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

Using Plant Identification Keys

Several of my plant guidebooks include plant keys. The directions for using plant identification keys are simple.

How to Use a Key

Each numbered entry has two choices. You pick the one that describes your plant. It directs you to the next numbered choice. One choice at a time you progress through the key until you arrive at a name for your plant.

I had my students devise keys in my classes. Each group was given a set of cards with imaginary creatures on them. They made up a series of choices and passed it to another group who was to use this key to identify the creatures.

It sounds so simple. Why is it so difficult?

using plant identification keys to confirm this is a black walnut bud
I thought getting a bud from a tree I knew would help me learn about the winter plant key. This is from a black walnut and has a very distinctive look. One part of the key asked me to split the twig lengthwise to see the pith. This is the soft center of a twig. In the case of the black walnut, the pith has a line of chambers. Other twigs have a solid pith. In cross section the pith can be round or have shapes. The practice did help a little.

Do you speak botanese?

The trick to using plant identification keys is understanding what the choices are. This understanding depends on knowing what the terms mean.

I have a new guidebook: “A Key to Missouri Trees in Winter” that uses terminal buds. I’ve looked at small plants for years, ignoring the trees. They are far over my head and I don’t climb trees.

That must change if I want to complete the Dent County Flora. This winter I am trying to identify some of the many trees growing around the place.

This book uses terms like opposite and alternate which I know. I think I know lenticels. Then there are leaf scars, pith, rounded or pointed and bud scales.

The terms aren’t too hard. It’s identifying them on the buds.

oak buds
Oak trees don’t drop their leaves so I could look at the dried leaves on this tree and see the silvery bark in long strips. The leaves put this tree in the white oak group. There are several species in the group. The winter key was the place to try. Except I ended up at Carolina Buckthorn, not oaks. I backtracked from oak and might know where I made a mistake, not that I won’t make the same mistake in the future. On the oak key, the bud keyed out to white oak. I’m waiting for spring leaves to confirm this.

How am I doing?

So far the oak bud – I know it’s an oak – keyed out to Carolina Buckthorn. The black walnut bud did key out correctly. I cheated on the Osage Orange and Sassafras.

Simple as they are, using plant identification keys is not simple. There are several more trees I do know like redbud and dogwood I can practice on.

Then again, spring isn’t that far away. Leaves will appear.

cover for "Exploring the Ozark Hills" by Karen GoatKeeper
Many of the nature essays in this book are about plants found in the Ozarks.
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GKP Writing News

Book Challenge

A book challenge isn’t really necessary to encourage me to read lots of books over the year. I love to read.

I love to write and don’t really need to have a writing challenge to keep me writing. Yet I love participating in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) and Camp NaNo over the year.

Setting goals might not be necessary, but they do keep nudging me to make sure I set time aside for meeting those goals. They are like deadlines.

My reading goal on Goodreads is 70 books again this year. The number is doable and challenging.

Books are not the only thing I read over the year. Science and writing magazines take up time. The Sunday newspaper is enjoyed weekly.

That is why a book challenge matters. It’s too easy to read materials other than books.

Why does reading books matter?

As an author, I read not only for pleasure, but to see what works and what doesn’t in a book. Do I find the book enjoyable? Why?

What parts of the book bore me? Do the descriptions work well? How do they enhance the story?

These answers and more help me improve my own writing. There is no way I can ever copy some other author’s style or story because my background is much different. The answers tell me how I can focus my plot, bring a setting to life, increase the suspense or tension.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
Do you like tongue twisters? The sound of words? I do. I’ve read books of these over the years and found the challenge of creating one stimulating.

What will I read this year?

I don’t really know. There are shelves and piles of books at home. And there is the library.

In fact, the library can be too tempting. I had to wait for someone at the library for ten minutes or so. First I browsed the table of large print books. Next I noticed the picture books on the bookcases. There is a table of juvenile books.

Yes, I brought home a book from each place even though I am half way through two books at home.

The juvenile book is “Virtual Currency” by Martha London. It was interesting. I like starting to learn about a complicated subject with a juvenile book as adult books often make the number one teaching mistake of assuming the reader knows vocabulary or other things the neophyte doesn’t.

So I have completed my first book of the 2023 book challenge. Only 69 to go.

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GKP Writing News

New Ventures

As of now I have published 14 books which sit on various platforms ignored by almost everyone. I’m not wanting to be a mega author, just one people like to read. It’s time for some new ventures in search of these people.

Time and knowledge are my two big stumbling blocks. The third is a dislike of the main social media platforms. How can I work around these?

Website Considerations

First comes my website. It’s still a work in progress as I am not that knowledgeable about building a website. I can set up pages, put up posts and monitor comments, if any appear.

Much of the background analytics and set up are beyond me. It takes weeks for me to puzzle them out. One of my new ventures will be finding someone to help with these.

Second come my various author pages too often ignored for months. Every platform my books are found on has an author page. This puts one on Kindle/Amazon; Smashwords; Ingram Sparks; and National Novel Writing Month. That leaves me updating each once a month.

cover for "The City Water Project" by Karen GoatKeeper
Water is fascinating, so much more than the water cycle. This science activity book explores this, yet is ignored. Would it be more used as digital science units?

Writing Plans

Third relates to my writing more directly. I love creating my science activity books. As a former science teacher, I target the entire book toward teaching the subject thoroughly. And they are ignored.

Another of my new ventures will be to break these science books up into units and offer them as science units on a teacher/homeschooling site. “The City Water Project” will debut in April or May. This includes “The Chemistry Project” now being worked on scheduled for July.

There are two novels I would love to complete and publish this year. I suppose these can be considered new ventures as well.

My target for the first is publishing in March this year. I’m trying to convince myself I can do this. It does still need a title.

“The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival” has a target of this fall, preferably October. That will leave me open to more new ventures in November for NaNo.

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Latest From High Reaches

New Year Planning

Beginning a new year in January is an arbitrary thing. Still, coming in the middle of winter makes new year planning easier as fewer distractions are happening.

Resolutions are self-defeating for me. I miss a few days and give up on what may be a very good idea. I prefer setting goals with a looser timetable.

Garden Planning

My new year planning begins with the garden. Usually the garden is mulched and waiting by the end of December. I’m looking forward to next spring.

Garden planning has changed a lot in the last few years. I love growing potatoes, but can’t now. The springs are too cold and summer comes too suddenly leaving my potato plants frozen, then cooked.

Still, seeds will be ordered in January. Seedlings will get started in March. I do need more room for the winter squash and don’t know where to find it yet.

Livestock Planning

February is time to order baby chicks. Last year I raised Columbian Wyandottes. Which breed will I order this year? Chick catalogs are fun to browse through.

New year planning for goat kids is in October
Nubian does are getting fat. There are five bred for March kids and all look like they will have twins. Their new year planning now is centered on eating enough food to keep both them and their kids healthy and warm. My planning is in having the barn ready and kid friendly by the beginning of March.

Goat kids will arrive in March. Even though I don’t keep any new kids now, they are still special. In a few years there will be no kids to enjoy, so I will make the most of these before they are sold.

One aspect of my new year planning stays much like last year. I will go hiking and taking plant pictures. This has been a good year. I’ve added over 30 new plants to the Dent County Flora.

As usual, there are many I found, but didn’t get back for those last pictures. And the stash of unidentified plants remains long.

In many ways, the new year will look a lot like the old year. In one respect it will be very different. A health scare has made my new year planning special as I want to make the most of it.

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GKP Writing News

Backing Up Files

My friend, Dr. Richard Rintz, was hard at work on his book on Asclepias (milkweeds) when his screen went blank. The file vanished and was never found. He discovered then the wisdom of backing up files.

Many programs periodically save documents automatically. It’s so easy to forget to save your work as you go. It’s so easy to lose your work.

Having a Plan

I generally have a flash key open as I work. Every so often my work gets saved to the flash key giving me a copy on my hard drive and on the flash key.

At least, that is the plan. In practice one copy or the other is the one most up to date and the copy is not done often enough. It’s so easy to let backing up files slide.

One of my biggest liabilities is the accumulation of plant pictures taken over the year. This year’s file is over 18 GB. None of it was backed up until this month.

backing up files of common hops
I’d seen this Common Hops vine before, even had a few pictures of it. This year I came across this year’s vine as it started to bloom. The hardest part is finding the plant again to get pictures of the fruit or seed pods. I had to search a couple hundred feet of creek bank, but I found the vine and finished up the pictures this year.

Image File Woes

Picture taking of plants is done for the year. I have one tree bud picture to go and will get it this week. Now is the time I take for backing up files of these pictures because the files are complete for the year.

I tried backing up during the season one year. Disaster. I added to some files, not others and couldn’t remember which. It took hours to find which files needed to be redone and which didn’t.

backing up files of ground ivy flowers
This little plant makes a great ground cover. It blooms for months and self seeds. I’d seen the plant in town and down by the river. My files had lots of pictures of the flowers. Somehow, I never found the seed pods as the plants disappeared under larger plants. This year I completed my round of pictures and backing up files of them was very important.

So now I am taking a break from the novel and going over the plant pictures. It is slow as I must go over each plant, check which ones are in the Dent County Flora books, add the new ones, then back up the file.

Some new ones were added to the Flora books during the summer. There were so many plants, so many pictures and doing entries for iNaturalist (citizen science site). Some plants were unknown and later identified.

By the end of the year all of my files will be backed up. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief as backing up files means I shouldn’t lose them, only forget which flash key they are on.

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Raising Bottle Baby Kids

When I started raising goats almost fifty years ago, the few books around recommended raising bottle baby kids. Now I let my does keep their kids and everyone is much happier.

There are times when raising bottle baby kids is unavoidable. The third of triplets, small kids, rejected kids, sick mothers are all reasons. And the bottles and nipples appear on the sink.

Supplies I Use

After trying several methods, I settled on one easy for me. I usually use lamb nipples, although the ones for a lamb bar are easier to put on a bottle, but harder for me to get locally.

Soda bottles work well. I prefer the 20 ounce size. If one gets too dirty or doesn’t work well, it’s easily replaced. Different brands have different shapes, so I can use one bottle every time for one kid marking it for the amount of milk.

There is a supply of frozen colostrum in my freezer replaced every kidding season.

raising bottle kids creates pet goats
I should know better. This Nubian doe kid was rejected by her mother who preferred buck kids. At that time I could take time to walk out with the herd in the morning. My little doe was delighted. When I couldn’t go, she would stay behind calling me. High Reaches Agate still stands by me as the herd goes out to be scratched (her favorite spot is over the shoulders) and still asks me to go out with her.

Raising Bottle Baby Kids

I’ve used replacer, but prefer fresh goat milk. Newborns get colostrum for twelve hours.

Newborn kids don’t drink much at a time. I feed them often that first day or two, whenever the kid is hungry. Temperature is important for them, about 100 degrees.

Once a kid drinks six ounces at a time, it’s ready for a four times a day schedule. There was a time when I did this every six hours. Now I leave an eight hour gap at night so I can get some sleep.

Bigger kids eat more, up to eight ounces a time. Using fresh milk lets me feed as much as a kid wants each time.

Once the kid starts eating at around ten days old, the bottles of eight to ten ounces can show up three times a day. The kids are sleeping through the night so I generally do bottles at milking times and noon.

At about six weeks old a kid is ready for twice a day, twelve ounces a time. And so am I.

raising bottle kids at work
Pest was a small Nubian buck kid and couldn’t nurse his mother. So he moved into the house and a bottle. The problem was that I worked cleaning at a local laundromat. The solution was to take this kid that had trouble standing up with me. He had a wonderful time captivating all the laundromat patrons and walking around on the tough carpet. Pest is now a two hundred pound spoiled brat of a wether blissfully unaware he was supposed to be goatburger several years ago.

The Problem with Raising Bottle Baby Kids

Dam raised kids are friendly when handled a lot. Bottle babies are pets.

And I must sell all my kids now, even the bottle babies.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Continuity

A special person is on the set for television and movies with the job of seeing that an actor wears the same scarf, uses the same glass set in the same place in each scene. Continuity. An author needs writing continuity.

What Is Writing Continuity?

Tolkien spent years with his world building to ensure his writing continuity. The languages, the creatures, the landscapes had to stay the same not only in one book, but throughout all of them.

I’m not in his class, but I am concerned with this too. One draft I was working on had a character in the beginning reappear toward the end with a new name. Oops.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper
Writing continuity became a nightmare in this novel. It takes place over several years and involves several goat shows with many of the same participants who grow older over the years along with their goats. I thought I was done only to find I had dropped a year and had to add it back in. Continuity involves time, setting, characters, events, in short, every aspect of a novel.

Outlines Help

In my present novel draft, there is a major storm lasting several days. Yes, storms have changes from one day to the next. Some things must remain constant.

The wind is a factor. At the beginning of the storm there are high straight line winds. These are hard enough to tear leaves, twigs and small branches off the trees. These diminish for a time to a stiff breeze that does not pull leaves off the trees. It then picks up again as the storm blows itself through.

When does each change happen? What effects does Mindy see at each stage? I set up an outline to track the storm factors.

Heavy rain falls throughout the storm. Mindy tracks how much. She adds it up as the amounts increase. Writing continuity insists that the amounts add up correctly and gain in a match to the stage of the storm.

After the storm, Mindy is left cleaning up the mess. Part of that is repairing the cow pasture fence. How fast can she work? She is one person, working alone, not a super hero. And, how many posts are there around this pasture? Which way do they lean? Why?

Reading a finished novel, the reader sees the writing continuity without realizing the work the author did to ensure it was right. When it isn’t right, the reader knows it. Back to my outline so my novel will get it right.

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Saving Chilled Kids

I’ve always had my goat kids born in March as the weather had settled. No more. Now, even in March, I may be left saving chilled kids.

There are few things about raising goats worse than going out to find a doe had her kids on a frosty dawn and they are lying there, limp. It doesn’t take long for a newborn kid to die of hypothermia.

My Preparations

Before I go out to the goat barn on cold mornings, I start the fire in the wood stove. Wood heat is radiant heat. It warms you quickly, completely.

There is a supply of kid goat coats in the milk room. A few old towels are in another pile.

Next is checking the barn for new kids. Goats usually twin and I’ve been watching my does as I can usually tell whether they will single or twin. This is important as newborn kids can get separated.

saving chilled kids success newborn Nubian buck
Newborn goat kids are small and wet. They can not keep themselves warm for several days. That sets them up to get chilled. Hypothermia is an emergency to watch for and treat when kids are born in cold weather.

Saving Chilled Kids

If I find a newborn kid, the first step is to dry it off as much as possible. This is what the old towels are for.

A chilled kid can seem normal, but its mouth is cold inside and it doesn’t want to nurse. Such a kid is bundled up and taken to the house, put in a box bedded on old towels and placed near the wood stove.

If the kid is limp, I towel it off anyway. It may be alive and will move a little, usually trying to cry. The prognosis isn’t good, but this kid is also put near the wood stove.

Getting Kids Warm

It’s tricky telling when a kid is warmed up. They warm up on the outside quickly, but not on the inside. If such a kid is taken out to the barn, it will chill again.

A fully warmed up kid is up, active and asking to nurse. Its mouth is warm inside.

This kid gets a goat coat and taken out to the barn where its mother is usually delighted to have her kid back.

Cold, Not Chilled

Nubians talk a lot. The kids talk to their mothers. Sometimes a kid will have a higher, begging sound and call over and over.

If the kid isn’t hungry, it is cold. A goat coat will often warm it up.

Saving chilled kids isn’t always possible. But those that survive to run and play later on make the effort worthwhile.

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GKP Writing News

Boring Storyline

A massive storm is headed north. It leaves flooding and destruction in its wake. Getting ready for its arrival is a boring storyline.

In my new novel, Mindy has three days to fill. One is spent stocking up. The second finishes up tasks and putting things away. Last is setting things up for the coming flood.

Routines Are Boring

Rural routines are normally a boring storyline. Each day has its routines. Excitement is not appreciated as it often means something went wrong. Mindy lives a rural life with regular routines and tasks. Ho hum says the reader.

Readers don’t read boring books. They don’t make it past a boring beginning. When I read over the draft for these three days, it was boring. How do I make these three days engaging? Suspenseful?

I know these days are important. They set up the rest of the novel. The reader doesn’t know this. How can I avoid having these three days being a boring storyline?

What is happening?

Looking for Suspense

The storm is coming. How bad is it expected to be? How bad has it been? Suspense? Morbid anticipation?

Mindy is making preparations for the storm. She has livestock to protect. There are buildings and equipment to secure.

These things are unfamiliar to most people today. Rural life is so far removed from city people’s reality as to seem alien, belonging to another country even.

More familiar perhaps would be the phone calls from Justin, her husband. He is working elsewhere. He wants to take her away from this life she has come to love.

Life is made up of choices. Many of these choices mean little. Some can change our whole lives.

From these beginning days with the boring storyline come the choices Mindy must make. They are choices only she can make. And she must make them alone. But first she must survive the coming storm.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper
“Dora’s Story” presented some of the same problems the new novel does. It is in six parts, each separate, all related in a circular storyline. The new one has three parts, each building on the one before.
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Keeping Kids Warm

Lately I’ve been asked about keeping kids warm when they are born in very cold weather. Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan gave a whole new meaning to this problem.

First Dry the Kids

When a goat kid is first born, it is covered with fluids. Its fur is sopping wet. Wet fur loses heat fast. The first problem is to get that kid dry, really dry.

I’ve seen recommendations for wiping kids off with newspapers. I tried it. The paper did scrape off any membranes and squeegeed off some liquid. The kid was left wet.

Old towels are my choice for drying off newborn kids. They clean the kid off like newspapers. Towels are made to absorb liquid. Rubbing off a kid leaves it damp.

goat kid goat coat
Goat kids do fine in their coats. How long the coats stay on depends on the kid and the temperatures. It’s best to take them off in the morning so the kid can get used to not wearing one before a cold night moves in.

This is not good enough. Up north, we had no electricity. Heat lamps were not an option. Here in the Ozarks the barn is a hundred years old and a tinderbox. We brought the kids in and stashed them by the wood stove. It didn’t take long for the kids to be dry.

Dry kids can take a lot of cold, if they have protection. I have two approaches to keeping kids warm.

Second Get Kids Warm

The easy one is a goat coat. My big goats have sweatshirts. My kids get coats made from the sleeves I cut off. These work very well in the Ozarks.

goat coats keeping kids warm
My Nubian doe High Reaches Drucilla is totally unconcerned about the goat coats on her kids. This is typical. The kids don’t seem to mind them either continuing to run and play the same as always.

Up north coats help, but are not enough. In really cold weather we kept the kids in by the wood stove taking them out every so often to nurse. In a week, these kids were ready to stay out in the barn even at zero or below.

My other solution is a cubby hole. I place a line of three hay bales, two high against a wall. Two more bales are placed in front of these with a gap slightly smaller than the length of a bale between them. Another bale is placed over the hole. Using a board under this bale is a good idea.

In no time the cubby hole is keeping kids warm as they pile in.