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

Lost Cud Emergency

High Reaches Valerie had been sick with a case of worms. I dewormed her. The next morning, I went into the barn to hear her giving that plaintive cry saying she was dying. I had a lost cud emergency.

lost cud emergency for Nubian doe High Reaches Valerie
It only takes a couple of days for a goat that isn’t eating to look like a skeleton. Nubian doe High Reaches Valerie is normally thin, but now she was weak and I could count her ribs.

What Happened?

Dewormers, more commonly called wormers, are poisons. The label lists the kinds of worms the poison kills.

Poison does not read labels. It kills whatever it can. Poor Valerie’s rumen bacteria were killed. A lost cud means a dead rumen and kills a goat.

lost cud emergency donor Nubian doe High Reaches Lydia
Pictures taken in a dark barn are difficult. Of course, Nubian doe Lydia was in the darkest corner happily chewing her cud and waiting for breakfast. Little did she know I was in search of a cud.

Rumen Bacteria

A very young kid will eat dirt along with chewing on everything it finds. It is not teething. These things have bacteria on them and this goes down into the developing rumen.

A rumen is the first compartment of the four part stomach of a ruminant. All the hastily chomped leaves, grass etc. goes into this big place. Only bacteria can break down the cellulose of plant walls to release the nutrition.

Once the plant matter is mixed with the bacteria, a goat regurgitates a mouthful and chews it thoroughly before swallowing it into the next stomach compartment for digestion. This mouthful is called a cud. Relaxing goats lie around or stand around chewing their cuds.

Lost Cud Emergency

When the bacteria in the rumen die out in an adult goat, dirt is not on the menu. If no bacteria remain, the goat does not eat and starves to death. Even if the goat does eat, the food does not digest.

Valerie’s only hope was if I could get bacteria back into her rumen. Time was running out for her.

Rumen Bacteria Sources

There are commercial remedies. As this rarely happens, I don’t have them here at home as they would sit on the shelves for years. On a weekend, I can’t go into town to get them because the feed stores are closed.

My first remedy is yoghurt. Wormer does cause a bit of a problem this way in some of my goats, even if dosages are carefully followed. Usually a dose of yoghurt solves the problem.

I mix about two tablespoons of yoghurt with enough milk to liquify it. A big dosing syringe works well for drenching the goat.

Valerie improved slightly. Yoghurt wasn’t enough. My next remedy is challenging. I steal a cud from a healthy goat hoping my fingers don’t get crunched by molars.

The stolen cud is mixed with water. The water is given as a drench. I let the cud sit in water in a warm place for a second dose.

Valerie is now on the road to recovery.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Drabbles

Most of my short written pieces are my posts for on the website and run 300 to 400 words. When I wrote “For Love of goats”, I wrote shorter pieces around 150 to 200 words. Now I am trying my hand at writing drabbles, one of them anyway.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
Although I wrote the various letter stories in “For Love of Goats” primarily for alliteration, many of them are short stories in fifty words or so.

Writers Digest

No writer knows everything about writing, even if some of them think they do. And there are new ideas and reminders about writing. Where do you find them?

One place is by reading a wide range of books. My reading list runs from picture book concept books through juvenile, some young adult into adult. It includes fiction and nonfiction.

As I read, I decide what I like and what I don’t about the book. The things I don’t like are things to avoid in my own writing. Things I like might change how I write.

The other place to find out new things is in magazines. Writers Digest is one of them. It mentions new authors, writing advice, agents and more. One of the other things is a writing contest.

Writing Drabbles

First there is the question of what a drabble is. It is a story in 100 words, not counting the title.

When a word count is so limited, every word counts. It is a story, so something does happen and has a result.

The Contest

There is a picture. Writers are to write a first line or a story based on the picture. The latest one is to write a drabble.

Usually I look at this and turn the page. The pictures are of things I have no or little clue about. And there is the doubt I can do this to begin with.

Inspiration

I just finished a book called “Cowgirls”. And I have always loved horses. There was that picture of a girl up on a horse.

I do have a drabble draft. Actually it is the second or third one. No title yet. Is it a real drabble? I’m not sure.

Will I submit it? I’m not sure about that either.

Writing it is challenging and fun. That is a reward in itself.

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Spring Ephemerals

Wildflowers are blooming. The spring ephemerals are only out for a short time. My camera and I are trying to get out looking.

spring ephemerals toothwort
Toothwort is one of the first Ozark wildflowers to bloom. It is a member of the Brassicaceae or mustard family. I find it in moist woods. The flowers are replaced with long seed pods, then the plant vanishes for another year.

What Are Spring Ephemerals?

Trees are bare in the early spring letting sunlight hit the forest floor. Lots of plants grow up quickly, flower and seed, then die.

These are the fleeting flowers I need to find now or wait another year to find them. My Dent County Flora is missing many of them.

spring ephemerals Pale Corydalis
Pale Corydalis grows where the soil is moist. It gets about eight inches tall with lacy foliage. The yellow flowers have a crest on top of the tube section. Finding it down along the river was a surprise as I usually see it along the road and in the front yard.

The Plan

Dent County has seven Conservation Areas plus a state park plus a federal riverway. I have visited a couple of them and know I need to go back as there are plants I found, but didn’t get all my pictures of.

This year I am trying to visit all of them. Last week I stopped in at Short Bend. This is on the upper Meramec River like the one up the road from me. The flowers were the same. It is crossed off my list.

Next weekend I will drive out to white River Trace. This has prairie so I will be sure to take a hat. Maybe it will be cloudy.

spring ephemerals Spring Beauty
Spring Beauty is just that. A member of the Portulacaceae family, Down near the river the plants with their single pair of leaves spread across the ground. They like moist places and will grow in lawns. These are among the first Ozark wildflowers to bloom.

At Home

I do keep finding new plants around me, so I do try to keep walking the hills, roads and ravines. So far all I’ve found are old friends.

There is a bluff and a glade to visit. The bluff has a very, very steep approach which makes me a bit leery. The glade is up a hill.

spring ephemerals Yellow Violet
Not all violets are blue. This one is yellow, but has the usual flower look and heart-shaped leaves. Unlike the common blue violet, yellow violets are ephemerals, only around for a short time in the spring. The flowers normally point toward the ground.

Finding Time

This is always the hard part for me. I look around and see so many things needing to be done. It’s that never ending list.

There’s writing, animals, garden and errands, so time is fleeting for me. The only solution is to make time to go searching for the spring ephemerals. Besides, it is nice to take time away from all the chores.

Nature essays about a variety of Ozark wildflowers with photographs are in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

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Chicks Love Greens

At a month old my chicks think they are ready to get outside. One reason is the chunk of chickweed I put in each morning. My chicks love greens.

New Chicks

February is not a great month to have baby chicks. Cackle Hatchery does have warming pads in with them so they arrive safely. But it’s too cold to put them outside at my house.

That means I have chicks in the house. Since the heat lamp is on all day and all night, it’s hard to sleep. The one good thing was how quiet this tiny flock of twenty-one chicks was.

My two cats ignore them. Mira is jealous of the attention they get. Besides, they are invaders in her house.

Chicks in house box
The way I learned to put baby chicks in a box with a heat lamp, was to set each one by the water fount and dip their beak in. These chicks were thirsty.

Moving Out

The weather improved. The chicks started getting feathers and spreading dust all over. I set up the outside house and they moved out.

The chick house is by my garden. There is one big patch of weeds right by the gate. It’s mixed, but mostly chickweed. Each morning I dug up a big handful and set it in with the chicks.

Chicks love green as snacks
The cold weather stuck around into March. However, chicks become a problem in the house after a couple of weeks. So, I moved them out into my chick house. They enjoyed having more room. And I could bring in handfuls of chickweed for them to enjoy for eating and scratching.

What Is This?

The first day the chicks retired to the far walls of their place. Only one or two were brave enough to check out this strange lump.

The second day more chicks came over. A few even took a few pecks at the leaves.

By the third day, this lump of chickweed was popular. Chicks love greens and they now knew this was what they loved.

chicks love greens in their yard
Warm weather arrived. The chicks feathered out. I opened the chick house door so the chicks could get outside to bask, eat greens and stretch their wings.

New World

In front of the chick house is a small yard. Every year I try to get grass to grow in it. Every spring some grass and lots of chickweed do come up getting thick and lush.

A nice day arrives, warm and dry. I open the door to the chick house. Chicks line up to look out at this new world.

It might take a day or two, but chicks love greens and that yard is full of greens. They come out and attack.

After the chicks leave this baby yard behind, I will start spreading grass seeds in the bare dirt. Next spring will bring another batch of chicks and grass needs time to grow.

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GKP Writing News

Making Setting Real

When I watch a movie, the scenery goes by like speeding by city blocks in a car. It isn’t real. Instead, it’s just scenery. Part of the challenge in writing is making setting real, not just scenery.

gravel county road in winter
What aspects of this road might fit into a novel’s setting? The trees are bare indicating winter or very early spring. Gravel covers the road making walking difficult except in the clear spaces left by passing vehicles. If the weather is cold or a cold wind is blowing, would this road be pleasant to walk along?

What About Setting?

Think about a walk through your home. If you only saw this in a video, it would only be scenery. Well, maybe a bit more because it is a place you are familiar with.

Now walk through you home. This is more than visual. There are sounds. Aromas drift by. Your attention might focus on a favorite item opening up memories. Your home is a real place.

Which experience would give you as a reader greater involvement in the story? Which one would make the story seem more real?

Making Setting Real

In writing a rough draft of a novel, setting usually is just scenery except for times when the plot depends on it. This is fine. The main foci for a rough draft are usually characters and plot.

Then comes the rewrite. This is where setting comes into its own. Perhaps your main character is making bread. The dough has a smell, a feel, a look both as it is mixed and as it is kneaded. Later comes the aroma of baking bread. This changes as the bread gets closer to done.

Perhaps you main character is going someplace. If it is a city street, there are city sounds of people, vehicles, activities, smells. If it is a walk in the country, there is the feel of the dirt, smells, sounds of wind and animals, weather.

Adding some descriptions about these or other aspects of your setting brings the reader into the story.

How Much?

Just as too much backstory can put the brakes on your story, too much description can do the same. The idea is to add just enough to enhance the story.

Going back to a road. Does the road meander down a valley? Perhaps it is a straight highway through a desert. Is heat shimmering above it? Just a mention of this influences your driver. Are they paying attention or looking out the window and getting into trouble?

Getting It Right

This is where actually being in a place really matters. How can you add the sensory details if you’ve never been there? You can’t. How can you know what details really catch attention if you’ve never been there.

Even if all you do is take a walk through a similar place, it let’s you get it right. The reader can tell.

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Filling Garden Tubs

I have written about using tubs in the garden before, but it bears repeating. Since I am filling garden tubs again this year, it’s a good topic as I’ve learned more about them.

The tubs I am writing about are the empty plastic tubs from cattle licks. There are lots of cattlemen around me and these tubs are popular ways to add nutrition for their cows. My feed store buys back the empties and sells them to people like me so they are not left to get trashed out in the fields.

setting up garden tubs
My garden tubs began as cattle lick tubs and are a nice size. The first step is to drill drainage holes. Then the tubs are set where they will stay as moving full tubs is very difficult and back breaking. I like the tubs because they come in a variety of styles and colors. These pepper tubs are blue and white.

Preparing the Tubs

Drainage holes are the first step. Originally I drilled several half inch holes in the bottom of the tubs necessitating use of blocks under them.

There are several difficulties with this approach. One is finding enough blocks, bricks or rocks to set under the tubs. Another is trying to pull the weeds that inevitably start growing under them.

I now drill these holes in the sides about two inches from the bottom. The tub can be set on the ground. The base provides a water reservoir for dry weather as tubs dry out fast.

filling garden tubs
Because I live near a creek that floods regularly leaving big gravel bars behind, I have a selection of gravel to choose from. As I drill four holes in a tub, I start with four larger flat rocks to cover the holes. Then I go to fist size rocks to fill up to a bit above the holes. It’s interesting to go gravel hunting as I never know what I will spot. Some rocks glitter with crystals. On rare occasions one will have an ammonite fossil in it.

Filling Garden Tubs

First and foremost is setting the tub where it will stay. Second is a layer of large gravel. I like some large, flat ones for over the drainage holes. The rest is fist sized or larger to a depth just above the drainage holes.

Then comes the dirt. It takes a lot of dirt to fill one of these tubs. My preference is a mix of dirt and compost. In reality, I use compost (sometimes pure in a pinch), dirt, sand and red dirt (clay). This last must be very well mixed in.

dirt filling garden tubs
I have a mix of clay dirt, potting soil and compost in these garden tubs. They aren’t quite full, but close.

Using the Tubs

Most vegetables have shallow roots, so the tubs work well. One tub is sufficient for one tomato plant, three or four pepper plants or a ring of greens. I do put mulch on top to help hold moisture in.

The tubs do heat up when in the sun. I felt the dirt one sunny summer day and it was warm enough, if it was water, to take a bath. Vegetables don’t appreciate this.

produce in garden tub
This is one of the garden tubs in my garden proper with red Benigorro mizuna growing in it. The Jerusalem artichokes are in the background. Garden tubs need regular watering.

I hang sun screens on tubs in the sun. Others I place so they get afternoon shade.

Filling garden tubs is work and they do wear out in five to ten years, but they let me grow many things I couldn’t otherwise – like carrots – and my peppers prefer growing in tubs.

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GKP Writing News

March Reading

Spring arrives in March along with gardening. That makes finding time for March reading challenging.

This month I am moving a bit out of my normal genres with a thriller “The Devil’s Punchbowl” by Greg Iles. It isn’t that I dislike reading thrillers, I do. The problem is when I read these books. Just before bedtime.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
This is a book for bedtime reading. It’s light reading and full or humor.

Setting Up March Reading Times

In truth, this is good for setting up reading times for all year. It has to do with the types of books that fit different times of day.

I read a lot of nonfiction. These are serious books on a variety of subjects, but they require paying attention. Bedtime, when I am half asleep, is not a good time to read these.

Tucking time into the daytime hours is best for reading these books. I tend to read them over meals. At the moment I am working on “American Psychosis” which is political, a genre I rarely read, but it was recommended to me by a friend.

Late Night Book Considerations

After a busy day, a good book can help relax me. I don’t want a book I have to think a lot about. That is when something light like a cozy mystery works well.

Cozy mysteries do follow a format and get boring after several in a row. And I needed another fiction book set in the South for the library book review. Hence I picked up the thriller. Thrillers have the same problem as cozy mysteries: they have a set format and, even though they are different, seem much alike. They are usually more intense and not as good for a relaxing read.

Finding Interesting Books

The real key to finding March reading times, any reading times is reading interesting books. Reviews are not always a good way to find a book you will enjoy simply because what interests you may not interest the reviewer.

I do read reviews and take note of books that sound good. However, I go on to read the synopsis of the book. Then I make a decision on whether or not to add the book to my reading list.

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What Milk?

I raise Nubian dairy goats. Note the word dairy. That means they are milk goats. So, what milk? My does are all going dry.

Nubian doe High Reaches Drucilla with baby doe Opal
My Nubian doe Drucilla loves her kids. She produces plenty of milk for them and is very patient as they learn how to nurse.

Kids Are Necessary

All mammals produce milk to feed their offspring. Man decided he liked milk too and bred various mammals to give more milk. We often think of cows and goats, but camels, sheep and horses are milked too.

Since my bucks died last year, none of my does got bred. A couple milked through so I have had milk up until now.

Nubian doe High Reaches Spring with two buck kids
My Nubian doe Spring is devoted to her kids. She likes to teach them to be very wary of anything new.

Importance of Dry Time

Producing milk takes a lot of energy, minerals and food. Producing kids takes a lot of energy, minerals and food too. A doe trying to do both, doesn’t do well.

My does are now bred. Their due dates are hazy, but several are starting to show.

Those does I have been milking are now deciding to shut down. What milk? No milk.

The does will spend their time building up reserves of protein and minerals so they can produce milk after their kids are born.

Nubian doe High Reaches Opal with doe kid
My Nubian doe Opal has grown up and has her first kid, a little doe. Even as a new mother, Opal takes care to stay with her kid.

Milking After Kids

Commercial dairies sell milk so they usually take the offspring away right after they are born. I am not a commercial dairy and leave the kids with their mothers.

Does think their kids come first. When the kids are small, I get the leftovers. As the kids get older, less and less milk is leftover.

By the time kids are six weeks old, they are eating well. I lock them away overnight and milk in the morning. Then we are both happy.

Love of Goats kid stories
While writing “For Love of Goats”, I wrote a series of ten short pieces about growing up as a goat kid from the point of view of a kid. They were fun to write.

Waiting

So now I am waiting. First, I am waiting until the kids are born. That could be any time from late April to end of July.

Then I will wait until the kids are old enough to lock away at night. I’m hoping for early kids.

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New Dent County Flora Entries

Many things happened last year, so I didn’t go out hiking and photographing many new plants. That doesn’t mean the are no new Dent County Flora entries.

New Dent County Flora Entry Hairy Goldenrod
This goldenrod wasn’t really a new plant. I had seen it over the years. The problem with goldenrods is identifying them. I think I finally have this one as Hairy Goldenrod.

Beginning an Entry

Of course, I begin a new entry by taking photographs. This sounds easy, but can be very frustrating.

Plants don’t run off, however they do blow in the wind, get eaten by insects and other animals or stepped on. Then there are the ones I find once and, somehow, can never find again.

Each plant needs several pictures. First is one of the plant. Some plants are surrounded by other plants.

Second are pictures of the front and sides of the flowers, the leaves and the stems. These can often be done all at once.

The last picture is of the fruit or seedpod. Sometimes I have to go back several times before this is ready to photograph.

Swamp Milkweed
Swamp Milkweed is a very showy plant and is available from nurseries and in seed catalogs. It does like plenty of moisture and lots of sunshine.

Which Plant Is It?

I can usually spot new plants, ones I haven’t seen before. I may not know the name of these plants, but I know they are new Dent County Flora entries.

My book shelf has many plant books on it. Some are popular plant guides put out by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Others are botanical works like Yatskievych’s three volume “Flora of Missouri”. Another favorite place to look is missouriplants.com.

I put pictures on iNaturalist. Sometimes someone there can identify this new plant.

Ebony Spleenwort fern
Although the leaflets have thumbs like Christmas Fern, this is a more delicate fern with a smooth, dark rachis. It does like growing near rocks and in moist areas, but not in water.

Making an Entry Page

Usually the flower is the main photograph on the page. I crop and resize it to fir properly. The side of the flower, leaf, stem and fruit or seedpod form a column down one side.

Under the flower picture is the plant picture. Between them is a short comment about the plant like its habitat or key identification hints.

One thing I don’t do is tell people exactly where I find a plant, if it is rare or something people want to dig up. Some plants are so commonly found, it doesn’t matter as all a person has to do is slow down and look.

Common Blue Violet
As the saying goes: Violets are blue. This one certainly is along with several other violet species. It’s hard to tell them apart.

When Will the Flora get Done?

I don’t know if it ever will. In a way, I would like to finish it. In a way, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is getting out and looking for all of these interesting plants.

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GKP Writing News

Exploring New Perspectives

When I first began The Carduan Chronicles, there was only one ship that dropped out of a worm tunnel into a February ice storm forcing them to land in an Ozarks ravine. As the nine Carduans began to explore their new world, I began exploring new perspectives.

Exploring new perspectives in an Ozark ravine
That fallen log looks like a wall. It is only six inches high and easy to step over. Easy unless you are only four inches tall. Walking up a ravine takes an entirely different look when you are that small.

Ozark Ravines

My Ozark home has several ravines near it. I have walked up all of them at one time or another, some of them several times. Broad or narrow, the ravines have several things in common.

One thing is water. Although the ravine may be dry much of the time, it was formed by running water racing down between two hills. Some have water in them much of the time, usually as pools here and there.

Another thing are the trees. People often think of woods or forests as static populations of trees. They aren’t. Those trees are enemies in their quest for light, water and space in which to grow.

The weakest trees don’t survive. In a few years the dead trunks fall to the ground. Bigger trees are victims of storms.

Exploring New Perspectives

The Carduans are four inches tall. Fallen trees I can step over, are taller than they are. How can they deal with these?

Ice storms are not too uncommon in the Ozarks. The Carduans come from a planet where water never freezes. They have never seen ice or snow.

Arkosa, their home planet, is hot, dry and bathed with UV light. The plants are blue or red as a protection from the UV light. Their crops are mostly grasses – think wheat, oats or rice – and root tubers – think potatoes, carrots or turnips.

These people have never seen trees or birds or the many other creatures familiar to those who walk in the Ozarks. Blue jays are taller than they are.

As the Carduans go exploring their new world, I am exploring new perspectives in mine.