Category: Latest From High Reaches

Watching Wildlife

We own no dogs. This isn’t because we don’t like dogs, as long as they belong to someone else. It’s because we enjoy watching wildlife.

The other morning, I needed to fill the water fount for my baby chicks. There is a hand pump on a cement pad over an old dug well. Something was curled up on the pad. What?

I cautiously approached to find a young fawn curled up on the platform. We often have fawns in the small pasture, but not in the barn compound. Does like leaving them near us for safety.

A young fawn has few protections from predators. They have no scent. Lying still is another. If disturbed, a fawn is a fast runner. Finding one like this is a real treat.

Watching Wildlife at the Bird Feeder

Lots of things happen around and on the bird feeder. Usually, it’s the various kinds of birds. Lately other visitors are showing up.

Gray squirrels move in and sit at one end of the sunflower tray eating. The birds come and go from the other end of the tray. When the red squirrel shows up, the birds and gray squirrels flee.

Now the chipmunks are back. They bound through the grass with their tails held high. The posts are no problem. Even the lip around the edge of the feeder is not a deterrent. Each chipmunk moves in, stuffs its cheek pouches and leaves.

At the Hummingbird Feeders

Four quart feeders hang from the eaves of a shed. They are busy with hummingbirds. These swoop in, chase each other, sit and drink and whirr off.

Earlier orchard orioles visited the feeders. One year a pair stayed to nest. Usually they visit for a few days and move on.

A new visitor is a downy woodpecker. Evidently this one has a taste for sweets. It scoots up the corner of the shed, flits over to the end feeder and drinks from several holes before flying over to the suet cake.

The downy woodpecker is on the right. They are a small bird with a long tongue making using the hummingbird feeder possible. A nuthatch is on the left.

Dogs and Watching Wildlife

Dogs bark, chase and need attention. I might appreciate having the backyard groundhogs chased off to the hills, but I would also miss the squirrels, chipmunks and deer. Opossums can be a nuisance as can raccoons.

Several years we had gray foxes raise their young around the house. Having a dog would rob me of these opportunities. I prefer watching wildlife.

Tags Ozark wildlife, whitetail deer

Latest From High Reaches

Good Goat Vets

Next month will be my 51^st anniversary of having Nubian dairy goats. When Jennifer was born, in 1974, good goat vets were unknown in my area. Veterinary schools barely mentioned goats.

If something went wrong, the goat owner had to deal with it. So, I bought a good veterinary book for small livestock. I still have it, old as it is, and still look things up in it. It was written by a practicing vet and is a fairly reliable source of information.

I also have a clinical goat veterinary book. It’s rather technical, more a textbook than a reference book. A good dictionary is helpful with it.

When Nubian doe kid La Nina was born, her front legs would not uncurl. She was walking on the front of her front hooves. That made walking slow and difficult.

Just Google It

What I find out now, is that most people just go online for information. When La Nina was born, my vet books weren’t much help, so I tried online. I am so glad I read up about the problem in my clinical book first.

La Nina was born with her front legs drawn back. They would not straighten. Online advice was to give a BoSe or selenium shot and brace them.

That shot is for Johanne’s disease. La Nina does not have this disease and did not need such a shot. There can be side effects from this shot, if it is not needed.

Nina’s problem was either from inbreeding or being curled up wrongly before being born. The latter usually affects the rear legs which tend to a stretched tendon the kid grows into in a few days.

Because her tendons were so tight, it did take a month of braces before the front legs straightened out. She is quite normal now – spoiled rotten and into everything.

Those front legs are now straight. La Nina walks, jumps and plays like any normal kid her age.

Good Goat Vets Now

Over the past years I have had some really good goat vets. I learned a lot from them. They are sorely missed now.

Large animal vets are getting rare. Large animals like cows and horses can hurt you. Even sheep and goats can do a lot of damage. Treating them often means a farm call requiring an expensive truck set up to carry medicines and equipment.

Cats and dogs come to the clinic. They bring in a lot of money. The hours are regular. Both vet clinics in my town treat only cats and dogs.

My nearest goat vet is about a hundred miles away. I am again left consulting my vet books and doing my own work. The books are my first reference, then I go online with enough knowledge to know whether or not what I’m seeing is reliable.

New problems come up regularly with any livestock. Good vet books by practicing veterinarians should be on any goat owner’s shelf.

Tags goat diseases, raising goat kids, veterinarians

Latest From High Reaches

Why Garden?

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 17, 2025

Why garden? I don’t know why other people garden. Sometimes I’m not sure why I garden. It’s a lot or work for produce cheaply available in the market.

Then again, much of what I grow is not in the market, cheap or expensive. Perhaps that is an answer to Why garden? There are so many available varieties.

Exercise?

Tillers, hoeing, weeding, planting, picking all provide exercise. These can strin the back, ruin the fingernails, wear out jean knees and more. They do burn off a lot of calories.

Some of these methods are long since discarded in my garden. Tillers are verboten. Hoes are used sparingly. I prefer potato forks, weeders and mulch.

More to the point, gardening gives a way to destress. Mad at someone? Pull some weeds and pound them to loosen the dirt in their roots. Feeling blue? Enjoy creating color and food.

Growing your own vegetable varieties lets you grow heirlooms like my Prize Peppers. This is one you will not find in any catalogue. It’s a Macedonian sweet pepper that won blue ribbons at the Indiana State Fair. The seeds were a gift from a friend. As all such heirlooms, it’s continuation depends on those seeds being shared with other gardeners unless some seed company like Bakers Creek wants to add it to their collection. This is one of two Macedonian sweet peppers I grow every year as they are the best peppers I’ve found.

Health?

More and more I hear this answer to Why garden. Market produce is sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Seeds can be treated as well.

All these chemicals do provide those perfect, or close to perfect vegetables we get in the market. They cut down on any actual work such as weeding, cultivating and mulching not really feasible on huge scales.

So, is home grown produce really better? It can have fewer chemicals dumped on it. But, is any place really chemical free?

Probably not. Manmade chemicals are in the rain, the air. Watering hoses shed them. They are found in the remotest places on Earth.

The only advantage is having fewer chemicals in my organic garden. Since the insets take their toll on my produce, the chemical load must be less.

Why Garden?

Thinking about it, I garden for many reasons. One is having many different tastes and vegetables. Another is the exercise and mental reflection time. It’s nice to have fewer chemicals on my food.

Most of all, I garden because I love cooking up a dinner of produce I just picked out in my garden.

Tags gardening, Heirloom vegetables, Ozark gardening, sweet peppers

Latest From High Reaches

Desperate Seedlings

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 9, 2025

May is here with warm, wet (very wet) weather in the Ozarks. Trays of desperate seedlings get carried out to the porch in the morning and back into the house every night.

They aren’t taken in every night because of frost. Moths come out at night. Cut worms and other caterpillars make meals out of the seedlings. These are really hard to find as they dig down into the dirt during the day.

The cups are roomier than the usual ones for seedlings. Still, my tomato seedlings are more than ready to move out into the garden. The pepper seedlings and other plants are just as desperate. This weekend is their escape, if I can work fast enough.

Frost Date Is Past

The average frost date was a week ago. These desperate seedlings are begging to get transplanted into the garden.

Experience tells me to wait. Setting out tomatoes and peppers before Mother’s Day is usually a mistake. The weather is watching for anyone foolish enough to try it.

Late frosts are a surprise. The evening is warm enough to leave the gardener confident. In the morning those precious seedlings are black.

Not Ready Yet

Waiting is easier for me this year. My garden is not ready for all the summer planting. I am still setting things up.

Several new containers need holes drilled, gravel and dirt. The small raised bed is getting rebuilt, sort of. My impatience and sloppy masonry skills are obvious.

Last winter had cold, wet weather so some things didn’t get done. I know: excuses. It doesn’t help as I pull weeds. At least most of the garden did get done, although the weeds are moving in as fast as they can.

What Garden Plan?

There is a garden plan. All the beds, containers and extra spots are labeled. Future occupants are listed for each one.

It seems I now have a sage and a French tarragon to take over two containers. The carrots have to move to? The parsley doesn’t seem to be on the list. Oops.

Then there are the extra Black Krim tomato and two globe artichokes. I won’t mention the four kinds of basil, four kinds of marigolds, all needing to be separated from each other.

Those desperate seedlings will make it into the garden. I’m aiming for Mother’s Day, depending on the weather. The blankets will be at the ready.

Tags garden seedlings, gardening, Ozark gardening

Latest From High Reaches

Lazy Days Tempting

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 25, 2025

The trees have a blush of green, but the pastures are lush with new green grass. Warm sun invites my goats to spend lazy days basking. They aren’t the only ones wanting to enjoy the weather.

Sycamore trees have male and female flowers on the same tree. This is a male flower that will produce pollen. The female flowers are little green balls that become the seed balls of late fall into spring.

Blooming Trees

Many trees, like oaks, hickories, elms, ashes, walnuts, willows and more, don’t bother with insects. They use the wind to carry pollen and fertilize their flowers. They produce clouds of the yellow stuff that coats everything around on these warm lazy days.

The floods toppled a sycamore so it lies across the creek. It’s still rooted so it wants to leaf out. I took note as sycamores bloom up, far up above my head and I wanted pictures of the flowers. This tree is producing its flowers at eye level.

Good-Bye Winter

The air is warm much of the time. Temperatures are in the springtime range. My tomato seedlings are eager to get out into the garden.

Milking time is done with impatient goats. No sooner am I done, than the herd is ready to barge out the gate for the day. Then the goats stand looking around. Should they go north into the pasture? Maybe across the creek and south has better grass. Then again, across the creek and up the hill is nice.

One thing is sure, the herd is back down near the creek around noon. That’s when they enjoy the lazy days lying around in the sun until they are too hot, then the shade to cool off. All the time they are chewing their cuds filled with spring’s bounty.

When I had the time, I would go out with my herd for part of the day. At first these goats go racing off. They tear off mouthfuls of greens along the way, but they are on the move. After a time the goats settle down and graze or browse, still slowly moving. In a couple of hours the herd arrives at a favorite or inviting spot and they lie down to chew cuds and sleep. Warm weather seems to make these times more numerous and longer.

No Lazy Days Here

Insects are buzzing from flower to flower. Now is their time of plenty.

Lone star ticks are out and eager for a meal. For the next several months these things will make life miserable for the goats and me.

And spring chores are on a long list. I may feel like enjoying these lazy days, but I won’t. Well, maybe for a little while.

Tags Ozark wildflowers, raising goats

Latest From High Reaches

Beginning With Baby Chicks

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 18, 2025

April is my preferred month for beginning with baby chicks. The weather has, hopefully, settled down a little. The pullets will reach six months in the fall and, supposedly, lay through the winter.

Getting Baby Chicks

Traditionally eggs are set under a broody hen. She hatches out and raises a group of baby chicks. I have done this, but don’t now as black snakes usually eat the eggs.

Incubators are another popular way to set eggs. A friend is hatching some eggs for me this year. They should be hatching about now. These will be what the hatcheries call straight run, a mix of pullets and cockerels. Eggs and dinner.

Then there are the hatcheries. I’ve gotten baby chicks from Cackle Hatchery many times and will again this year.

The Cackle Hatchery building is plain, nondescript except for the name on the door. However, the car is eye-catching. Inside the building are books, supplies and more to aid the beginner and the long time chicken owner. This year the line for baby chicks was long as was the line for online chick orders.

Only the First Step

Beginning with baby chicks doesn’t start with getting the chicks. Even before they arrive home, there is preparation to do.

I have a dedicated chick house. It’s used for storage over the winter, but in April it is again set up for chicks.

Plastic feed sacks go down on the floor boards to protect them from spilled water. A heat lamp is set up as chicks need to be warm. Waterers and feeders are set up. Chick starter is purchased and set up.

I know some advice is to never use newspaper on the floor for baby chicks. It works for me and has for decades. It has several advantages for me.

I put out layers, five sheets thick, enough for ten to twelve days. They are offset a bit so I can tell each layer. Each day I can roll up the dirty sheets and leave the chicks with a fairly clean floor for the new day.

My baby chicks are pullets. There are Dominiques and Easter Eggers. They have just been put into their new home and are starting to look around.

New Residents

The house is set up. The heat lamp has it warm and cozy. The waterers and feeders are filled.

When the chicks come home, each chick is taken out, bill dipped in water and set down. It doesn’t take long before these little ones are off exploring. That stops as soon as they find the food. Now it’s just a matter of time waiting for them to grow up.

Tags raising baby chicks

Latest From High Reaches

April Ozark Wildflowers

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 11, 2025

A county road runs in front of our house. Lots of vehicles go up and down the road when the redbuds and dogwoods bloom. Driving by, they miss the kaleidoscope of April Ozark wildflowers lining the road, out on the hills and up the ravines.

Most of the April Ozark wildflowers are old friends for me. But I love to go out to visit them again as most are here for only a short time before vanishing until next April.

Bellwort is an interesting Ozark wildflower. The flower hangs down and never fully opens. It seems to be pollinated by bumblebees. The bee crawls up inside the flower making it bulge out. These stalks came up through the fire blackened area in this ravine.

Along the Road

Late mornings and early afternoons are slack times in the traffic. That makes those times good for walking along to see what is growing and blooming. Since much of the roadside burned, I get a chance to see what survived as well.

The fire burned the leaf litter and moved on. Lots of plants are sprounting up through the ash. Bellwort is one. Even driving home from town, I spotted this gorgeous clump out on its own and had to go back on foot to admire it.

Along the way I found others: orange puccoon, violet wood sorrel, blue violets and early buttercups. Around the bellwort were toothwort and rue anemone along with a rock fern.

The bright color of this orange puccoon’s flowers is easy to spot. The plant gets, maybe, six inches tall. The flowers bloom into summer. It would make a nice ground cover in a sunny location.

Up a Ravine

Wandering across the hill I tried to miss stepping on too many Johnny Jump Up violets. Down in the ravine my first stop were large patches of Virginia bluebells. A few years ago there was only a single small patch, now there are lots of these lovely blue flowers.

More toothwort and rue anemone were scattered on the sides of the ravine. The Christmas ferns were putting up their fiddleheads.

The Christmas fern got its name because it stays green through the winter. The fronds darken and lie down on the ground. In the spring the new leaves emerge as fiddleheads that unfurl into fronds. I have kept this as a potted fern and it does very well.

So Many April Ozark Wildflowers

I didn’t intend to make such a list and it isn’t complete at all. The spring ephemerals are out in a mad race to beat the tree leaves. They come in many colors, often bloom for only a few days, set seed and vanish for another year.

The Ozarks is in Missouri, but Virginia bluebells grow well here in ravines. It likes moist places. The flowers begin as pink buds, turning blue when they open. Some flowers stay pink. Occasionally some are white. They make quite a show as a large patch.

Driving by, even slowly, you won’t see most of these flowers. To meet and admire these wildflowers you must stop, get out and walk along a gravel road, a nature trail in a Conservation Area, even a road in town as many grow in lawns. Do it soon or you will miss the April show.

Wildflowers are in many essays and pictures found in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“. “Missouri’s Milkweeds, Milkvines and Pipevines of Missouri” is a guidebook to these Missouri flowers.

Tags Ozark wildflowers

Latest From High Reaches

Little Girl Lost

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 4, 2025

Nubian doe High Reaches Opal is a first time mother. She is verya ttentive to her little doe kid-most of the time. Yet this was the little girl lost out on the hills.

Giving practice time for a young kid in keeping up with the herd is popular with the kids. This little Nubian doe kid, now found, is out for a couple of afternoon hours with the herd. First she must find the herd.

Fencing Question

After her kid was a few days old, Opal wanted to go out to pasture. If her little kid was awake and active, Opal stayed in the barn lot crying as the herd went out.

That evening Opal came in with the herd. She had let herself out. How? Was there a hol in the fence? I couldn’t find one.

This was the pattern for several days. As soon as her kid settled down and went to sleep, Opal went out through? under? over? the fence and joined the herd.

The herd is moving away. The little Nubian doe kid runs to catch up.

Opal’s Little Girl

This is one lovely little doe. She is black with frosted ears and nose, polled and lively. Opal has trouble keeping up with her and has since she was one day old.

All the kids were out playing on the goat gym. The little girl got tired and laid down on the bottom step. Opal stood guard as the herd went out. I went to the house to put the seedlings out on the porch.

Hearing Opal calling, I looked up hoping to see where she was getting out. Instead I saw her leading her kid across the bridge to pasture. Now her kid is barely two weeks old, far too young to be out on the hills.

Kids and adult goats run in leaps and bounds. This little Nubian doe kid is still racing over to the herd.

Little Girl Lost

Although I hurried, I don’t run any more. By the time I got to the bridge, Opal and her kid were across the hill pasture. When I got to the south pasture, Opal and her kid were out of sight.

I caught a glimpse of them going up the hill at the far end of the south pasture. They were gone when I got there. No Opal. No kid. And no herd of goats.

Poor Nubian doe High Reaches Opal has a hard time keeping up with her little doe kid. The kid isn’t concerned. Mother will catch up.

After an hour climbing the hill, I found the herd. Opal was there. Her kid wasn’t.

Little girl lost, any little kid lost is panic time.

It took a lot of searching by us and a friend to find the little girl. I like happy endings and got one this time.

Tags goat emergencies, raising goat kids, raising goats

Latest From High Reaches

Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 28, 2025

The race is on. The spring ephemeral Ozark wildflowers blooming now are in a race with the trees. They want to put out their leaves for the summer.

Most spring ephemerals grow on the forest floor. All summer the trees shade this area making it hard for plants growing there to get enough light to photosynthesize. Certainly there isn’t enough light for a plant to make seeds.

Unless the tree has showy flowers like redbuds or dogwoods, people don’t think about trees having flowers. Many trees like elms, oaks, hickories and walnuts are wind pollinated so their flowers are tiny. The pollen clouds are noticed because they cover everything with a yellow film. These elm seeds are called samovars and are edible. I found them a nice snack, if I could reach them.

Trees Race Too

Many trees are wind pollinated. Leaves slow down the wind and the pollen. This yellow cloud coats the leaves instead of the pistils waiting to be pollinated. So the maples, ashes, willows, oaks and black walnuts are busy trying to bloom before the leaves too.

American elms are rare here due to Dutch elm disease. I’d found some down by the river in bloom. One even had branches low enough for me to get a picture or two.

On a recent walk I found the seeds on these trees. Since they were listed in “Foraging the Ozarks” as edible, I tried a few. They are bland, but a nice snack. Elms make lots of seeds so eating a few won’t hurt.

Nearby the green ash were blooming. November’s flood washed out my favorite ones, but I did find a few young ones I could get pictures of.

Spring Beauty is a spring ephemeral. It forms large colonies in moist ground. I have seen it carpet lawns in town as well.

Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

The trees were expected. So many wildflowers weren’t. Beautiful spring beauties lined the road and the path along the river. Rue anemones are just opening. Blue violets are having trouble growing up through the sand leaving their flowers sandy.

Redbuds are blooming. Fragrant sumac is opening. Virginia bluebells are getting ready. Rose verbena has its purple pink bouquets out along the road.

This native wildflower, Rose Verbena, blooms all spring and summer. It is a low growing plant and would be a nice groundcover. It is one of the earliest bright wildflowers blooming along the roads.

Time Frustrations

Now is the time to go hiking to find, admire and photograph all the Ozark wildflowers blooming. It’s also time to get the garden ready and to start planting early crops like peas, turnips, kohlrabi, mizuna and more.

Trying to do both is frustrating.

Tags nature walks, Ozark hiking, Ozark wildflowers

Latest From High Reaches

High Winds and Fire

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 22, 2025

The first phone call came during dinner. “You know you’re under an evacuation order? There’s a fire.” We already had no electricity. Now high winds and fire threatened.

The argument between winter and spring is fierce in the Ozarks. One refuses to leave. The other insists on coming in. This is where high winds happen.

These flames were creeping across the hill behind the house on the day after the big fire. The winds had died down. What little breeze still blew was blowing against the flames. Burning leaves put up a lot of smoke.

Do We Leave?

There was no immediate reason to evacuate. The fire was on the hills above us. It was driven away by the winds.

If we evacuate, we have goats, chickens and cats to take too. Two friends offered their places for us to stay, but the crowd would be a bit much.

Saving Thunderstorm

Rain arrived behind the high winds. The fire died down. It burned 750 acres, two houses and some other things.

By the next day the fire was starting up again. It was a no high winds and fire routine, only the fire slowly working its way through the fallen leaves. We watched it as it crept across a field and started down the hill toward the house.

Damp ground, dew and killing frost ended this gambit. Or so we thought.

The leaf fire had been creeping along the hill toward the house. It was taking its time and didn’t seem to be much of a threat. Then the Dent County Fire Protection trucks arrived as the neighbor had seen the smoke and called them.

Another Round

Smoke rose up from the hill beside the house. I walked down the road and saw a line of fire stretching up the hill. High winds and fire were at it again.

This was still a small fire burning leaves. We watched and waited.

Our neighbor arrived. He’d called the sheriff and fire department. His house was in danger!

His house was not in danger. It was across the road from the fire and almost a mile away.

The fire fighters were concerned the high winds could blow the fire across the road. They set a back fire to stop the fire line before it got to the road. The winds were brisk, but not full of big gusts, which helped.

Fighting the Fire

The Salem Fire Protection Department arrived. Four big trucks turned into the driveway. Men put on their gear and marched off to stop the fire.

A few hours later, the trucks left to stop another flare up on the hill behind us. This one burned down a house.

Our hills were blackened as though a prescribed burn was done. We were lucky.

Tags Dent county fire, wildfire