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

Thirsty Plants

Summer has arrived in the Ozarks. Along with summer have come tiny rains and hot temperatures. That adds up to thirsty plants.

Wild plants along the roads stand with drooping, wilting leaves. There isn’t much help for them. That is the terrible thing about even a small drought: watching day by day as everything dries up and turns brown.

In the Garden

Some gardeners let their gardens dry up. Their plants must survive just like the wild ones as the gardeners pray for rain that may, if the garden is under the right cloud, fall in time.

I prefer to water and mulch. My garden represents a lot of planning and work. The plants are finally starting to produce vegetables for the table.

Getting Water

The only water sources near my garden are a dug well with a hand pump, the rain barrels and the creek. There is no faucet and hose. Instead, there are two watering cans.

Thirsty plants need plenty of water. Each of 60 tomato plants requires a full can. The pepper plants are smaller and take a little less. The squash plants need full cans and more. It adds up to about 80 cans of water and hours of time.

A better solution is pumping water up from the creek. This is an adventure.

eggplant experiment
Eggplant is a plant I rarely grow as my garden seems to be flea beetle central. These two plants have been under mosquito netting until they began blooming. Maybe they are big and healthy enough to survive now.

Creek Water and Fire Hose

A few years ago, the old water hose wore out. The replacement hose is a discharge hose, better described as a small fire hose. It is designed to move as much water as possible in the least amount of time.

There is no way to water my thirsty plants this way without getting wet, very wet. That is not a problem in the hot weather

The biggest problem is reducing the water flow enough to not uproot the plants while trying to water them. Mulch helps.

butternut squash vines are thirsty plants
My garden never has enough room in it. This year the butternut squash are growing up over the shade house. It does save space and shades the interior, but the vines can’t put down extra roots. If any of the squash get too big, they need supporting. And the vines try their best to escape and spread all over. There are three plants on each side. All take a gallon of water a day once they are twice this size. At least the squash bug eggs are easy to spot on the leaves and vines up on the cattle panel.

Waiting For Rain

Twice a week now I argue with the hose. My thirsty plants look good. I’m picking squash and watching tomatoes hoping they will turn red sometime soon.

My garden survives because I can water it. My pastures were ready to cut for hay. The balers haven’t gotten here. In another week, there will be no hay, only straw.

The clouds drift by. Maybe my pastures will be under the right cloud soon.

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Raising African Violets

Houseplants, especially finicky ones like African violets are not a good match for me. They tend to die quickly of either neglect or overwatering.

The other problem for my houseplants is my ancient house with its dark rooms and damp drafts. It gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

Accumulation of Houseplants

Even though houseplants did so poorly for me, I kept trying. For a time, this was due to teaching as I wanted ferns for my classes. Two survived for years in my classroom. The native Christmas fern was returned to the hills when I left teaching. The other still tries to survive here.

A philodendron vine managed to survive a spring frost. I had just put the plants out for the summer and I covered the garden and forgot them.

My other houseplant is impressive. It is a Norfolk Island Pine now close to seven feet tall. Its pot is on wheels, but I can no longer manage to put it out for the summer.

African violets in bloom
African violets seem to have disappeared as being old fashioned. Perhaps they seem too tame as they are just piles of deep green, velvety leaves. Then the plants put up mounds of flowers over a couple of weeks. The orginal color is blue, but many others are available, if you look for them. They are easy to start using leaves.

Enter the African Violets

For a couple of years, I wrote columns for a local ad paper. I was just learning to write professionally. For subject matter, I interviewed local people and wrote about their hobbies and businesses.

One woman raised African violets. Her house was full of them, blue and pink. They were lovely.

These plants are easy to start from leaves. This woman would start several and sell them at her church bazaar.

When I left, two little plants went with me. I was positive they were doomed.

Surprise

At home I set these doomed plants on a shelf in a north facing window. They loved it. They grew big and bloomed. I started some new ones.

Now my north window sports lovely blue and pink flowers. They have moved into the kitchen west facing window as well and are putting on quite a show this summer.

African violets aren’t seen so much now. Succulents are the big houseplant item now. Perhaps the finicky reputation violets have is part of the reason. It’s a shame as, if you look for them, African violets come in many colors and do very well, if you have a window sill they like.

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A Country Year

Leonard Hall was a farmer. I am a homesteader. Yet his book “A Country Year” reminded me so many times why I chose and stayed in this life.

The difference between a farmer and a homesteader rests mostly on two things. One is the size of the operation. The other is profit. A farmer wants profit from his endeavors. A homesteader appreciates return on time and money, but it isn’t the main motivation.

Organizing Time

A year has twelve months. “A Country Year” goes month by month, but starts in March as that is when spring begins to creep into the Ozarks. The chores, tasks and more discussed are done from a time now passed and still present in some ways. Mostly the machinery and attitudes have changed.

The book is set in the late 1950s. So many things were different then. I was surprised the Ozarks had a five year drought as those I’m familiar with lasted only for the summer or, at most, a year.

Hall raised beef cattle, Hereford. Black Angus are all the rage now. His advice is good: putting out good pasture, good hay, not overgrazing and keeping track of the cattle apply for any livestock operation.

Oops.

A Country Year mentions planting multiflora roses
Multiflora roses are lovely in bloom. The flowers are white or pinkish white and have little scent. They normally have many thorns and the plants get large with canes growing ten feet up into trees or meshing with other rose plants. These flowers produce small hips and lots of them so the plants spread readily both by seed and from canes touching the ground and rooting.

Back then multiflora roses, the ‘living fence’ were being promoted. Sericea lespedeza was the pasture legume to grow. Both are considered alien invasives now. However, their widespread presence makes them permanent residents.

Multiflora roses spread quickly. They produce many small hips (seed pods) not as well liked as those of the native roses. These rose canes can grow up into trees and kill saplings.

Sericea lespedeza isn’t well liked by cattle. It seeds prolifically and can take over large areas. Roadsides, hillsides, good soil, poor soil make no difference to it. Goats and sheep relish it both fresh and as hay.

Why Homestead?

Along side the tales of history, people, hunting, fall butchering and monthly tasks, is a running commentary on the native plants and animals. Hall believed in conservation and practiced it. Over the years on his farm Possum Trot, the land healed from years of misuse. It became productive and brought back the native plants and animals as well as providing him a living.

Hall hints at then states in “A Country Year” why he loves living rural. For the author as for me, the biggest reason for living this life with all its work, problems, joys and disappointments is just that. There is time to look out at the hills or down a pasture and admire the beauty, the quiet (lack of city noise) and think my own thoughts.

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GKP Writing News

Hopes, Dreams and Reality Cover

I am not an artist or an illustrator really. I am an author who needs covers and illustrations for books and prefers or needs to do them myself. That is the case for the “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” cover.

The novel surrounds a storm, before, during and after. Mindy, the main character, goes through the storm even though it leaves her isolated with no phone, electricity or water and with the road washed out and blocked by fallen trees. Other complications arise both just before and during the storm.

Planning the Cover

Since the storm is the main trigger for all that happens, it made sense to me to use it on the cover. It is a major storm and Mindy must fight it, so the cover has her fighting the storm.

A sketch took shape around these. This was done on drawing paper with pencil. It was transferred to watercolor paper for painting.

My preferred medium is watercolor. The quality of the colors appeal to me although I am prone to make mistakes. Watercolor mistakes are permanent and must be incorporated into the painting or mitigated somehow.

A big storm keeps the day dark, muting colors. The mood will also be muted. These affect the colors I choose to use for the Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover.

Working In Watercolor

Once the sketch is on the watercolor paper and the chosen tube of paints are laid out, the actual painting can begin. Watercolor has several choices and problems to work with.

There is no white in watercolor. The paper is white and, wherever white is wanted, no paint is put. This takes careful planning. It is possible to mask these areas, but I don’t.

Watercolor paint is just that: water based. The painter must add water to the paint in order to use it. More water results in a thin layer of color called a wash. Less water gives sharper lines and thicker color. When to use wash or dry brush needs planning ahead too.

The final, and most difficult for me, problem is time. Each color must have time to dry before a neighboring spot is painted or the paint will bleed or spread into the other area altering color and shape. I hate to sit and wait.

Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover
My covers are a usually a blend of digital and watercolor. For the Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover, I painted the figure then scanned it into the computer. Then I added the background color and printing. Sometimes I do these with watercolor, but opted for the digital with this cover. And, yes, I corrected a few problems with the watercolor.

The Cover

After negotiating my way through all of the steps, I finally have the Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover. Now I need to finish the final edit.

If you have any comments or suggestions, let me know through the Contact Page.

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Nubian Goat Kids For Sale

Goat kids grow up so fast. One day they are so little and cute. Three months later they are big and I have Nubian goat kids for sale.

Much as I hate to part with these kids, they must find new homes. Keeping up with the work involved with the goats is getting too hard, so I made the difficult decision to not keep any kids and let my herd gradually die off.

All of my adult Nubians are registered as American Nubians with the American Dairy Goat Association. These kids can be registered as American Nubians.

My buck, the sire of all of these kids, is High Reaches Silk’s Augustus.

Nubian buck kid for sale
For a moment Nubian buck Lucky Boy stood showing off his good looks. He is usually playing chase with Favorite Girl.

Lucky Boy

When barely a month old this buck got lost out on the hills, was out through a six inch storm and found his way home again. In that he was very lucky.

Now this three month old (born March 3, 2023), frosted black, disbudded and friendly fellow needs his luck to hold and find him a good home. He does love the does which is a problem as he can soon disrupt my breeding plans.

Lucky Boy’s Mother is High Reaches Natasha. She is frosted gray, calm, friendly, an easy and good milker.

Nubian goat kids for sale includes Nubian buck born March 1
Little Nubian bucks become a problem in the herd by about four months old. This good looking buck is starting to think he should be in charge.

Brown Boy

Juliette’s buck kid has perfected the classic Nubian buck pose. His sleek brown fur glistens in the sunlight. His frosted ears and nose have a little white smile between them.

This buck is disbudded and was born March 1, 2023. His mother, High Reaches Juliette, is an old doe retiring after this year so he is her last kid. She was a spoiled little house goat when first born and was the model for the “Capri Capers” cover.

Lovely Nubian doe for sale
People notice the long ears. I see the smooth, glistening coat in golden fawn brown offset by the black dorsal stripe, those long legs, and wish I could keep what should become an excellent milking Nubian doe.

Fawn Brown Girl

High Reaches Spring’s beautiful doe has good milking background. She is disbudded.

At almost four months old, this doe would draw attention at a goat show with her looks and bearing. She was born February 28, 2023. Her mother is a very good milker.

Polled Nubian doe kid is for sale
Favorite Girl loves to play especially when it involves jumping and climbing. It’s hard to get a good picture of her as she never seems to stop and pose.

Favorite Doe

All right, I’m not supposed to pick favorites. However, this doe adopted me when she was born on March 13, 2023 and demands attention, being jealous of any other goat getting what should be her petting and scratches.

High Reaches Drucilla, Favorite Girl’s mother, has been one of my best milkers. This doe is her last kid as she will retire this year.

This doe is special for more than being friendly. She is polled, born without horns.

Reaching Me

I do check my emails through this site a couple of times a week. And the Contact Page is working as the various spams I get prove.

These Nubian goat kids for sale are also listed on Craig’s List for the lake of the Ozarks area with additional email and phone information.

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GKP Writing News

Creating Book Covers

My last week has been spent creating book covers for both my new novel “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” and the teaching units from “The City Water Project”. That means nine covers.

Finding Images

There are online places to seek and purchase novel covers. I’ve looked at a couple and found the covers look nice, but don’t suit what I’ve written.

That leaves me deciding on images and drawing my cover designs. For nature books I can use photographs with the title etc. put on them using the computer. All other book covers must be drawn.

The image must reflect the book or teaching unit. The first water unit has two activities concerned with bottled waters and comparing tastes. The cover image is a water bottle.

For “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” the choice was more difficult. The book spans almost a month. The major storm takes four days yet sets everything else in motion. So, the image needed to reflect the storm.

Readers like seeing people on the covers. I don’t like drawing people. Having the main character, Mindy, standing holding an umbrella seemed so trite. The cover image I’m working with has Mindy fighting the wind and rain with her umbrella on her way to the barn.

Complications in Creating Book Covers

There is more on a book cover than the image. The title and author is on it too. The image may take center stage, but there must be room for the writing.

Another decision is whether or not I will write the title on the image or use the computer to add it to the image as I finish the cover later. With the teaching units I printed the titles on the covers. For my novel, I will use the computer.

creating book covers requires fitting the cover to the project
If this were a book cover, I would add a dark blue border to define the cover as I did with “The Pumpkin Project”. This is for a digital download teaching unit from “The cith Water Project” so the border is not needed.

Creating the Cover

Sketches are fine. I sketch all my covers and illustrations with pencil first. Then I clear table space and take out my watercolors.

Watercolor pictures look good to me. I like the quality of the colors.

Watercolor is unforgiving. Any mistake is permanent. That is a major reason most artists prefer painting with oils and acrylics.

Digital Art

I know a digital artist and love her work. I still prefer creating book covers and illustrations with watercolor. Then I scan them into my computer.

This lets me add writing, if I want to, crop the image to the size of the book and, most importantly, fix mistakes where lines got too thick and other flaws in my image. I can also add an all over background color instead of using a wash.

Does my method of creating book covers work for everyone? Definitely not. It does work for me.

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Rain Inducement

Ozark rains have taken on a new form. Several months will have lots of clouds, rain several days a week. No rain inducement is needed, only overwatering protection for the garden.

Then clouds roll by dropping small showers, enough for seedlings only, for a couple of months. Larger plants need watering even with mulch.

Watering My Garden

The only well near my garden is a hand dug one. It has a hand pump on it and is reliable for watering the animals, but not for watering the garden.

Four rain barrels are full in the garden. One is full of tadpoles. Other tadpoles get moved into this one. This year it takes two full barrels to water my garden once.

tomato plants need a gallon of water a day once they start producing
The mulch helps hold moisture in the ground and keeps the tomato plant roots cool. The mulch also makes it harder to judge how much water is needed, attracts worms which attract moles and raccoons.

My Solution

The creek runs all year. We set up a pump near the creek and pump water up to the garden to fill the barrels.

Once the plants get big enough, the pump sill water them too. But discharge hoses tend to dig up seedlings.

Rain Inducement

Today the pump got set up. The hoses are laid out. The creek bed is dug out for a nice pool under the intake for the pump.

operating the water pump sometimes works as a rain inducement
The pump draws water from a creek. this makes it necessary to dig out a hole to make sure the intake is low enough to stay submerged. The screen over the intake is to keep small creatures like that fish from being pulled into the pump.

And today the clouds are rolling in teasing me with indications of rain. This is after spending two hours yesterday lugging watering cans around to water the seedlings and transplants.

Will I Gripe?

If the clouds decide to drop an inch of rain on my garden, I will definitely not complain. The pump may be set up and ready, but it will still be there in a few days, after the rain has gone by and gotten used up by the plants. Gardening season is just getting going and water will be needed a couple of times a week for several months.

And spending hours watering is the only other rain inducement I have left for now.

Note: The pump worked. A shower came by dropping a half inch.

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GKP Writing News

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

As both a writer and a person growing old, I find more and more of my life is spent wrapping up loose ends. There are so many projects close to done waiting for those final bits of effort.

Why Not Finish Things?

Mostly projects get left behind when circumstances change. Another factor can be a change in life’s focus. And projects can lose their appeal, get boring.

Some projects do get done and then need repairs. Puppies do a lot of damage to quilts. Time to do those needed repairs never seems to get worked into the schedule so the project lingers, undone.

One I’m trying to make presentable as I will never fully finish it, is a tea cloth. What, you ask, is a tea cloth? Truthfully, I didn’t know when I started this project.

literally wrapping up loose ends in tatting
Shuttle tatting is slow. Real tatting thread is about the size of quilting thread. I prefer using size 30 thread as the result is still lacy, but I make progress faster. Many patterns do call for the larger thread. I did this tea cloth in separate parts as much as possible. To explain: the outside sets of three medalions have two smaller outside ones and a big one joining them. I tatted all of the smaller ones then did the bigger center one joining them into eight units. These were joined to the cloth when the chain around the inserts was done. The triangular tatted sections were completed and joined with the chain as well. The inserts were the last things to sew in.

Challenges

A friend taught me to tat when I was attending UCLA. I had these classes right after lunch and kept falling asleep. Tatting kept me awake, but left me able to take notes too.

Tatting is a way of making lace. I learned to use a shuttle, not the more modern needle tatting some people do now.

I enjoyed tatting, acquired books of patterns, made lots of stuff. Most tatting patterns are for bookmarks and doilies. I got bored and wanted a challenge.

There was my challenge, the picture in the center of a new book. Tea cloth. One hundred fifty different designs for the various parts. Perfect.

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

A tea cloth is a small tablecloth. My mostly finished one is six feet across. All the designs are done. The cloth inserts are tacked in.

There are some two thousand knots left to secure with a needle and clip ends. A good ironing is needed to take out the wrinkles. And neither will happen.

Instead, I am tacking my tea cloth between two clear plastic sheets. I want something different as a cloth under my book display and this will be it. After all, with forty years of off-and-on effort to get this far and a lack of anyplace else to show this off, it will now come out of the closet.

What Else?

Since this project is done, I need to tackle another one. There are two quilt tops in the cedar chest. The spool knitted throw needs puppy repairs.

And, maybe I’ll get around to wrapping up loose ends of writing projects sitting on my computer.

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Leftover Seedlings

Much of my garden is planted. The seedlings I raised are settled in. And now I look at the leftover seedlings looking so good, begging for a chance.

Brave Tomato Seedlings

There are the tomato seedlings. I presently have a dozen purchased plants and two dozen growing in designated spaces. That totals three dozen plants for two people, two older people who don’t eat that much.

And there are the leftover seedlings. Over a dozen of them sit in their little cups doing their best to make me feel guilty. Surely there is room for us they seem to say.

Leftover tomato seedlings
All of my tomato seedlings are indeterminent types so much of the long stem can be buried. These will develop adventicious roots to create sturdier plants and provide additional water and nutients. They just need a chance and a spot in a garden.

Determined Peppers

My garden has a double line of bell peppers along with eight more in two containers. Luckily that is all the bell pepper seedlings I had, all forty-four of them.

However I also have my long sweet peppers. These are confined to containers, four to a container. That adds another thirty-two plants.

My leftover seedlings look so good. I’m considering buying a couple more containers to plant a few more.

leftover pepper seedling
These pepper seedlings are getting too big. Their roots are starting to get pot bound. This will stunt the plants. I’m searching for places to put some of them. Maybe someone will want to take them home and plant them.

And All the Rest

How many parsley and Chinese celery plants do I need? How much room is there left in my garden? Then there are the pot marigolds or calendulas.

There are numerous seeds to put in as well. Already the okra, lima beans, several squashes and sunflowers have germinated. Maybe I can tuck a few leftover seedlings between their rows.

Size Matters

As I look around my garden wondering where I can tuck in yet another seedling, I have to remind myself about these small plants. They do not stay small.

That little tomato seedling a foot tall will become a six-foot tall mass of vine. Those little squash seedlings putting out their first leaves will have vines forty feet long plus. Inch tall basil plants will turn into three foot bushes.

Those leftover seedlings plus my planned vegetables will turn my garden into its usual jungle. But that great tasting produce makes it worthwhile.

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GKP Writing News

Creating Teaching Units

As a teacher, I was always creating teaching units. Each chapter became one as I found or devised notes, work sheets, labs and more.

Once I started writing science books, this changed. The elements stayed the same. However, I could add so much more.

Trivia is interesting. My first science book “The Pumpkin Project” is full of fun facts about pumpkins.

cover of "The Pumpkin Project" by Karen GoatKeeper
This science activity book includes Investigations and Activites from pumpkin seeds to plants to pumpkins. Stories about growing pumpkins, recipes using pumpkins, puzzles about pumpkins, pumpkin trivia and more are in it too.

Telling Stories

The trivia led me on to other interesting things about pumpkins. Since I garden, I buy those little seed packets. This book let me find out how those seeds get into the packets.

Then there are the giant pumpkins. These are not the big Halloween kinds. These are the monsters grown by people around the world that can easily top a hundred pounds with records now over a ton! Who grows these and how? I asked and wrote a story about them.

Creating Puzzles

Teaching classes I often used worksheets. These didn’t seem to fit well in my science book. I put in puzzles instead.

There are sites online to create puzzles. I prefer to make my own. Hidden words, skeletons, tales, deduction and sayings are some of them.

cover for "The City Water Project" by Karen GoatKeeper
Water is an interesting chemical. It is essential for health too. This science activity book includes 8 stories along with many Investigations and Activities about and using water. Puzzles, trivia and more are also in the book.

“The City Water Project”

Writing about pumpkins was so interesting I looked over my teaching units and found some about water. There are so many interesting things about water, this substance we depend on, but take for granted.

Using the same model, the book has lots of trivia, stories, puzzles (including coloring pages), investigations and activities. Since this was not for a class lab, I could include some activities like boiling water in a paper boat that I couldn’t use in school.

Creating Teaching Units

Few people were interested in my science books. This was very disappointing to me. Part of it was that few people knew about them. Part of it was how much the books had to cost to cover printing costs.

I loved teaching science. I want others to discover how interesting science is. So I am trying to make my science books more accessible by making them into teaching units.

What I’ve discovered is that I can’t just break up a book into units. As I separate each part, I have to make sure my results and puzzle answers are there. Each has an introduction.

Summer is the time to play with water. Maybe some people will enjoy doing these Investigations, Activities and puzzles this summer and find out science can be fun.