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

Muskrat Watching

I enjoy hiking the trails at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area, but have rarely made time for the last few years. This year I go Saturday afternoon and spotted a muskrat.

The main objective is to take plant pictures. There are many species growing around and in the lakes, I never see around home. I even spotted an orchid I’d never seen before.

Many of the plants are what the Conservation Department calls invasive aliens. I see them as new immigrants as they are well established now regardless of whether they are wanted here or not.

There are two lakes. I usually start by going around the upper Lake Turner. This trail has more moisture, several wet weather creeks and marshy areas.

Instead of cutting across the earth dam as these are manmade lakes, I continue down the trail around the lower Lake Ziske. There is a newer trail loop off this trail, but I rarely take it. The plants are more interesting to me along the main trail.

swimming muskrat
With air temperatures near ninety, this muskrat may be working hard, but coolly as it swims in one of the lakes at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area.

Along the way numerous creatures show up. Most are the usual insects like dragonflies and damselflies. Ticks are few and far between, probably because there are so many possible hosts going by.

The birds are the most common larger animals. Canada geese and other ducks love the water. Lots of fish fill the lakes attracting a few fishermen.

This last week I was on the final leg of the trail along the lake and wondering if the common milkweeds were in bloom as the purple milkweed were last week when something swam in through the water willow to disappear into the lake bank.

It reminded me of a beaver, but there were no beaver-cut trees. What was it? I waited and watched, camera in hand.

The first pictures were a mess, in fact, good lake views with no creature. I did get a good look at it. Head like a small beaver. Single tail. Muskrat.

The muskrat was out gathering plant clippings to take into its home tunnel. It dived down, popped up, dived down.

I’ve read “Wind In the Willows” with its muskrat character, but I’d never seen a live wild muskrat before. I’m glad to know one is living at ShawneeMac Lakes.

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Farm Babies Grow Up Fast

April was a month for babies here. Goat kids and chicks found they were in a strange new world. But farm babies grow up fast.

It is now June. Those cute balls of fluff are now lovely white with black necks pullets. They complain their little house is just that: little. Their yard is bare dirt as they ate most of the greenery. And it is too small.

Columbian Wyandotte pullets checking out their yard
It doesn’t take long for young chicks to eat and scratch up the greenery in their yard. These Columbian Wyandotte pullets have learned I let them out into a temporary yard on grass for a few hours most days. In the meantime they patrol their yard hoping some luckless bug will drop by.

I do have a 50-foot roll of three-foot chicken wire. This is staked up from the little chicken gate with electric wire posts to enclose an area of grass.

Don’t stand in the gateway when it is opened. For that matter, don’t stand in the doorway in the morning. Those pullets come flying and racing out.

Columbian wyandotte pullet
There is a roost. According to this Columbian Wyandotte pullet, the feed container is more comfortable for roosting. And there are no grouchy neighbors.

Most of these pullets will move to a new home later this month. The remaining eight will continue to grow up into pullets big enough to move into the hen house.

The pullets will start laying in the fall. Then they will be hens at only six-months old. Farm babies grow up fast.

Goat kids are so cute when they are little. They depend on their mothers for milk. In a few days they are out exploring, playing, jumping on the goat gym.

Nubian spotted doe kid on goat gym
Nubian doe High Reaches Agate’s spotted doe kid loves attention. She insists on attention. The best attention is scratching over her shoulders.

At almost three months old these kids are ready to move to new homes. The polled buck has already left for one up near Columbia.

The three doe kids will be advertised toward the end of the month. Hopefully someone good will take them to a new home the beginning of July.

farm babies grow up fast like this Nubian doe kid
Just last April this Nubian doe kid was easy to pick up and hold. High Reaches Spring has lots of milk. This doe kid is now a big armload to pick up. So far her spots are staying brown and look really nice against her black coat.

The buck kids are rarely so lucky. They too have to start leaving in July.

And then the barn will seem empty with only my thirteen adults in it. Augustus will be left alone all day again.

Farm babies grow up fast.

Hazel Whitmore raises Buff Orpington chicks in “Mistaken Promises“.

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GKP Writing News

Reading About Earthquakes

Growing up in southern California, earthquakes were just one of those things; kind of like tornadoes here in Missouri. They happen.

Tornadoes can be predicted a little ahead of time so people can get to a safe place. Earthquakes give no known warning.

My first remembered tremor was at home. I was sitting on the couch and heard what I thought was a sonic boom, except it came from the floor. The slight shaking came immediately after.

That sound, only the people thought thunder instead of sonic boom, was mentioned in many accounts of the New Madrid quakes. Yes, quakes. There were a series of them from December, 1811, to February, 1812.

Why am I reading about New Madrid? I write short book reviews for my local library newsletter and decided to raid the Missouri shelf for July. “On Shaky Ground” by Norma Hayes Bagnall sounded interesting.

The New Madrid quake is talked about in Missouri, although California is more prominent elsewhere. Two of the Missouri quakes are considered to be second only to the 1964 quake in Anchorage, AK, in strength. The San Francisco quake is further down the list.

One reason for the San Francisco quake being more remembered is that it happened in a populated area. In 1811 Missouri was sparsely settled. No one knows how many people were killed as most were swept away in the Mississippi River either when the river banks collapsed under them or they were swept off boats on the river.

Earthquakes are not uncommon anywhere in the country. Fracking and other underground activities have triggered quakes in areas not prone to them before. Natural ones happen along the East Coast and along the Mississippi river valley as well as in California. Most are too small to be noticed.

The big question no one can answer is when the next big one will happen. California has building codes to strengthen structures to resist damage. Other states do not.

Will New Madrid be repeated? Probably.

Will we be ready? No.

After all, earthquakes only happen in California.

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GKP Writing News

Never Be a Successful Blogger

I just finished reading “The Islanders” by Meg Mitchell Moore. It has convinced me I will never be a successful blogger.

That isn’t really the focus of the book. It follows three people, alternating between their points of view, as they grapple with secrets and life choices with attendant problems. However, one of the three, Lu, is a successful food blogger or becoming a very successful food blogger.

Lu’s first decision was the type of blog she would write. It had to be different, something people would want to read.

That is my first misstep. I write about things going on out here in the hinterland. My lifestyle is from years ago, simple and down-to-earth. It is alien to people today in their artificial, manmade world.

This alone makes sure I will never be a successful blogger unless it is as a curiosity.

Lu next makes sure she posts close to everyday. As she is writing a food blog, she is also cooking and testing the recipes she is using in her posts.

Out here in rural Missouri internet is challenging. My house has a hill on each side and behind it. Cell service is across the creek bottom and up on the hill across from the house. Both the phoneline and satellite service is slow and unreliable.

I go to town to use the service there. Except town is a half hour’s drive from the house so I only go in three days a week for the summer, two in the winter. That also makes sure I will never be a successful blogger.

Lu ends up going to conferences and other engagements because of her blogging. The farthest I go is town normally. I milk twice a day and must be home to do it. My day begins at the end of morning chores and ends at the beginning of evening chores.

I will never be a successful blogger. But then, I don’t mind. I like my simple life and don’t want to trade it in for the manmade world.

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Latest From High Reaches

Racing the Brushcutter

Roadsides are great places to find wildflowers to photograph. Many of these flowers are only found there. My problem is racing the brushcutter.

My county, and I’m sure it’s not alone in this, firmly believes roadsides should be like well-kept lawns. Wildflowers are not welcome.

Back in the 1960s there was an attempt to change this mindset by Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon Johnson. She promoted planting native wildflowers along the roads and had some success at the time.

Roadsides are the new prairies. Native wildflowers are killed off for grazing land, farm land and lawns everywhere else. Roadsides offer perfect conditions for many of these plants.

coreposis racing the brushcutter
Sunny yellow flowers of coreopsis dance along the roads until the brushcutter comes along. These are annuals and must set seed to grace the roadsides next year. Many wildflowers are annuals. After a few years, they disappear as they never get a chance to set seed.

Most plants do tend to get scraggly by the end of the growing season leaving behind clusters of brown stems. Cutting these down would be fine. The plants have bloomed and seeded by then.

Spring and summer are terrible times to mow these plants down. Many never recover. Many of those that do are ones most unwelcome such as poison ivy and sericea lespedeza.

I do a lot of walking along the roads near my house and check others on the drives to and from town. The other day one of these roads had the edge cut down to lawn height.

Panic.

I do know the brushcutter in passing. He and the road crew think I’m a bit crazy. Still, I stopped and marked a unique plant so he wouldn’t cut it down.

How do I mark all the plants I’m interested in? He would have to skip the whole road and won’t do that.

So, I am racing the brushcutter. Everyday I can I will be out walking the roads, stopping at all the areas with interesting plants, trying to get pictures before they are gone.

dogbance is racing the brushcutter and losing
Dogbane is a perennial. It will regrow next year. But this year’s flowers will be gone a will any seeds. Many perennials like milkweeds put up a single stalk each year. If it is cut, that year’s bloom is gone. And the pollinators like bees are left to starve as they can not live on grass.

Once he has gone by, all the lovely flowers will be gone. Oxeye daisies. Coreopsis. Sweet clovers (I photographed this the day before mowing.). Deptford pinks. The milkweeds, elderberry, daylilies, rose gentians getting ready to bloom. So many more.

After my wildflowers are gone, I will go back to walking the hills. Walking the roads is too sad.

Yellow sunflower type wildflowers are among the casualties. Read more about them in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

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Building PVC Gates

Seven years ago, I finally got fed up with building wood garden gates every year as they rotted away in the wet weather. Instead, I decided building PVC gates would be a better option.

The size determines the design. My gates were three feet wide by four feet tall, so I decided to put in a cross brace. I’ve since found this is wise for every two feet in height.

The Materials Needed for Building PVC Gates

This is for each gate the size I built. You can modify this for your size gate.

Four elbows to form the four corners

Two T’s for the cross brace

parts for building PVC gates
There are reasons for laying out the parts for the PVC gates ahead of time. First, you can be sure you have all of the parts. Second, they are arranged so you know what attaches to what. This is really important when you are building several gates. I was doing three. My working area out under a black walnut tree wasn’t quite flat so my gates are a bit bowed.

Four two-foot lengths of PVC pipe (I used two-inch pipe. It must be thick enough to be sturdy.)

Three three-foot lengths of PVC pipe

Glue

Welded wire to fit the gate (I used one by two inch.)

Thin wire like electric fence wire to attach the welded wire to the gate.

Building PVC Gates

A flat working area bigger than the gate is necessary or the gate will bow.

Lay out the pieces in the places where they will go. The four corners with a three-foot length across, a two-foot length up to a T and a three-foot between the two T’s.

Follow the directions on the can of glue to spread glue inside one corner and on the ends of the pipes to attach to it. Put them together.

PVC gate glued together
With the PVC parts laid out, you can see how to glue two pieces together in more than one place. The glue takes a short time to set, so only two pieces can be done at a time. The important thing to watch is that the pieces are flat so the PVC gate will be flat. Once the glue is set, you can’t make any changes.

Do the same for the diagonal corner and let these set.

Put the cross brace between the two T’s. Make sure the T’s lie flat at each end.

Do the last two corners. Make sure these pieces lie flat. Once the glue sets, that’s the way the pipes are.

Once the upper and lower pieces are done, attach them to the T’s. Let the gate dry several hours or overnight.

Adding Hinges and Wire

Drill holes and use bolts to attach whatever hinges you plan to use with the gate.

building PVC gates takes wire too
The PVC framework has big holes in it and defeats the purpose of the gate. I had the 1″ x 2″ welded wire, but chicken wire will work (not as long lasting). It does take time to ‘sew’ the wire to the gate. I used old electric fence wire. That way the wire doesn’t sag open anywhere.

Place the wire over the gate. Tie it on at each corner to keep it in place.

I wrapped old electric wire around the PVC pipe going through the wire every two inches. It does take time, but the wire stays in place. Do the same on the cross brace, but stand the gate up to make putting the wire around easier.

hanging PVC gates
I drilled holes for regular gate hinges and used bolts to attach the hinge to the gate. Other hinge types might work. I chose these as they swing freely and make it easy to remove the gate, if necessary. It is possible to bolt a latch on the gate as well. My garden set up lends itself to using bungie cords.

Results

Building PVC gates was a great idea. The gates are light weight, easy to open. I use bungie cords to hook them. They are maintenance free. I wish I’d built them years earlier.

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GKP Writing News

Photographing Spring Wildflowers

The biggest problem with spring is the unending demands on my time. Between the goats, chicks, garden and photographing spring wildflowers, I seem to do nothing but work and run.

Each item on my list is important. This year they are complicated by the rain storms that keep rolling through. Most drop only enough to be annoying, if welcome for the moisture.

One last one added an item to my list as it washed seven planks off the bridge. These must be found, collected and put back in place. In the meantime the goats stand gazing longingly over to the hill pasture.

I try to go out walking somewhere every day photographing spring wildflowers. Rain is not good for a digital camera so I pack a plastic bag just in case.

photographing spring wildflowers like Robin's Plantain must be done when the plants bloom
Robin’s Plantain comes up, blooms, makes seeds and dies back by mid summer. That is typical for a spring ephemeral wildflower. It makes photographing them challenging as you have to get out to find the plants while they are to be found.

Many of the early spring wildflowers are ephemerals meaning they come up, bloom, set seed and vanish until next year. That makes it important to get out often as the flowers may only be there a day or two.

Photographing spring wildflowers is the easy part. It’s easy if you don’t count the ticks, mosquitoes, fallen trees to clamber over, poison ivy, standing water puddles, slippery gravel, steep hills and other fun things encountered. Yes, there are snakes, but I am far too noisy for them to stick around so I can spot them.

Once there are a hundred pictures or so on my camera (one or two walks worth), there is the time to download all of them. Each type of plant must be put into the proper folder so I can find it later.

I’ve been told I can simply tag the pictures. Then I have to know the names as unknown number will do nothing for retrieval. It’s easier to sort them by families as even ones I don’t recognize normally do end up in the right folder to make identification easier later on.

photographing spring wildflowers includes trees like black locust
These white slippers are bigger than the ones on a redbud tree. They hang in numerous streamers from branch tips of a black locust. The trees grow wild along an urban creek, but can be planted in yards for shade. They are Ozark native trees.

The final step is picking out the pictures, resizing them and placing them into the botany project page for that plant. There are roughly 2000 plants in Dent County and that is a lot of pages.

I’m setting up all the pages. So many of them are still blank as I’ve not found the plants yet. Perhaps I never will complete this project.

The best part is hunting for and photographing spring wildflowers, both old friends and new ones. And I’ve already found half a dozen new ones this year.

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Latest From High Reaches

Cheeky Carolina Wrens

Spring is nesting time for lots of birds. Carolina wrens are one of those nesting now.

Wrens are interesting little birds. When unobserved, as far as they know, the males have a pleasant song. Most of the time they scold.

These are easy birds to recognize. They have longer beaks and a short tail that sticks up. Although there are several kinds of wrens, the Carolina wrens are the ones around here.

Baby birds in nest of Carolina wrens
No matter how hard the parent Carolina wrens work to bring insects to their growing babies, they are always starving. Any disturbance causes mouths to open, each hoping to be the lucky recipient of an insect.

These birds are always looking for places to build a nest. Buildings are a favorite haunt. I’ve had nests in my milkroom. The workshop is another favorite place, usually on a shelf.

This year the chosen spot is on top of the unplugged air compressor in the garage. A blanket is tossed over the top and the nest is tucked in under it. I guess I will check my tires in town for the next few weeks.

A Carolina wren nest looks haphazard, but isn’t really. They like to use long pieces of straw so the ends sticking out make it look messy.

These birds got noticed as they kept going in and out of the garage. They carried something in and came out with nothing.

Carolina wren with food for the nestlings
Carolina wren parents are on the go from first light to dark scouring the area for tasty caterpillars and other insects to bring back to feed their nestlings.

That is understandable as it takes thousands of insects like caterpillars to raise up those baby birds. And this couple has five mouths to keep stuffed.

These baby birds won’t be there long. That isn’t due to the four cats living here. It’s due to growing up fast. These will fledge or take off in only a couple of weeks now.

Once this family is grown and off on its own, the Carolina wrens will be looking for another place to build a nest. All it takes is an open door and the birds feel they have been invited in.

We’ll have to be careful to keep the house screen doors closed.

How well do you know vultures? Read about them in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

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Irises Are Blooming

Flower gardens are so pretty, but I don’t have time to do much. One solution is to put in perennials, so my irises are blooming.

Here in the Ozarks, irises have been a popular flower for decades or longer. Lots of them in a wide variety of colors got planted. Like flowers do, these set seeds.

The result is wild irises. Usually these are near some old home site or along roads.

In the guidebooks irises are listed under blue. Wild irises around here are usually pale yellow and smaller than the garden grown ones.

My irises are blooming in mostly blues and purples. Some are yellow. One is white. A friend was separating her irises and passed on the rhizomes to me, so the colors are whatever came. It doesn’t matter as all of them are lovely.

irises are blooming in the Ozarks
My irises are blooming. There is a patch of lovely lavender in one spot. A patch of white stands tall in the flower section of my garden. Yellow is starting to show. Along the road wild irises are blooming here and there. These are often not as big and partially hidden by the grass.

The hummingbirds visit the flowers several times a day. Perhaps they find a meal. Perhaps they pollinate the flowers. Later the flowers will leave behind a few seed pods.

So far, the daffodils, the surprise lilies and the day lilies are happily spreading around the yard and into the woods. Interestingly, the orange day lilies never set seeds, yet still spread all over along the roads. My yard day lilies were dug up by the road grader one year. Their patch has doubled in size in spite of being mowed both by the mower and by the deer.

Although wild irises could be considered an invasive species, they, like the daffodils and ox eye daisies, are here to stay. Therefore, I will stop along the road while the irises are blooming to complete the set of pictures of irises for my botany project.

After the irises are done blooming, the blackberry lilies will open. Like the irises and the daffodils, these escaped from home gardens probably a century ago. We are a country of immigrants.

“Exploring the Ozark Hills” has several Ozark wildflowers among its essays.

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GKP Writing News

Getting Enough Sleep

Writing advice often includes sitting down daily and writing. When I’m not getting enough sleep, forget that.

I’ve been accused of never sitting still, always being busy doing something. There is truth to this. Sitting still makes me feel guilty as I have a long list of things to accomplish.

The entire day is spent moving from one item on the list to the next with a few minutes between to prepare. In hot weather this includes gulping down liquid.

Does this sound familiar? When I read about other writers, they seem to be on the move all the time too.

Orange Cat looks innocent
Cats are opportunists. Anyone trying to take a nap seems to become a magnet for any passing cat. It’s impossible to sleep being kneaded or walked on by a hefty cat like Orange Cat. If that doesn’t work, some object can be shoved onto the floor.

Usually, I do wrap up before midnight and get some sleep. There are times my schedule falls apart.

Some items on my list destroy getting enough sleep. Mucking out the barn is one. It is hard, physical labor even using the tractor for hauling the manure away.

Even with the usual amount of sleep, the next day drags. Being tired makes putting one foot in front of the other a struggle. The mind is hazy. The head is heavy. Time ceases to exist. Hurrying is a foreign concept.

Sitting down in front of the computer is a waste of time. The page is there in front of me. The words blur and make no sense. The eyes close between every key stroke. The head sinks onto the keyboard resulting in half a page of dots.

The cure is a morning nap. An extra hour or two of sleep is the prescription. Filling the prescription is a challenge.

box turtle crashing leaves to prevent getting enough sleep
Three-toed box turtles march through the Ozark woods crunching the dead, dry leaves. Anyone trying to snooze wakes up expecting a monster on the loose.

Knowing I need to sleep, I settle in. The cats thump by. The phone rings. A tick or two start digging in.

The resolution is to get to bed earlier than usual. Getting enough sleep is essential. I cannot function tired.

Then again, maybe I will go for a walk up the hill. I can settle in against a tree and sleep with only the creatures and wind to disturb me.

“My Ozark Home” visits some of my favorite places.