Author: Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.

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GKP Writing News

Reading Picture Books

This year I’ve been reading a lot of picture books. This has given me a lot of ideas about writing my own.

Yes, I have written a few of my own (“Waiting for Fairies”, “The Little Spider” and “At the Laundromat”) as well as collaborating on “Ducks Love Hats”. However, new ideas help with planning new ones because writing picture books is fun and challenging.

Reading picture books can be different
In “The Little Spider” I used the text to mimic how the little spider goes up various things only to come back down with the text doing the same.

Planning Picture Book Text

Books for adults are little more than text. Picture books are mostly about the pictures. The amount of text can vary from none to a short story with illustrations.

Reading picture books without text
“Ducks Love Hats” has no text so the illustrations must tell the story. These are challenging to create, but can get a child’s imagination to work.

If there is no or very little text, the illustrations must tell the story. I like this approach and often try to use it. A number of authors do this.

“Wolf in the Snow”, “Tuesday” and Mr. Wuffles” are good examples of picture books with no text. Another technique is used in “The Most Boring Book Ever” where the text and the illustrations tell related stories. The stories give lots of play to a child’s imagination, although the illustrations do have a narrative sequence.

A baby goat kid used as a model for a picture book
I work from photographs when I do illustrations for a picture book. Two projects start with baby kids so I have pictures of baby kids.

Other picture books are really stories with pictures. These stories can be read without the illustrations and do well. The illustrations only back up the tale.

Most picture books fall in between these. Some, like ones by Jan Brett, can combine the two. Her main story is an illustrated one. Her sidebars can tell another story than is related to the main one.

Another goat kid pose
It can be hard to get perspective right so I use many pictures from many angles. The different kids over the years give me a lot of material to work from.

Picture Book Illustrations

Reading picture books shows what a wide range the illustrations can have. They can be little more than line drawings with color to illustrations good enough to hang in an art gallery.

The youngest readers haven’t had an art education yet and so accept this wide range easily. They can even help the readers develop an appreciation of various art styles.

Highly detailed illustrations can encourage the reader to study them to find all the details. Doing this makes the reader slow down and actually see the illustration instead of glancing over it.

What Will I Do?

I’m not sure yet. With my first two picture books, the text came first and the illustrations were planned to show the text. In the book about Agate, I have no text yet. All I see are the illustrations.

Reading Picture Books

One thing reading many of these books does tell the writer is that each one is approached separately. Even those part of a series with a standard illustrative approach must be done separately to become a successful book.

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Getting Garden Seeds

My favorite wish books are arriving: the seed catalogs. The pictures are gorgeous. The varieties are tempting. In a month I will be getting garden seeds.

After drooling over the seed catalogs, it’s time to settle down into some serious garden planning. Getting garden seeds shouldn’t mean a pile of unopened packets sitting in the seed box for years.

Getting Seeds catalogs
Although Pinetree and Baker’s Creek are the main two companies I order from now, I have ordered from Shumway, Gurney’s, Jung’s and Johnny’s among others.

Serious Garden Planning

I do have a fair sized garden. However, it is finite. Mature plants take up space and don’t do well crammed in making both growing and harvesting difficult.

Every year I start with a garden diagram and a list of must grows. These are penciled into various beds. Leftover spots can be filled in with other plants.

My garden diagram needed before getting seeds
The main garden is roughly 50 feet square with the front section 16 feet square. This is not really accurate or entirely to scale. This does not matter as the only purpose is to let me decide what will be planted where.

Before going wild with the order form, there is another consideration: What will be done with the crop? Why purchase and grow a crop no one will eat?

My garden is in the Ozarks. Growing conditions aren’t the same as other places. Plants get hit with heat, humidity, flood and drought. Lots of vegetables don’t do well under these conditions.

Wild consumers are another consideration for me. Although we love eating sweet corn, I never grow it. The raccoons move in and demolish the crop and I refuse to camp out in the patch with a gun every night until it is picked.

Maturation time is important too. Tomatoes taking over three months to mature a crop are not on my list. Cabbage and other cole crops must mature before the weather gets too hot in summer or too cold in late fall.

Back to the Catalogs

Once the planning is done, it’s time for getting garden seeds picked out and ordered. My orders go in the first week of January as those leek and cabbage seeds need to be started by February.

My spring garden is a going concern already with garlic and onions. The cabbage (Savoy preferably) and leeks go into the garden in March. I have almost three months to get ready.

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Sweat Shirt Time for Goats

Ozark winters have gotten erratic and mostly warmer. However, the cold decided to visit for Thanksgiving. Shivering goats made it sweat shirt time.

Animals do put on extra winter undercoats. Nubians don’t do so as much as they are descended from tropic goats. When it gets cold and stays cold, they huddle together and shiver.

Being Cold

Some people don’t seem to mind winter cold. I am not one of them. When it gets cold, I huddle near the fire and/or wrap up in a blanket. Triple layers help when I go to the barn.

My Nubian goats can’t enjoy a hot wood stove. If they are cold, I get less milk. When they stay cold, they can get sick and have a harder time recovering.

Up North

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan winter brings temperatures below zero and deep snow. People wear wool to keep warm.

We bought old wool blankets at the thrift store, cut them in half and tied them on our goats. They weren’t thrilled, but they were warm locked in their barn. The blankets stayed on.

Nubian doe High Reaches Lydia in her winter wear
Sweat shirts may not be Nubian doe Lydia’s favorite wear, but it does keep her a little warmer during winter cold spells.

In the Ozarks

The temperature has plunged below zero here for a night or two. One winter brought foot deep snow. But these are not the usual winter weather routine.

We tried tying blankets on the goats to warm them up. They decided the blankets were itchy. The baling twine was too tight. The blankets landed in heaps on the floor and trampled.

Sweat Shirt Time

The goats still got cold. People wear sweat shirts to get warm. Why couldn’t the goats?

So now, when winter cold moves in and the goats begin shivering, it’s sweat shirt time. My herd sports a variety of colors, stops shivering and finds them comfortable enough to keep on until the weather warms up again.

Learn about goats while solving puzzles in “Goat Games“.

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My Reading Goal

Bleak December, the last month of the year has arrived. With all the hustle and bustle, there are so many things to wrap up. My reading goal is one.

This year started looking like a normal year. I set a goal of 72 books. Then disaster arrived.

My Goats

My ten-year-old buck, High Reaches Silk’s Augustus, got sick. It was terminal and I had to say good-bye. His pen looked so forlorn.

Dairy goats must have kids to continue to give milk. Terrill Creek Huckleberry came home. He was a love, just a wonderful buck. Somewhere he found and ate something poisonous and died.

Then my beloved Agate got sick. No matter what I did, she kept getting worse. When she finally collapsed, unable to stand, I had to say good-bye to her too.

Nubian doe High Reaches Agate in pasture
Nubian doe High Reaches Pixie’s Agate was a good friend. If I called the goats out in pasture, she led them in. She stopped on the way out for neck and ear scratches. I miss her.

My Family

My goats are my family. They have been my companions through several moves and over fifty years. All of them are special. Three have been extra special: Jennifer, my first goat; Bridget, my traveling companion; and Agate, my bottle baby.

Reading and writing almost ceased for months. That leaves me now, in December, seventeen books away from my set goal.

Making the Goal

I do read fairly fast, especially light fiction. But not that fast. At present I have just finished “First Ladies: An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives” by Margaret Truman. This is a wonderful look at the job of being First Lady and how many different approaches by women of so many different backgrounds did this job.

Three books are ongoing. “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew” is one I read as a child. It is very much a portrait of growing up poor around 1900, although it is fiction. “Arsene Lupin Gentleman Thief” was mentioned in “The Cat Who Saved the Library” along with “Moby Dick” (read the abridged version!) and “The Three Musketeers”.

Third is “Of Time and Turtles”. This is a fascinating look at turtle rescue and turtles. These creatures have existed for 350 million years, yet modern humans may destroy these special, unique animals by greed, carelessness and ignorance.

If all else fails, I suppose I can count picture books. I read and review (on my Goodreads blog) about six a week. I do hate to not make my reading goal.

When I finish reading a book, I do a review on Goodreads. The picture books are reviewed on my Goodreads blog.

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Timing in Writing

Timing is so important in a novel. I forgot that when I wrote about Ship 18. Now I have done the math and must change most of the plot.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper
This novel was my first real brush with timing. It took place over several years with several events repeating over the years with people and goats growing older. And I lost a year. Putting that year back in was a big mess.

Originally

The premise was of a space ship dropping out of a worm tunnel somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. The ship must cross much of the solar system to get to Earth which they call Cardua.

Of course crossing over the Sun would be the most exciting time of the novel and I gave it big play. But it had no basis other than my imagination.

Doing the Math

I had looked up the planetary distances, orbits, sizes etc. before beginning. Looking them up doesn’t mean I paid much attention to them, although I should have.

Finally, I sat down and did the math. I knew the size of the ship (30 inches long) and figured a speed (5 million miles a day). Starting at Earth, I calculated where the ship would be each 6 day week (The Carduans have three fingers and count by sixes.).

My guess work was so far off, it was ludicrous. Since timing is everything in this novel, I had to redo everything according to the calculated journey.

Big Solar System

When I taught science, I took a class outside to a long sidewalk. We marked out distances to the planets on it. I guess I forgot just how big the solar system is.

My Ship 18, on its fictional journey, would spend most of the 15 weeks getting from its original position to Earth’s orbit, although Earth would still be on the other side of the Sun. Anyone who has ever been on a long journey riding along knows how boring this can be.

And now all the exciting events in the first draft are relegated to the last few weeks. Instead, I have eleven weeks of boredom to fill up. But, timing is everything in this novel.

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Winter Seeds

Wildflowers are gone. Most trees are bare. Is there anything to see on a nature walk? Perhaps winter seeds can provide a guessing game.

Elephant Foot Seeds
Elephant foot sends up flower stalks almost two feet. The pink flowers are interesting to look at. Then winter comes. The stalks turn dry and brown, but are recognizable.

What Is This?

A bare stalk sticks up with a crown of pointy seeds on the top. There are no leaves or flowers to give a clue to which flowers produced these seeds.

Thinking back, I know what this is. There were big leaves and pink flowers with petals like fingers in little boats on top of stems.

This is elephant’s foot in winter. There are lots of these stalks so there might be lots of plants next year.

Buckbrush or coral berry fruits
Buckbrush spreads underground. It’s flowers are small bells. Then the red berries show up. These are supposed to be good wild bird fruits. They are not considered edible by people, just something colorful to see in early winter.

Looking For Clues to Winter Seeds

One good clue is remembering what flowers I saw in this place last summer. This narrows the list of possibles a lot as spring ephemerals and plants not found here are eliminated.

Leaves might be a clue. Sometimes a few green ones are left. Usually there are some dead, brown ones. It takes care to uncurl a dry leaf.

The shape of the seed head is another clue. Monarda flowers leave behind a ball with pockets where the seeds were. These are called beebalm and horsemint commonly.

Fruit is another clue. The persimmon trees often have a few persimmons still hanging on. These are shriveled and dry, but definitely persimmons.

Buckbrush has long stems lined with clusters of red berries. These dry and shrivel and turn dark after a time. I read that lots of birds like them, but I think they are a last choice on the menu.

Tall Goldenrod seed head
Tall goldenrod seed heads look like little, fuzzy hats perched on top of brown stems.

Why Bother?

Cold winter walks can be more about exercise than looking at plants. The faster the walk, the sooner the return to warmth.

Overwintering bees and caterpillars or pupae value these winter seeds and stalks. They hide inside them or under those fallen leaves to survive the cold. That’s fine for them.

For me, I like having an idea where to look for various wildflowers next year. Those winter seeds give me clues.

There is much to look at during an Ozark winter. Some of it is in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

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Memorable Books

Are there books you remember years, maybe decades after you read them? These are memorable books indeed.

So many books today are just fluff: read them today and forget them tonight. I read many of these. They are a great way to close out the day, settle the mind down ready to drift off to sleep.

What Makes Memorable Books Memorable?

The book speaks to you, means something on a deep level. It can be a philosophy of life or a way of looking at your own life.

Any book can do this. One silly bit of fluff I read helped me realize being short was only the obstacle of being vertically challenged. It didn’t mean I was not a worthwhile person. At the time I read this, I needed that change of view.

Other books can reach out to huge numbers of readers with deep themes. Harry Potter does this. Under the fluff of magic is the value of friendship and loyalty, the putting of others before your own life, if necessary.

My little bit of fluff is from a book long forgotten and rightly so. Perhaps Harry Potter will vanish over time too, but the themes will remain important. Other books like “The Three Musketeers” have these themes.

cover for "Broken Promises" by Karen GoatKeeper
I don’t know if other people will find this upper middle grade book memorable for its subject matter. I do because it is the aftermath of losing a soldier. My nephew Marine PFC Brandon Smith to whom the book is dedicated was killed in Iraq and I talked with my brother about many of the things in the book. One part of the book still makes me cry: the letters from the dead. I received one from my father.

Themes in Writing

Memorable books often have an underlying theme in them. It is woven into the characters and the plot, becoming part of the story.

A more obvious way is through allegory. “A Rustle In the Grass” and “Watership Down” are two of these. On the surface these books are fun stories to read. Under the surface are the social themes that sometimes don’t become obvious to the reader until after the book is read.

That is the important part of writing books or stories with a theme: they are part of the story. Preaching never really gets a theme across as it is shoving the author’s ideas in your face.

How many memorable books have you read? My answer is: not enough.

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Rooster Regime Change

Mr. Smarty has ruled my chicken flock for several years. He is a big Columbian Wyandotte. Three Easter Egger upstarts moved into the hen house and one dreamed of a rooster regime change.

An Accidental Rooster

I normally order pullet chicks every spring. About four years ago the order was for some Columbian Wyandotte pullets.

The chicks arrived and grew up. Only one chick was not the expected pullet. He was a self assured rooster that loved showing off giving him his name.

My big rooster was getting old, so Mr. Smarty escaped the freezer. The next year my old rooster died and he took over. None of the hens were impressed.

Defiant even after rooster regime change
Columbian Wyandotte roosters are big, 8 to 10 pounds, with a rose comb. Mr. Smarty now runs from the other four roosters and holds court below the garden.

This Year’s Mistakes

Sexing baby chicks is not easy. Mistakes are made and Cackle Hatchery does warn that one out of ten pullets may be a rooster.

However, out of the ten ordered and one extra Easter Egger pullets for this year, three were roosters. They are pretty things and I decided to keep one. Both big roosters were four years old which is getting old for a chicken.

One was going to be dinner. Another was going with some pullets to a neighbor’s hen house. Except Easter Eggers are small for meat and the neighbors never picked up their chickens.

Easter Egger rooster Rusty enjoys the rooster regime change
Easter Egger roosters are slim, maybe 5 pounds, with a rose comb and cheek puffs. Rusty had help defeating Mr. Smarty. Another Easter Egger rooster, Herald, joined in.

Rooster Regime Change

The rooster scheduled for dinner had dreams. He was head of the pullets and longed to extend his reign to the hen house. Mr. Smarty was challenged.

It took several days to wear the big rooster down, but he finally abdicated. The new rooster called Rusty has taken over.

Mr. Smarty is taking the rooster regime change hard. He was in charge for so long and now he is bottom rooster. It will take time, but he will adjust as other roosters have in the past.

Chickens are a 4-H project for Hazel in “Mistaken Promises“.

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GKP Writing News

Book Review Topics

Each month I write a short book review column for my local library newsletter. I find it helpful to have book review topics to help me choose books to read for this column.

Last year my book review topics came from the names for the full moon of that month. There is a story about these in “Exploring the Ozark Hills”. Sometimes I did stretch the topic a bit to include books more local readers would enjoy.

cover for "Exploring the Ozark Hills" by Karen GoatKeeper
When days are short and nights are long, the night sky holds more interest. The full moon is one of the topics of an essay in this book of 84 nature essays and photographs organized by the seasons.

Why Use Book Review Topics?

The column mentions a book for adults and some picture books for the children. Having a theme of sorts makes coordinating these easier for me.

As the newsletter comes out each month, I have to be a month ahead. The December review for the long night moon is turned in. Now I need to start the January book.

And I need a new set of topics for the new year. As using the moons – suggested by a picture book “Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back” – it needs to give some structure to choosing books, yet have some give to accommodate a wide variety of books.

Other Considerations

The advice for writers is to read a lot and widely. I’ve done that in the past. However, I am much older now and see no point in reading or trying to read books I dislike for one reason or another.

There are some genres I do not care much about. Horror and dystopian are among them. Westerns are too formulaic, although I do enjoy reading about the West in biographies and histories and historical fiction.

It’s so tempting to ignore current events and cocoon myself in a world created by books. Yet these events can not be completely ignored as they affect everything.

Picking a Topic

I am presently reading “First Ladies: An Intimate Portrait” by Margaret Truman. Politics is not on the topic list. However, how much do we really know about people and places around our country? I’ve been in 48 states and know the present political diatribe is only a political ploy.

Joining my book review topics list will be reading about some aspect of the states, one each month.

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Garden Fences and Gates

As stated in “For Love of Goats” “Fabulous fences are a fallacy fervently foisted on foolish farmers.” The same is true for garden fences and gates.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
Goats are notorious for escaping fences. This is one of the tongue twisting topics in this book of tongue twisters, homonyms, alliteration, short fiction and memoir about goats.

My garden fence started as a way to keep chickens and wildlife out of the garden. This does work for chickens, as long as I remember to close the gates. Wildlife finds this as a minor barrier quickly circumvented or climbed.

PVC Gate Update

I wrote many years ago about constructing garden gates out of PVC pipe. The wood gates disintegrated in a couple of years with the moist Ozark weather. PVC pipe lasts a long time.

At the time, I had never worked with PVC pipe and this did affect the outcome. The other factor was putting the gates together out under the trees on somewhat level land.

Today the gates are still operational. They don’t hang straight because the gate posts lean (Another problem to tackle another day.) However they do not need replacing and do keep the chickens out of the garden.

There is one gate that needs repair. The garden gates have a mid pipe to strengthen them. The top and bottom are about two feet from it.

The chick yard gate is much taller and I put in only the one brace. When I snugged it up tight, the brace broke loose and needs regluing. When I replace this gate, I will use two braces as well as straightening he gate post.

garden fences and gates
Wooden gates need replacing every other year. PVC gates are harder to construct and put wire on, but they last for years. Mine have some dirt on them and the green blush of algae here and there, but they still work well.

Garden Fences

Most of my garden fence is two by four welded wire. This works for chickens, but not for rabbits. I saw a rabbit hop through the fence. Chicken wire is getting added to the bottom of the garden fences and gates now.

This fix might work for rabbits. Woodchucks, raccoons and opossums just climb over. I suppose it is possible to fence these animals out too. My garden fences and gates will keep me using livetraps when necessary.