Category: Latest From High Reaches

Visiting Conservation Areas

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 29, 2026
No Comments on Visiting Conservation Areas

This year I have been visiting conservation areas looking for new plants for my Dent County Flora project. Missouri is special having so many of them.

Since I do my plant research only in Dent County, I looked up the conservation areas in the county. To my surprise, there were seven of them.

Walking along one trail around a lake, The distant dam creating the lake is visible. One of the parking areas where picnic tables are available is in the distance as well. Sometimes there are others walking the trails here at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area, but not on this day.

ShawneeMac Lakes

I have long been familiar with this conservation area. It is on the edge of town and popular for fishing, hiking and picnicking. The parking areas are large, the trails nice and the archery range is used.

There are several plants there I do not find at home. Much of the time the trails are quiet as they go around the two lakes with a loop through the woods.

Gerhild and Graham Brown

I found out about this conservation area by accident. It isn’t very large, but is a nice place to visit. I’ve found some new plants here too.

The other thing I’ve found out is how rarely some of these places are visited or maintained. There is a small parking lot. Sometime this spring someone ran a bush hog down to make a hiking trail. It is now growing up which is fine with me as I find several plants easy to photograph there.

Visiting Conservation Areas

I’ve asked around. Many of these areas have very few visitors. Some have trails, some have rutted roads, some have nothing. Most have visitors only during hunting season.

Perhaps I understand why few people go visiting conservation areas in rural areas. I spend most of my hiking time near home as I have lots of land to look over. And city people seem unwilling to go off into wild areas unless they look like city parks.

The media is full of warnings about ticks. I pick up a few, especially when I forget to spray up more than my pant legs.

People are afraid of snakes. I rarely even glimpse one. Besides, snakes are our first line of defense against ticks as they eat the rodents supporting the population.

Reason for Concern

This year the conservation/state park sales tax comes up for renewal. It isn’t much, only a penny on eight dollars spent.

Conservation areas are great places to visit. Perhaps, if more of us used them, there would be more trails. But, without the sales tax, there won’t be these places.

Please vote Yes on Proposition 1. Then go visiting conservation areas and find out what makes them and Missouri special.

Tags Conservation Tax, Hiking, Ozark wildflowers, Ozark wildlife

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Two Savoy Cabbages

I loved the picture, so I ordered the seeds. Alcosa Savoy cabbage is a nice, petite head with crinkly leaves. This year I found another Savoy cabbage and am growing two Savoy cabbages.

Alcosa cabbage makes a nice little head surrounded by crinkled leaves.

Cabbage Is Cabbage, Right?

No. Regular cabbage has smooth leaves and makes a tight head. It has a slight bitterness.

Savoy cabbage has crinkly leaves and a looser head. It has no bitterness I can taste.

Both are very cold hardy and I grow most of it for a fall crop. It survives to about twenty degrees without protection.

Alcosa Savoy cabbage (right) is not that small. When I pick some to take to Farmers Market, I have trouble getting it into a plastic bag. Violacea is on the left, or rather, a leaf that dwarfs the Alcosa next to it.

Time Is Important

The Ozarks has spring. Some years it is very short. Other years it hangs around flirting with winter.

Cabbage likes it cool to cold. All the relatives – broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts – agree. Hot temperatures make them bitter, even kill them.

Time to maturity or harvest matters. Alcosa is 74 days. If I plant it in the garden in March, I usually get a few heads. It is a hybrid, but I plant it anyway.

Violaceo di Verona

According to Baker’s Creek, this cabbage is from northern Italy. It matures in 120 days. That makes it a fall crop in the Ozarks. However, I did want to see what it looked like, so one is growing in my garden now.

Supposedly this makes a medium-sized head. It dwarfs my other ones. The leaves are huge!

Two Savoy Cabbages

Summer is blowing into the Ozarks. My Alcosa cabbages are ready for harvest. The Violaceo has two months to go.

I did plant it in the shade house and will put the shades up within the next week. That may help a little.

Now I have to plan where to plant my two Savoy cabbages in September. Perhaps I will have fresh cabbage all the way to New Year’s.

Tags growing cabbage, Ozark gardening

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Mule Jumping Competition

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 15, 2026

People love to compete. Who is better? Whose car or horse is faster. The mule jumping competition tries to determine which mule can jump higher.

Bonita is a little under 52 inches at the withers. This jump at the mule jumping competition is a bit over 40 inches high. Her owner is leading her up to it.

Missouri Mules

A mule is a cross of a male donkey and a mare. They vary a lot in size from miniatures to big and tall. Height is measured in hands (four inches) to the withers or top of the shoulders.

Mules were popular for work in pioneer days. They were strong and didn’t need as much care and feed as a horse. Missouri bred many of the finest mules.

Stubborn as a mule is quite true. If a mule decides to not do something, it doesn’t do it. But this is also a bit of temper on the part of the owners as mules are smart and many of the refusals were because the mule thought a path was too dangerous or had another good reason.

Bonita looked at the barrier at the mule jumping competition as she listened to her owner and the crowd urging her on. She decided to try jumping over the barrier.

Mule Jumping Competition

Horses have riders as they race to a jump and over it. Steeplechases are popular races around a jumping course.

Jumping mules are not ridden. The owner walks them to the jump and urges them to jump over it.

There are several classes for the mules. One is for little mules. Another is for those thirteen hands (52 inches) and under. The third is for the tall mules.

A clean jump at the mule jumping competition is one that does not knock the barrier pole down. Bonita has cleared it with her front feet. Now she is tucking her back feet up to get over the jump.

The Set Up

Two poles are set up, each with a moveable bracket. A third pole is wet in the brackets. A cover is over this pole making it look like a solid barrier.

If a mule doesn’t clear the cross pole, it will fall down. This way the mule isn’t hurt.

Watching the Competition

A crowd gathered at the Rendezvous at the River to watch the mules jumping. We sat around on hay bales or in chairs set up in the shade.

A mule was led over to the jump. It stopped and looked at the barrier. Then it jumped over this two-foot high pole. When all the mules in the class had jumped, the bar was raised two inches and the mules jumped it again.

As the barrier got higher, one by one the mules refused to jump it. The winner was the last mule that would and did jump over the pole.

One little mule was fun to watch even though the owner was very frustrated. It decided not to jump that day. However, it needed to go over the barrier to make the owner happy. It walked up to the pole, knocked it over and walked over.

There are only a few of these mule jumping competition events. The next big one will be at the Missouri State Fair.

Tags Author event, Mule Jumping, Rendezvous at the River

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Cabbage Loves Cool

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 7, 2026

Ozark springs used to be warm and short. This year, like last year, is cool and wet. Cabbage loves cool and wet.

Garlic is another plants that likes cool weather. This patch was planted last fall, started growing over the winter and is now getting ready to send up flower stalks called scapes. These are edible and should be removed.

Cole Crops

Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are all cole crops. When we lived up North, these crops grew big. They tasted great.

The summers up North were cool by Ozark standards. Frost could happen most months and did. That was one reason we moved to the Ozarks.

Although okra is grown for its edible pods, the flowers are large and beautiful. Okra is a member of the mallow family like hibiscus. This plant loves hot weather.

Garden Experimenting

For several years we tried growing many of the crops we were familiar with. Cole crops taste bitter when they grow in the heat. In the Ozarks, these crops became fall crops.

New crops moved into the garden. Tomatoes are a real challenge up North as they love heat and need a longer summer. Peppers and okra joined the tomatoes. All of these are good summer crops in the Ozarks.

Surprisingly, summer squash doesn’t like really hot weather. It is frost sensitive and likes it on the hot side of warm. This is Zephyr squash, a hybrid between yellow and acorn squashes.

Squash

Everyone thinks squash loves heat. It is frost sensitive. Up North squash grew big. Winter squash got huge.

World record pumpkins come from places cooler than the Ozarks. You can grow giant pumpkins in Missouri, but they are not world record sizes.

Still, squash, both summer and winter varieties, do grow well enough to give good crops. The winter varieties store well. But the summer varieties are soon over producing and the gardener’s neighbors quickly learn they need lots of squash recipes.

Alcosa cabbage makes a nice little head surrounded by crinkled leaves. In hot weather, they can turn bitter and the heads can rot.

Cabbage Loves Cool

I started cabbage seeds the end of January. The little plants moved to the garden in March. Now there are small heads forming.

When the cabbage first moved to the garden, I had to water as the Ozarks, like much of the country, was in drought. Rain does fall every week now. Most storms only drop half an inch, maybe an inch. It’s enough

Each storm brings in cool weather. The last one brought light frost at the end. Cabbage doesn’t mind.

Frost is a worry now. My tomatoes have moved out into the garden.

Tags cabbage, Ozark gardening

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Spooky Goats

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 5, 2026

Last night I went out to milk. The chickens were glad to see me. Only one of my spooky goats was in the barn.

My Nubian goat herd is coming in. Wait! What is going on over there?

Where Are the Goats?

Rose was most unhappy. Goats are herd animals and her herd was missing. She stood in the doorway calling. No one answered.

The herd had been in the front pasture a short time ago. They were not there now. And, why was Rose alone?

The old bridge is in sorry shape, but the goats can still use it to cross the creek. When they get frightened, that is what they do. After crossing the bridge, they head up the hill.

What Happened?

There had been a truck parked in front of the house. People were around the truck.

Our creek is part of a research project this summer. A student working toward her master’s degree is studying cold water creeks, ones resulting from spring water.

Nubian doe High Reaches Rose evidently didn’t notice the other goats ran off. She was probably in the barn and didn’t see them turn a race off. Rose is about twelve years old.

Spooky Goats

When my herd came into the barn lot, they saw and heard these strangers. The herd went back out the gate and headed up a nearby hill. Somehow Rose didn’t notice and stayed in the barn.

I have defined goats as perpetual two to three year olds with a double dose of orneriness at a hundred plus pounds. Like young children, they are afraid of strangers.

Years ago, when I took my goats to the county fair, my goats weren’t spooky goats. They were used to noise and people.

None of my present herd has ever left the property. They rarely see anyone other than us. Everyone is a stranger and strangers are run away from.

The truck and the people left. The goats wandered down into the barn. everything was back to normal in the morning when sun basking and napping are the best occupations.

Now What?

I knew which hill the herd went up. Spring is usually the ringleader.

It was near dark. This is a very steep hill and loose gravel covers the sides. I am not about to go up this hill with a flashlight after these spooky goats.

Instead I went out and called. Usually the herd will come back when I call. They didn’t.

Poor Rose was left alone to have her dinner and wait. The herd did come back before morning pretending they had never been gone.

Tags raising goats

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Climate Change

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 24, 2026

Every chance I get I head out to check out the spring ephemerals as they will be gone soon. Some are already setting seed. What I see is how much the area has changed due to climate change.

Flash floods flooded the upper Meramec River spreading deep sand over much of the floodplain. I was glad to see these lovely Confederate Violets, a color variation of Common Blue Violets, still grew and bloomed in the area. The flooding washed out wide swaths of river bank washing out many big trees. These trees didn’t just fall over into the river, they left, carried off by the flood.

Skepticism

Some of the people I talk to think climate change is not happening. They have various reasons for believing this.

One didn’t realize this referred to global temperatures rising, not just around here. Others use the excuse climate has always changed from time to time not understanding the rate at which it is changing. Of course, there are those who think people are only along for the ride, not the driver of these changes.

Usually I have several places where Lady Slippers grow. These are the big ones that grow in clumps. All I find now are these single plants of small Lady Slippers.

What I Have Seen

For me, everything began changing in 2012 with the extreme drought. Now, I had seen summer droughts before and everything got back to normal in the fall. Not after this one.

May had been the month of high water here for years. Now floods come any month of the year.

Big rains came to cause the high water. They were gradual. Now the rains drop in a short time and cause flash flooding that is washing out the creek banks.

The creek looks so peaceful now. During high water the creek rises to the top of the banks, sometimes over it. This was normal. Now the water rises in half an hour and tears the banks out, toppling trees and tearing out several feet of bank.

As a Gardener

May has been the time to plant okra, summer squash, tomatoes, peppers for years. Some years warmed up faster, some slower, but the month held. No more.

Now I often have to wait until June to plant okra and summer squash. Planting winter squash that late can mean I don’t get a crop at all.

Adapting

I am trying to adapt to these changes. It’s hard. Planting times can move. Crops can change.

Fixing the creek is another story. The creek divides our pastures, two on the west side and two on the east. We had a bridge.

One flash flood destroyed the bridge that had withstood high water for thirty years. The succession of floods has created drop offs into the creek bed making it impossible to get equipment across the creek. Two hay fields are now inaccessible.

So, you skeptics say, that’s just a minor thing, a simple normal change. I say, yes, if it was only here, maybe it’s a normal change. But melting glaciers, intense heat domes, extreme weather globally, say otherwise.

More important: Changing my lifestyle to accommodate the changes won’t matter, if I am wrong about climate change. Can you and the Earth afford to ignore it, if you are wrong?

Tags environmental changes, global warming

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Lawn Mowing

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 17, 2026

Spring is a busy time of year. Everything suddenly needs attention. And you find you are walking through ankle high grass. It is lawn mowing time again.

Pineapple weed may be non native, however, it is a pretty flower. It grows along the edge of the driveway and the lawn mower somehow misses many of them.

Lawnmowers

As soon as my siblings and I were big enough, we were introduced to the task of lawn mowing. At that time, we had a reel mower.

This type of mower is a real challenge to operate. First, it requires a level yard. Second, it requires and builds arm and leg muscles. Third, it punishes you if you don’t mow regularly as it works best on short grass.

We graduated to a mower with a motor to turn the blades. The mower still required leg power, but it wasn’t as finicky about the level lawn and length of grass.

Mullein has really big, furry leaves. It is a rosette of leaves the first year. The second year the flower stalk reaches up four, five, six feet and lines itself with lemon yellow flowers. It is a spectacular sight. The leaves make a good herbal tea.

Power Lawnmowers

Our so-called lawn here has slopes and holes. We did use leg power to mow for a time, but age made that difficult. The mower became a self propelled one.

This worked well as we have odd plantings scattered about. And there are wildflowers we want to watch bloom. But age keeps moving along.

There is now a small riding mower for the large areas. It makes mowing easier, but lawn mowing remains challenging.

Only a few daffodils bloomed in places in the yard when we moved here. Thirty years later the daffodils have spread across the yards and into the woods. They make such a lovely sight at the end of winter.

Daffodils

There are people who mow over their daffodils as soon as the flowers are gone. They wonder why fewer of them come up the next year. The time after blooming until the leaves yellow is when the plants store up food to maintain the bulbs until next spring.

We mow around the plants which can make us mow a maze.

Near the barn is another stretch of lawn. It is presently approaching knee height and I can’t mow part of it yet. The milkweeds are coming up.

Usually the mower cuts the grass before the common milkweed sprouts appear. This year they were early and the grass towers over them. The yard has sprouted stakes marking them. The grass and other weeds continue to grow. Lawn mowing is delayed, but not forgotten.

Milkweeds

Each day new stakes are put in to mark the outer rim of this year’s milkweed patch. Common milkweed is a perennial, but it has an underground stem that shifts one year to the next. The patch comes up in the same area, but not in the same place.

Maybe next week I can start the annual weekly task of lawn mowing that section.

Tags cutting grass, summer tasks

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Garden Tub Greens

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 10, 2026

Spring is here in the Ozarks. It could still frost, but days are warm. It’s time to start those garden tub greens.

Although I do grow some taller snow peas in the ground with a trellis, I have much better luck with these shorter purple pod snow peas in the raised bed. Raised beds are a big version of a garden tub.

Which Greens?

There are several to choose from. The big question is whether or not frost will still visit. That takes bok choi off the list for a couple more weeks.

Thumbing through my line of seed packets, I take out Napa cabbage, beets, kohlrabi, green onions, red and green lettuces, tatsoi, red and green mizuna and carrots. These should take a light frost.

Savoy cabbage gets too big for a tub container, but is fine in this long raised bed. The mesh is some voile I found on sale. It isn’t real sturdy, but works well to keep cabbage moths off and is light enough to rest over the plants.

Why Garden Tub Greens?

My garden soil is still cold. The tubs sit out in the sun and warm up. All of the greens I’ve chosen may like cooler weather, but they don’t like it cold and damp.

The one disadvantage is the size of the tubs. Some of these do get big, so I can’t plant very many. My other option is pulling some like beets early for just the greens.

Another consideration is how long these take to mature. Ozark springs can be long and cool. More often they are short and become summer almost overnight.

I tend to really bury my containers with mulch over the winter. In a normal winter, most of the mulch would rot. This past winter has been dry, so I am having to remove the top layer when getting ready to plant.

Planting the Tubs

My garden tubs have mulch on them. Most of this mulch needs to stay or the weeds will have a party.

So I clear a ring around the tub a few inches inside. Seeds are planted in this ring.

The weeds will still have a party. At least, they will try. But it will be a small party.

The ring is down to dirt. The surrounding mulch helps keep moisture in the tub as it, like all containers, dries out quickly. I prefer using a ring around the tub for planting. This has Chinese or Napa cabbage planted in it.

Succession

About the time these greens are ready to harvest, summer will be moving in. I can still grow greens in some of the tubs, but ones that can take some heat.

Most of the tubs will have peppers, eggplant and other summer crops to fill them until fall cools things down again.

Tags container gardening, gardening, Ozark gardening

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Lost Cud Emergency

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 3, 2026

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.

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.

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.

Tags helping sick goats, raising goats

Latest From High Reaches

Spring Ephemerals

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 27, 2026

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

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.

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 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.

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“.

Tags nature walks, Ozark wildflowers