Category: Latest From High Reaches

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Goat Gym Repairs

One thing about homesteading or farming or ranching, there are always repairs needing to be done. Presently I am working on some long overdue goat gym repairs.

Wood rots in moist climates like the Ozarks. What doesn’t rot attracts termites and carpenter ants. The goat gym is twenty years old or so and some of the wood is rotten.

Some Repairs Are Important

These goat gym repairs are very important. The goats run up and down the ramp, leap onto the platform and jump up and down the stairs.

Rotten wood can collapse under a goat and break a leg. Although broken legs do heal, they are a nuisance and, in this case, would be my fault.

The main part of the gym got repairs done a couple of years ago. Now the platform and ramp are falling apart.

I saw the boards collapsing a year ago and did nothing. I’m not much of a carpenter and this was obviously a two person job. I am one person.

What Happened?

The goats came in from pasture the other day. The kids raced up to play on the goat gym. And the platform and ramp were gone.

A friend came over to help me get started and we demolished these. We also cut the long pieces needed to rebuild these. There is a pile of old oak pieces to take nails out of and cut to length for stove wood next winter.

platform for goat gym repairs
It might be tempting to just drive a nail through those boards. Seasoned oak won’t allow that. The C clamps hold the board in place so the drill can put in the nail holes. Not using those clamps is a sure fire way to break the drill bit. Then the nails can be driven in. Ten boards take a long time, but the platform for the goat gym is done. The goats tried it out and approve.

New Goat Gym Taking Shape

The new pieces are cut. Now I’m putting the pieces together. I’m working on the platform first as one end of the ramp sits on it and it is flat, easy to work on.

With help, the long runners are together. It does take two people as seasoned oak requires drilling holes for carriage bolts and for nails.

Why am I using oak? Oak lasts a long time. Seasoned oak is tough enough to withstand goat assaults. And oak is available here, cut with a band saw sold several years ago.

How Long?

The goats want their playground back soon. I am slow as my carpentry knowledge is limited. And the goat gym repairs take care to be done right.

I finished the goat gym platform. The ramp? That depends on my figuring out how to cut the top and bottom angles.

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Farmers Market Preparations

Gardening is a great hobby for lots of reasons like exercise and good food. Lots of good food. More than we can eat. That’s where farmers market preparations come in.

Many people don’t garden for one reason or another. Some neighborhoods won’t allow food gardening. Many people live in apartments and haven’t heard of container gardening. Others have small children who destroy seedlings.

These people are potential customers for fresh vegetables.

What’s Growing?

Farmers market preparations begin with seed selections. Some vegetables sell much better and for better prices than others.

I like spinach so I grow spinach. It wouldn’t sell well at the market. The same goes for turnips, beets, kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichokes and others.

Tomatoes are a big hit with customers. They are a favorite with market gardeners too. So the supply outruns the demand for much of the summer.

farmers market preparations include growing vegetables like these snow peas
Peas don’t stand much of a chance in the Ozarks. The taller varieties barely get grown before temperatures are in the eighties, too hot for peas. This year I’m trying a short variety of snow pea, only two feet tall and hoping it will win the race so I can enjoy some peas before the heat arrives.

Rule of Thumb

If you won’t eat it, don’t grow it. Some, maybe a lot of the produce taken to market goes home again.

That leaves the grower trying to use it up in some fashion. I freeze a lot of produce, especially peppers and tomatoes, to use over the winter. This last winter I enjoyed pureed summer squash as soup stock.

Competition

The worst competition comes from people who give produce away to their neighbors. It’s not a bad thing as the produce is used, usually.

However, it does mean fewer people coming to the market buying the produce being offered. Since the seller pays for their booth and spends time and labor to produce their crops, this hurts. Some of these sellers stop bothering to participate.

Getting Ready

My pepper and tomato seedlings are up. Onions are growing in my containers. Snow peas are several inches tall and trying to beat the race to summer temperatures.

This year I will attend a vendor’s meeting for the first time. I’m hoping to be a more serious seller this year.

However, my farmers market preparations are like my garden, subject to time and weather considerations.

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Goatkeeping Nightmare

Goat kids grow up too fast. They want to go out to pasture with their mothers. That can be turn into a goatkeeping nightmare.

There are four kids here. The oldest ones are close to a month old. They are lively and their mothers want to go out to graze.

One Consideration

Later in the year I would not let them go out as the grass blooms with stalks taller than they are. They get lost in the grass.

These stalks are so tall, only the ears of the adults are easy to see. Hunting for a lost kid is close to hopeless as I have to almost step on the kid before I can see it.

Second Consideration

One evening my herd came in minus two kids. The grass wasn’t very tall yet, so that wasn’t the problem.

Kids, even when they know me and my voice, will often not answer me when they are lost. So I put a lead rope on their mother and drag her back out to where I think the kids might be. It is important to know where the herd went that day.

We went out across the bridge and up to the hill pasture. The doe was bellowing and Nubians are very loud.

Reaching the edge of the pasture, we stopped to look around. I looked down and those two kids were curled up sleeping totally oblivious of their mother’s bellows from three feet away.

Goatkeeping Nightmare

This last week one of the four kids did not come in. I’d noticed earlier he was missing and had been out looking. I didn’t find him.

I dragged his bellowing mother out. We went to the areas I thought the goats had been. We heard and saw no sign of her kid.

That evening I went back out looking and found nothing. It was starting to rain.

This storm continued through the next day dropping six inches of rain. The temperatures dropped to forty, not real low, but dangerous for a young, wet kid.

Goatkeeping nightmare of a lost kid
The little black Nubian buck, the friendly one, the one that stands on me (not good, but cute) went out one morning and didn’t come in. The debris is from the small flood from the rainstorm he was out in.

Surprise

This kid was lost. I had no ideas where to look and thought he hadn’t survived.

As I mentioned, Nubians are loud. I heard a kid calling. It kept calling so I went to investigate.

My lost kid was standing at the pasture gate. He was hungry, but fine. His mother was glad to see him. So was I.

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Spring Flowers Coming

Last year I spent most of the spring and summer collecting plant pictures. As spring flowers start opening this year, I am again going out with my camera.

Dent County Flora

There are so many plants growing wild in Dent County. I keep trying to track all of them down. Last year I added fifty plus new plants and completed nearly as many more.

Still, I’m only around four hundred plants completed out of nearly two thousand. I have a long way to go.

first of the spring flowers
These little wayside speedwell flowers greeted the New Year. That makes them the first of the wildflowers to bloom this year in the Ozarks.

Time Constraints

For several reasons last year, I abandoned nearly every writing project to work on the plants. I don’t plan to do that again this year. It’s tempting as the plants are straight forward to do.

First I spot a plant. Then I take pictures of the flower, the back of the flower, the leaf, the stem and the plant. For most plants I have to come back to get pictures of the fruit or seed pod which is when I have problems.

Finding Plants a Second Time

Once spring flowers start opening, all plants start growing. Even a week can make an area look very different.

The plant which was so obvious is now tucked under other plants. Its flowers are gone. Even if I mark the plant, I sometimes can’t find it again.

hoary bitter cress heralds spring flowers coming
Spring flowers are starting to bloom in the Ozarks. Most of the ones I’ve seen are not native although daffodils are international as are dead nettle and henbit. The yard has numerous little white flowers like these which are hoary bitter cress, another transplant from Europe.

Adding Plants

The pictures are transferred to my computer. The plants are identified. Pictures are selected and put on the Dent County Flora page. The plant is marked as completed.

That is how it is supposed to work. Sometimes the pictures aren’t good enough. Some plants are difficult for me to identify and I must seek help from guidebooks, the internet and iNaturalist. And there are those plants I don’t get all of the pictures for.

Spring Flowers Start Opening

Already I’ve missed one flower I needed. There are a few more I know how to find. I have a list of plants with missing pictures.

The hills are calling. So are my writing projects. So are the goats and garden. It will be a busy spring and summer.

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Kids Grow Up Fast

Baby goats are so cute. Nubian kids are especially cute with their long ears. But kids grow up fast.

Spring had her doe kid only two weeks ago. Already this doeling is leading the herd in the pasture. Spring has other ideas as she takes over to race the herd to the top of the hill for some perceived threat.

kids grow up fast as Nubian doe leads the herd at two weeks old
On her first day out to pasture, this two week old Nubian doe kid from High Reaches Spring kept up with the herd as they roamed around eting fresh spring grass, climbed a steep hill to browse at the top, came back down to explore the creek banks and then was still trotting along as the herd came in for the night.

This perceived threat was me. I wanted to take a couple of pictures of her little one on her first day out in the pasture. My chance came when the herd was coming in that afternoon as I didn’t want to chase the herd up the hill.

Playing Games

The two little bucks are too busy having fun to go out with the herd. This is a big disappointment to their mothers. They want to go out to graze on all that new spring grass.

All the kids like playing on the goat gym, but the little bucks are the most enthusiastic. One of their favorite games is standing on my shoulders if I sit down on the bottom step. This is only fun until they are about a month old and too heavy.

kids grow up fast and can soon leap up their own height
The goat gym may be old and worn, but kids still love to jump up and down the steps These two Nubian buck kids are only a week and a half old, but can already get up and down steps as tall as they are.

My kids grow up fast as they will be big goats. I’ve read about the goat yoga and know my kids would be a disaster by the time they were three weeks old and twenty pounds.

New Little Darling

Drucilla had a little doe. I can’t keep her and it hurts. She is gorgeous and polled. Her mother is a good milker, one of my best all time milkers.

Nubian doe kid
Born the night before this picture, this Nubian doe kid is already wanting to explore and is spoiled rotten. Her mother High Reaches Silk’s Drucilla stays next to her all the time. This will wear off in a week or so. By then this kid will off on her own much of the time.

For now this little one is my little pet. I have three months to cuddle and spoil her.

And then I will mourn that these fun kids grow up fast as they will be sold and leave with someone else.

There are several books about goat on this site. I would expecially mention “Capri Capers” and “For Love of Goats“.

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Lost Chickens

My chickens are a motley crew that spends much of its day out foraging for grass and bugs. So, when I received a report of lost chickens, I took it seriously.

These chickens were over the hill by the creek, a place none of my chickens had ever gone. This was suspicious.

Trying to Count Chickens

My present flock has 31 hens and two roosters. I went out and started counting. I found 29 hens and the roosters, so I had no lost chickens.

That meant there were strange chickens down the road from me. Where did they come from? Did they belong to anyone?

My nearest neighbors in that direction are a mile and a half away. They have no chickens.

Chicken Investigation

I put a scoop of scratch feed in a bucket and started off down the road. It’s a nice walk, even if I didn’t find any chickens.

And, there by the creek, I found these lost chickens. Four roosters. Why would someone dump out four roosters? Potential chicken dinners? Potential money at the small animal sale?

Herding Chickens

There was a time when I pounce on a chicken. I even ran down a fox one day to rescue a hen. I don’t do things like that any more.

Instead, I called these roosters and tossed out a little feed. They were hungry and came right over, not close enough to grab, but I was their new best friend.

We made it over the hill before I ran out of feed. I tried herding them, but they bolted up the hill. I went to get more feed and they went back to the creek.

Lost chickens found
These dumped, lost now found roosters are about a year old judging from their legs. Their spurs are not big. Their legs are neat and clean. They are nice looking roosters. The hens object to having six roosters arguing over them and have taken to hiding during the day or staying near the resident rooster who protects them from the newcomers.

Second Encounter

The next morning, I was headed into town. On a whim, I put a sack of scratch feed in the truck. And met the roosters on their way over the hill in search of their new friend, the one with food.

I parked the truck and started moving the roosters down the hill from handful of feed to handful of feed. We arrived at the barn gate and these roosters were glad to see all those hens.

Unhappy Chickens

My flock was settled. The two roosters had an uneasy truce helped by the fact one was very old, for a chicken.

Now four new young roosters have moved in. The six compete for the hens. They serenade the place all day.

My original rooster feels threatened and gives chase whenever he can. Even the four new ones fight and chase each other. They are no longer lost chickens.

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New Little Goats

Five months have rolled by since my girls entertained Augustus. Doe goats have little use for buck goats unless they are in season much to his disappointment. Now is the time for new little goats.

Getting Ready for Kids

The does get ready by eating well and getting fat. Their udders swell with colostrum. The kids settle leaving space under backbones and tailbones.

I get ready by having old towels, clean kidding pen, clipped fingernails and plain soap. A bottle with nipple is waiting. Although I don’t normally bottle raise kids, it’s so much easier to milk colostrum into the bottle and feed the kid than to try to get them on a teat.

Then We Wait

Spring, Juliette and Natasha waddled out to pasture and back in. They laid around chewing their cuds. They showed all the signs their kids were due any time.

The new little goats were in no hurry. Days went by. We continued to wait on these already spoiled brats.

first of new little goats
High Reaches Spring had this adorable little Nubian doe kid early in the morning. By the time I was done milking, this little kid was out enjoying the sunshine.

New Little Goats Arrive

Spring’s kid came first. Surprisingly, she had a single doe kid. I’d expected twins. We accept what arrives.

This new mother, although she’s had kids before, is a nervous doe. She was not going to stand still to nurse her kid or let me milk into a bottle. At least she didn’t bite me as one did once. Milk stands insist on obedience.

One is Not Enough

This little doe is up and walking around. She eats well and will have nursing down pat by her second night. Spring has settled down and is enjoying motherhood.

But one kid has no one to play with.

Juliette indicates she is willing to add some new little goats to the play group. Are they? We’re all waiting. And the little doe has a little buck kid as a playmate.

Bittersweet Time

Those new little goats are so cute. They grow up so fast. For years I would look them over deciding which ones to keep.

Now I watch them grow, pet them, play with them. And let them go. Age catches up with everyone including me. No new goats will join my herd. But I will still enjoy those little spoiled brats for a few months.

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Reading Gardening Books

The weather is so inviting, warm and moist, perfect for gardening. It’s still February. So I’ve gotten out and am reading gardening books.

Some I own and keep on my book shelves like “Grow Your Own Chinese Vegetables”, “Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening” and The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book. These are now mostly for reference and refreshing the memory.

Others are from the library. Each spring these come off their shelves and get displayed on a table to tempt gardeners like me.

reading gardening books gives container ideas
Peppers tend to cross with each other. The most infamous are hot and sweet peppers so the fruits are cooler or hotter than expected. In my case, I have several varieties I like to grow and save seed from, so I want to grow them separately. Containers let me do this. These are an early Macedonian sweet pepper with great flavor.

Gardening Books Considerations

Gardening in the Ozarks isn’t like gardening anywhere else. Many of the books available come from other places, Vermont, Illinois, Michigan. Others are about fancy gardens I have no time for.

When I read one of these books, I have to evaluate the advice from the perspective of the Ozarks. The effects of climate change are playing havoc with gardening schedules as well.

Why Read Them?

Take the book I’m reading now “The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible”. It’s written for northern gardeners with short, cool growing seasons. The Ozarks has a longer, much hotter season.

What I take away from this book are ideas and advice about using containers in the garden. I’ve got several and I’m still learning how to get the most from them. Reading about them lets me find out some answers without making the mistakes.

Container gardening with tomatoes
Containers keep plants separate, allow targeted fertilizing, keep weeds at bay except for grass growing around the container, and let me put plants wherever I want. Keeping tomato vines in check is challenging.

Why Use Containers?

Originally, I used containers for special peppers I wanted to keep away from the bell peppers I grew in the garden. There are four pair set up around the house and yard.

These are cattle lick tubs and will hold one tomato plant of four pepper plants easily.

Now I have three tubs in the garden along with two raised beds which are permanent containers and a long metal trough. Other than growing peppers and spinach in these, I don’t know much.

Last year I had leeks in one. They did well. What about this year? That’s why I’m reading some gardening books. Suggestions so far are for lettuce, carrots, bok choi and bush squash. The first three have possibilities. The last would be a mistake here in my garden.

And so the season begins.

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Choosing Tomatoes To Grow

Perhaps it would be easier if I grew the same kinds every year. Instead, I end up choosing tomatoes to grow each winter.

Winter? Yes. That’s when the seed catalogs arrive. Those seeds must arrive at my mailbox before the end of February so I can start my little transplants the beginning of March.

What’s the Difference?

All those pictures look so appealing. How do I choose which ones to grow? The first thing is determinant and indeterminant.

Determinant tomatoes grow to a certain height, put out all their blossoms, develop all their fruit and quit. This is great if you want all your tomatoes at one time for making sauce or salsa. It’s not great if you want fresh tomatoes all summer.

Indeterminant plants send up branches that keep on growing all season. Although these are called vines, they really aren’t as they don’t twine or have tendrils to hold them in place.

These plants blossom continuously over the season. Their fruit ripens a few at a time. I like this best, so I choose indeterminant plants.

first tomato not going to farmers market
This tomato will turn red. Tomatoes are a gardening favorite and choosing the right ones can be challenging. I found this Bonnie’s Best to be a nice tomato, but a bit on the small side.

Aren’t Tomatoes Red?

If you believe that, you’ve only seen them in grocery stores. Catalogs have them in red, pink, yellow, striped, blue, white and green.

My preference is for a red or pink, a yellow or striped and a paste tomato. This last is usually a long fruit with small seed sections inside reducing the amount of moisture and increasing the amount of flesh which is great for cooking.

A piece of tomato trivia: A regular tomato is 95% water, more than a watermelon at 92%.

The full flavor is found in the red and pink varieties. Yellow and striped tend to be less acidic and sweeter.

How Big?

Those huge tomatoes may be good bragging material, but they may not be the best choice. Cherry tomatoes make great snacks needing daily picking.

Bigger tomatoes can vary considerably. I prefer those with a mature weight of about a pound. These make nice slices or are enough for two salads.

Time to Maturity

Even a light frost decimates tomato vines. My season runs from May (to miss last frosts) to the end of September. That’s roughly 120 days.

If, when choosing tomatoes to grow, I pick one taking 95 days from putting in a transplant to first fruit, I’m not going to get many tomatoes. I try to stay around 80 days.

There’s a lot to consider when choosing tomatoes to grow. Those delicious fruit are worth all the trouble.

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Garden Planning Exercise

Spring fever hit early this year as weather vacillates between winter and spring. One way I cope is doing a garden planning exercise.

Such an activity seems essential. It often ends up being busy work.

Beginning

My garden is a mishmash of beds, raised beds, permanent plantings, unwanted plantings, outside influences and an eternal weed invasion. It helps to walk around to refresh my memory about the number and placements of the beds. I get to make a side list of things to do and prioritize them at the same time.

The walk around lets me remember how and what was planted last year, how it did and plan changes. Much of my planting is locked in now due to a couple of large black walnut trees.

schematic for garden planning exercise
A garden schematic doesn’t have to be to scale. All it needs to be is complete for all the planting areas. I have several permanent plantings: the flower section, garlic, walking onions, hollyhocks, Jerusalem artichokes and garlic chives. The bamboo thinks it’s permanent. The others are planting areas. The big question is how much I can squash into each area trying to remember the plants can get big.

Paperwork

Doing a schematic of my garden has turned out to be important. Somehow I keep miscounting the number of garden beds when it isn’t written down. Planting a nonexistent bed or ending up with an empty one makes a mess of any plans.

There are five beds down one side of the garden. These get leaves, walnuts etc. on them so no tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sunflowers or other sensitive plants can grow there. I can grow beans, squash and okra.

Three beds are in the back along with narrow beds along the shade house. This year tomatoes will be in the beds. Lima beans, butternut squash and sugar pie pumpkins will grow over the shade house providing shade for snow peas, Napa cabbage, Chinese celery, bok choi, beets, greens and leeks. In the fall rutabaga and winter radishes will move in.

The raised beds are listed for greens and carrots. One side garden will smother under monster squash, favorite of the goats. The other, away from the black walnut tree, will have sunflowers, tomatoes and peppers.

Undecided Places

Three beds are not assigned yet. I have another monster squash, watermelon, extra peppers, bush limas and mung beans going somewhere. Perhaps I will have winter melon too.

So much for my garden planning exercise. Now reality can take over.