They are definitely a good introduction to the different tribes and lay a good foundation for reading other Native American authors.

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Munching Monarch Caterpillars

My chickens have the run of the compound by the workshop and barn most of the day. So it was a surprise to find munching monarch caterpillars on the young common milkweed plants.

The chickens are voracious, attacking almost anything that dares to move through the yard. Even though these caterpillars taste bad, chickens don’t tell each other about it so each must sample one.

munching monarch caterpillars
The hungry caterpillar has nothing on these little eating creatures. These monarch caterpillars latch onto the edge of a leaf and start nibbling it away.

Monach Migration

There was a time when I was in sixth grade and saw a real monarch migration. The classes were out for recess. Clouds of these big, beautiful butterflies surrounded us. It was amazing.

I’ve noticed a few Monarch butterflies flying by this year. They have a flutter flight quite different from the more common frittilaries.

These visitors drop by the thistle flowers for a snack. They check out the common milkweed stalks, most of which are brown and shriveled now.

two munching monarch caterpillars
Monarch caterpillars grow fast. They have to as killing frost will arrive in another month and they must pupate and fly off before then.

Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca

These were planted twenty years ago and been a tolerated nuisance ever since. Unlike purple milkweed or butterfly weed, these plants send out gemniferous roots to form clumps. These clumps move from year to year migrating across the yard.

The milkweeds grow tall along with the giant ragweed and other plants growing among them in unmowed territory. They put out big umbels of light pink flowers attracting wasps, bees, bumblebees, butterflies and beetles.

Once the seed pods open releasing their seeds, the plants die. Except the roots busily put up new shoots that don’t get very tall. Their main purpose seems to be to keep me from mowing down the ragweed.

group of munching monarch caterpillars
There is a definite problem looming for these monarch caterpillars. They only eat milkweeds. This late in the season milkweed leaves are in short supply. There may not be enough for all of these caterpillars. I am in search for more.

Another Purpose

The munching monarch caterpillars give these shoots another reason for growing. Unlike the few remaining plants, these shoots have luscious green leaves perfect for dinner, if you are a caterpillar.

All the shoots with munching monarch caterpillars are now surrounded by wire rings. If chickens could read, I’d add signs: Chickens Stay Out.

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Ending Summer Gardening

Fall’s arrival means ending summer gardening for me. It’s bittersweet for me, especially this year.

Many Challenges

Every year brings new gardening challenges. This year brought more than enough. It started with the spring crop of weeds as I didn’t get the cardboard and mulch down over the entire garden. The pathways were ankle deep by planting time.

Many of my crops didn’t come up. There is a black walnut shedding too many leaves, twigs and nuts over almost half of the garden. A wide variety of plants refuse to grow in such contaminated soil.

A new family of groundhogs moved in. So far I’ve eliminated four. The first one leveled the greens which did eventually grow back. The last one wiped out the okra, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and lima beans. Number five is working on the leftovers. Other leftovers were collected by a wood rat aka pack rat.

What damage the chipmunks and turtles did was masked by the groundhogs. Turtles do little damage and are easy to remove. Chipmunks are cute, for now.

Yuxi squash ending summer gardening
This squash is edible young as a summer squash or it will shell into a nice winter squash. I get the seeds from Baker’s Creek. I prefer it as summer squash mostly because if is an awkward shape. the goats love it young or shelled.

Bright Spots

Cucurbits ignore black walnut. Groundhogs and pack rats ignore squash, monster squash and pumpkins. Leeks, onions and garlic don’t seem to be on their preferred list either.

This is the first year in a long time I’ve grown onions. It won’t be the last.

We will also feast on butternut squash all winter.

The goats will enjoy monster squash for months. These mysterious squash seem to be a cushaw/Tahitian melon cross. Some crossed with the yuxi, I think, judging by the shape. The one trait all of them share is size. They are big.

monster squash for my cucurbit year
These are small monster squash. One that fell off the vine mostly shelled is about ten pounds. There are a couple of others similar in size or bigger.

Ending Summer Gardening

The squash bugs have finally overwhelmed many of the cucurbits. The winter varieties are shelling even as the vines die back.

The tomato vines still look lush on top, but fall blight is creeping up. There are few tomatoes as they got carted off or eaten by groundhogs and wood rat. The flowers have no time to develop before killing frost.

Only one container of peppers and one plant still have peppers on them. The okra leaves were eaten along with the flower buds.

With the arrival of October, I will be officially ending summer gardening as I start clearing out the summer crops, laying down cardboard and mulching. Instead I will concentrate on the few winter crops growing in the raised beds.

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GKP Writing News

Announcing The Little Spider

Book marketing is not easy for me. It takes time and knowledge I don’t have. But I am announcing The Little Spider with a combination book launch party and signing.

This wasn’t really my idea. The Salem Public Library Head Librarian asked me to set up a table in the library. She’s seen the book file, is a picture book enthusiast and really likes it.

I’ve seen these author tables in the library before. It is a lonely vigil. Unless the author has lots of friends or readers or both, few people notice or stop at the table.

Finding an Audience

Sitting around waiting is not my favorite occupation. It doesn’t send the best message to get deeply involved in reading a book or typing away on a laptop.

Therefore, I need company, potential readers to stop by. And the library has such an audience available through their preschool reading program.

My author table will sit by itself. I will have a book reading. And the potential audience will be my target age group for my book.

On the Table

My author table needs to be large as there will be sixteen books on it. This includes my new novel “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. Even though I will be announcing The Little Spider, I can possibly interest people in some of my other books.

All but “Goat Games” are in the library. They do get checked out now and then. However, I am still a relatively unknown author.

Looking To the Future

One of the best ways to encourage people to read my books is to get some people to read them and recommend them to others. So many people only try out books with lots of reviews which my books don’t have. I know people do read my books, but they don’t leave reviews.

Announcing The Little Spider in the midst of spider themed Halloween decorations with a book reading may encourage people to look my books over, maybe check a few out.

And, as a bonus, there may be time to read some of the stories and tongue twisters from “For Love of Goats” too.

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GKP Writing News

NaNo Preparation

The stores are full of holiday decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don’t bother with any of these. Instead I start with NaNo preparation in September.

What Is NaNo?

NaNo is National Novel Writing Month. It started as something of a dare between three men who talked about writing novels, but never did. They challenged each other to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November.

The challenge was fun. It was hard. Soon others wanted to give it a try.

Now NaNo is international with hundreds of thousands of people writing furiously for 30 days. The only prizes are some digital badges, a winner’s certificate and a rough draft for a novel. For anyone who loves to write, these are enough.

My NaNo preparation

This year is a bit different for me because of the ArtsRolla writing contest. Usually I spend September making up characters and plots, searching for one I want to pursue.

In October, I start creating lists of possible plot points, outlines of characters and descriptions of settings. I’m not what is called a plotter where every detail is fully developed and stated in the outline. And I’m not usually a pantser who takes an idea and just writes to see where it leads.

I fall on the spectrum between the two. Each novel moves me one way or the other, depending on the complexities of the plot. With “Dora’s Story”, I needed great outline details as there were several goat shows involved over more than one year with the contestants and their goats aging through the years. And Dora had a timeline too.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
When I started writing, I had a long list of cliff hangers. Many of them were never used. A few new ones occurred. The resulting novel is a wild romp of a story.

“Capri Capers” was closer to pantser. All I needed was a list of possible cliff hangers. That is, that’s all I needed for NaNo. Rewriting the novel required making a map and changing the story to fit the map.

For NaNo preparation this year

As I’ve gotten older, my novel ideas have moved from upper middle grade to adult to older adult this year. Lots of things change as you get older. What is it like to be old?

Only an older person can really write about this. A senior citizen was once young and can remember many of the issues a young person faces which may change forms, but not the underlying issues. However, a young person has never been old. There are so many considerations a young person can’t know even with interviews about what an older person feels both physically and mentally.

My first chapter is drafted and will be entered in ArtsRolla. I need a good working title. And then there is the outline of plot points, scenes and characters to write down so I don’t forget them before November when the novel draft will get written.

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Goat Time

So many things didn’t get done over last winter. All spring and summer I’ve been trying to get caught up. It’s left me too busy for some good goat time.

What is Goat Time?

That depends on whether you are a goat or a person. For a goat this is a day spent out eating, relaxing, cud chewing and horsefly avoidance.

For a person, me especially, it’s time to wander out in the pastures with the goats. They may be interested in plants for eating. I’m interested in plants for pictures.

Many of the goats want to come over for petting. All of the goats expect me to lead them to better grazing, then stand guard while they gorge themselves.

Leading the Herd

Being the leader somehow indicates being the one in front, leading the way. My goats don’t think much of this idea.

I lead the goats out to the bridge, or try to. Some days the herd follows eagerly. Other days I, as the leader, am in the rear urging the herd to get moving.

When we finally get across the bridge, I take off. The herd stands by the bridge. I try a different direction. If this is acceptable, the herd follows.

That is, the herd follows until they catch up to me, pass me, crowd into the trail and stop. They are waiting for me to thread my way back to the front to lead them off again.

My Nubian goat herd relaxing for a few hours
Horseflies love hot sunshine. The unused cow barn is cooler and dark, so the Nubian herd moves in while the horseflies are in full attack mode. Even in cooler weather this is a good place to relax and chew cuds.

Horseflies and Heat

Over the summer, the goats spent much of their time laying around in the old cow barn. Horseflies don’t like shade. If you’ve ever been bitten by one of these bloodthirsty insects, you know why the goats avoid them.

The shade and open barn sides are cooler than being out in the sun. The Ozarks didn’t have lots of really hot days this past summer, but the humidity made the ones we did have, miserable. I hid in the house much of the day.

Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela enjoyed my goat time
My herd of Nubians is small now, only a dozen. That makes them timid so they love having me out with them. This day I walked up near the road fence where multiflora roses grow big. They were considerably smaller after the goats got done.

Ozark Fall

There is a yellow tint in the green tree leaves. Days are warm, nights are cool. Fall has started in the Ozarks.

My busy schedule hasn’t eased up much. However, I am finding some goat time now before the cold settles in.

The goats enjoy the company. I get the impression they also enjoy being annoying.

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GKP Writing News

Teaching Literacy

Few people remember Dr. Frank C. Laubach today. They do benefit from his legacy of teaching literacy.

Who Was Dr. Laubach?

Born in 1884 in Benton, Pennsylvania, the future Dr. Laubach was like most of the boys growing up in a small rural town. One difference was his love of reading. That carried him through a few years teaching before going on to Princeton. He was spiritual and interested in missionary work.

Dr. Laubach and his wife Effie began their lives as missionaries in 1915 in the Philippines. He planned on working among the Muslims on the southern islands, but there was too much turmoil.

The Philippines

Ferdinand Magellan claimed the islands for Spain in 1521. The Spanish had just driven the Moors out of Spain. When he found Muslims living in the Philippines, he called them “Moros”, and considered them enemies setting the stage for centuries of wars between the Spanish and the Muslims.

The United States took over the Philippines in 1898 as part of the settlement for the Spanish-American War. The Muslims didn’t think this was an improvement.

Teaching Literacy

After years of doing other work in the Phillippines, Dr. Laubach finally started work in Lanao in the south in 1929. He was an outsider and viewed with suspicion by the inhabitants.

In the evening Dr. Laubach would climb a hill to watch the sunset. It was there he realized he was the problem. He felt he was better than they were because he was white. So he began listening to the people.

Maranao was an unwritten language. A few hadjis and panditas, heads of the villages, could read Arabic. No one else was literate. Maranao became the first language Dr. Laubach developed an alphabet for and wrote dictionary and grammar books for.

The motto was “Each one, Teach one” as Dr. Laubach taught one person to read and write their own language and that person was to teach another in his village. This spread as he went on to develop books for other languages.

cover for "Waiting For Fairies" by Karen GoatKeeper
Using picture books for adults to practice reading has problems as adults want more serious topics. The same is true for many easy reading titles.

Laubach’s Legacy

At his death, Dr. Laubach had developed materials for teaching literacy to adults in 103 languages including English. These were simple enough for ordinary people to learn the material and teach illiterate adults or immigrants to read and write.

Illiteracy is a problem in the United States. Up to one in five people can not read well enough to fill out a job application. The government now offers classes to help these people to learn to read. But these aren’t enough and often aren’t stressed for new immigrants dooming them to day work or other exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

Teaching literacy was a problem in Jane Addams’ day, one she wrote about in “Twenty Years at Hull House” (review on Goodreads). Her solution, Dr. Laubach’s solution and one we should recognize and implement, is to teach and encourage literacy with the opportunity to learn and books people want to read.