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Keeping Kids Warm

Lately I’ve been asked about keeping kids warm when they are born in very cold weather. Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan gave a whole new meaning to this problem.

First Dry the Kids

When a goat kid is first born, it is covered with fluids. Its fur is sopping wet. Wet fur loses heat fast. The first problem is to get that kid dry, really dry.

I’ve seen recommendations for wiping kids off with newspapers. I tried it. The paper did scrape off any membranes and squeegeed off some liquid. The kid was left wet.

Old towels are my choice for drying off newborn kids. They clean the kid off like newspapers. Towels are made to absorb liquid. Rubbing off a kid leaves it damp.

goat kid goat coat
Goat kids do fine in their coats. How long the coats stay on depends on the kid and the temperatures. It’s best to take them off in the morning so the kid can get used to not wearing one before a cold night moves in.

This is not good enough. Up north, we had no electricity. Heat lamps were not an option. Here in the Ozarks the barn is a hundred years old and a tinderbox. We brought the kids in and stashed them by the wood stove. It didn’t take long for the kids to be dry.

Dry kids can take a lot of cold, if they have protection. I have two approaches to keeping kids warm.

Second Get Kids Warm

The easy one is a goat coat. My big goats have sweatshirts. My kids get coats made from the sleeves I cut off. These work very well in the Ozarks.

goat coats keeping kids warm
My Nubian doe High Reaches Drucilla is totally unconcerned about the goat coats on her kids. This is typical. The kids don’t seem to mind them either continuing to run and play the same as always.

Up north coats help, but are not enough. In really cold weather we kept the kids in by the wood stove taking them out every so often to nurse. In a week, these kids were ready to stay out in the barn even at zero or below.

My other solution is a cubby hole. I place a line of three hay bales, two high against a wall. Two more bales are placed in front of these with a gap slightly smaller than the length of a bale between them. Another bale is placed over the hole. Using a board under this bale is a good idea.

In no time the cubby hole is keeping kids warm as they pile in.

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Wildlife Surprises

When we first moved here, I thought wildlife surprises were turning around to find a black snake where my foot would go. And that is a surprise.

Another such encounter was reaching into a hen nest and grabbing a black snake. I don’t know which of us had the biggest heart attack.

Chills still come up my back when I remember walking in the woods and looking down on my jeans to find them crawling with ticks. At least the snakes want as little to do with me as possible and vanish quickly. Ticks must be removed as they don’t want to leave.

Perhaps I’m giving the wrong impression. Although there are unpleasant wildlife surprises, there are more pleasant ones.

A group of tom turkeys spent months walking around in the pastures eating grass seeds and insects. An eight point buck stood in the back of the yard one morning. Baby grey foxes played in the back yard one year.

Every year brings a new set of wildlife surprises. Some seem routine as coming across box turtles while walking in the hills. Others are treats as when the bald eagles visit the valley or turkey vultures roost in a tree across from the house.

albino animals are wildlife surprises
Albino animals have some genetic reason for being unable to make melanin which gives animals their color. In the Ozarks, a white animal has trouble blending into the scenery and often has a short life. That makes spotting one such as this albino grey squirrel one of my wildlife surprises.

The latest surprise is an albino squirrel. It came hunting black walnuts in the back yard one afternoon. I’m glad I got a picture as it hasn’t been back since.

Each day brings something different, something special. Cold, frosty mornings put icy lace around leaves while freezing fingers and toes. Sunrises are never the same, but that first light sparkles on the icy coatings on tree branches.

Who knows what today will bring. All it takes is going for a walk, looking around outside or out the windows to see both special sights and maybe wildlife surprises.

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My Goats Are Dressed Up for Winter

One thing for sure: Being cold is no fun. When the temperatures drop to the low twenties, my goats are cold. That’s when they’re dressed up for winter.

Originally I would cut old blankets in half, fold the half and tie it onto the goat. As soon as they found they were warm, they left the blanket alone, sometimes for days. That was up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where cold meant zero or below.

The Ozarks can get that cold, but it’s rare. Low twenties is more common. The goats got too hot, felt itchy and pulled the blankets off.

Then the goats started shivering again.

There are patterns for goat coats. I looked at them, even had a couple I saved. Somehow I never got around to making any as each had to be individually fitted.

Nubian doe Agate is dressed up for winter
The sweatshirts don’t seem like much protection for the goats, but they are. Cold goats don’t give much milk. Sick goats do better if they aren’t cold too.

Repurposing Sweatshirts

There were sweatshirts in my drawer. I never wore them. My preference is a vest with a hoodie over it.

I cut the arms short on the sweatshirts. Then cut a long arc out of the belly. These became the new goat coats.

It’s not much of a hassle putting these on a goat when they are on the milk stand. I slide the neck opening over their head. Pull up one front hoof and put it through an armhole. Pull up the other front hoof and put it through the other arm hole.

The goat gets warm. The sweatshirt stays put until I take it off.

Dressed Up for Winter

Now I have sweatshirts for all of my goats. They range from medium to double X for the does. Augustus takes a triple X as does Pest, my resident wether.

The does came in the first really cold morning shivering. They would go out and bask in the sun to warm up for the day.

I set up the sweatshirts. Each goat would have the right size.

My herd is a colorful array now. No one shivers in the morning. And they are easily spotted this deer season since they are dressed up for winter.

My Nubian goat herd is dressed up for winter
Goats are rough on sweatshirts. They tear them. Arguing goats can grab them and tear holes in them. Replacing a sweatshirt is much easier than replacing a goat coat. And the array of colors is pretty as the herd goes out for the day.

Side Benefit

Those sleeves aren’t thrown away. The cuffs are cut in half. Two leg holes are cut out. They become goat coats for kids.

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Hidden Bushes

Over the summer all the plants leaf out. Hidden bushes are there in plain sight, but hiding among all the green leaves.

Autumn arrived. Yellows blazed out. As those leaves fell, the oranges and reds glowed on the hillsides.

Now those leaves are gone. Most of the trees are bare brown and gray branches. Most bushes are the same. Not all bushes.

The hidden bushes are now easy to spot. They are the ones still hanging onto some of their red leaves. These are often the bushes I didn’t know grew here.

hidden bushes include Carolina Buckthorn
This Carolina Buckthorn is a native shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. It can be a large bush, but is usually smaller and hidden by other bushes growing around it. In the fall it is one of the last to lose all of its leaves. Then its red to yellow leaves with the strong ribs are easy to spot. Some even still have black berries although those are relished by many birds.

All summer I’ve been walking the trails at ShawneeMac Conservation Area because I saw many bushes I never saw here. Some I was glad I didn’t see as they are invasive. Some I assumed didn’t grow here.

My Hidden Bushes

The hidden bushes are proving me wrong in several cases. Carolina Buckthorn is one of them. It’s a pretty bush and can get ten feet tall. I’d never seen it except around the Lakes.

Burning Bush is one I’m not as glad to know grows here. It can become quite a nuisance. There are several still sporting red leaves and fruit.

The advice is to kill out invasive species. I’m sure the reasons are good. But it is a lost cause. Nurseries still sell these plants. People still plant these plants. They have spread into many places.

Eliminating these plants in one area does nothing about the rest. As soon as you look the other way, more of them are growing where you thought they were no more.

another of the hidden bushes
At first glance this bush is a lot like the Carolina Buckthorn and may be called that by some people. There are several differences in the shape of the leaves, the darker coloring and the occasional thorns on the twigs. Now that these hidden bushes have been spotted, I can watch them in the spring to verify what its name is.

Another hidden bush is not identified yet. The tentative name is for a bush unknown in the area and rare in the Bootheel. Now these hidden bushes are spotted, I can keep an eye on them in the spring when all those green leaves try to camouflage them again.

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Homesteading Tragedy

So many people moving to the country think this is an excuse to get at least one big dog and let it run loose. This is a possible homesteading tragedy.

I grew up with dogs and like dogs. Now my favorite dogs belong to someone else, not me.

I was talking with a man about living in the Ozarks. He mentioned his dogs killing some of his neighbor’s chickens. I snapped back that, at my house, it was a dead dog. Chickens lay eggs, provide meat on a homestead. A chicken killer is worth nothing. He barely said good-bye before vanishing.

homesteading tragedy Nubian doe victim
I have been very lucky. The homestead tragedy of dog attacks has been only a few over the years. My High Reaches Isabelle was the first victim. This was an old Nubian doe at the time so I was concerned when she didn’t come in with the herd. As I entered the north pasture, two dogs ran off. She was lying on the edge of the creek bed with her throat torn out. Those dogs came back, they usually do, a month later to kill again, an Alpine doe named Chuba. By that time I had found their home. They didn’t come back again.

Possible Homesteading Tragedy

The phone rang. A friend was frantic. Dogs had attacked one of her young goats. What should she do?

I grabbed supplies and drove over to check out the injured goat. One puncture wound went into her nose so blood dripped out her nose. Her side behind her front leg was swollen, possibly going to abcess. Her rump was scraped and bloody. She was unresponsive.

This goat had two big enemies now. One was infection. Topical antiseptic went on the wounds. A penicillin shot, first of a series for a week or so, hopefully dealt with it.

The second is much more insidious, but deadly. Shock. This young doe was in shock. Left that way, she would die.

My first remedy for shock is molasses. It doesn’t take much, only a tablespoon or two. It is easily absorbed and gives a boost.

As I shoved molasses covered fingers in this goat’s mouth, she protested and struggled to her feet. A couple more fingerfuls and she started blinking and looking around.

When the other goats came over, this goat talked to them. She wasn’t ready to join them as they rambled around the yard. She was ready to watch them. She was out of shock.

Country Dogs

At one time people lived far apart around here. My nearest neighbors are almost a half mile away. I still hear their dogs barking.

Dogs have come nearly two miles to roam up and down this valley on their own. Their owners had no clue to where they were.

Two or three dogs become a pack. They chase and pull down anything that runs. This is natural to them.

It is a recipe for homesteading tragedy.

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Mysterious Squash

Late last spring I planted Tahitian melons. At least I thought I did. Instead I picked these mysterious squash.

Tahitian melons are more winter squash than melon. They have a crook on the top and a bulge for seeds on the bottom. Their thick skin is tan. These are good winter keepers often lasting into the next spring, if not eaten first.

I don’t really grow these for my eating pleasure. My goats love them. One melon lasts them several days as dessert after mealtime grain.

The vines are something of a nuisance as they get forty feet long or more with side branches, huge leaves and a tendency to grow over all their neighbors. These were one of my monster squash, or so I thought.

Instead I ended up with a mysterious squash. It definitely is not a Tahitian melon.

mysterious squash
These winter squash are big weighing in around 10 to 14 pounds each. The coloring reminds me of cushaw, but the shape is different. They seem to be an excellent winter squash and the vines are certainly prolific. The problem is that I have no idea what kind of squash they are.

What Is It?

These squash are mostly green in a lacy pattern on white. They have no crook and no bulge. In size they rival Tahitian melons. I brought in one and weighed it at 12..6 pounds.

So far I have a pile of these mysterious squash in my pantry. There are still a few summer squash to consume before they go bad. Zephyrs are delicious, but have limited keeping even in the refrigerator.

There was one of the winter squash that didn’t finish growing. It had dropped off from frost and I had left it there meaning to pick it up later. The chickens found it first.

Chickens do like melons and squash. They pecked this one open revealing a golden yellow interior.

Next week I will cut open one of the ones in the pantry to cook up some for dinner. As most are far too large for two people, the goats will help eat them.

In the meantime I am looking over seed catalog winter squash pictures trying to identify my mysterious squash.

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Winter Watch

Fall is here in the Ozarks, yoyo season. Winter watch is on as days alternate between fall and winter.

On the Hills

sycamore trees turn yellow
Sycamore trees are striking in the fall with their white bark and muticolored leaves. These should turn yellow. A good number stay green as they fall to the ground. Many turn brown.

On the hills the trees are sporting their fall colors. It’s interesting to watch the change creep over the hills. Robust summer green takes on a yellow tinge for a week or so. Overnight the tinge becomes the dominant color as hickories, pawpaws, elms and hackberries turn various hues of brilliant yellow. Oaks take on a dusky red.

Nubian dairy goats don't have winter watch
Approaching winter doesn’t faze my High Reaches Nubian dairy goats. They are spending the days gobbling up persimmons, fallen leaves, acorns and grass. This is a time of plenty for them.

Wind comes through for the winter watch. Leaves start their spirals to the ground. The black walnuts are first to have bare branches except for the walnuts. These seem to delight in watching me pick them up, then littering the ground again.

I miss walnut season. No one is buying walnuts in town this year. That’s a shame as my trees have big crops and I have a friend willing to cart them away, those not left for the squirrels.

In the Garden

plastic protection for winter watch in the garden
My raised garden bed has several crops growing including spinach, flat leaf parsley, mizuna and winter radishes. These wil take some cold, but the plastic turns the bed into a little greenhouse making them much happier.

The garden too is on winter watch. Light frosts, a couple of hard frosts have laid the summer crops low. The summer squash had buffers around it and the plants are still trying to grow more squash.

Tomatoes are gone. I’ve pulled the vines off the shade house and will put plastic over it for the winter. Cabbage, bok choi and Chinese cabbage need little protection, but grow faster with warmer air around them. The Chinese celery and rosemary need protection.

The raised bed has already been covered with plastic overnight. For now, the cover is pushed back as fall is in style this week. Winter watch begins again on Sunday.

Tadpoles still swim around in three rain barrels. The ones with legs might beat winter. The ones without will perish when winter pushes fall away leaving ice on the water, branches bare and a garden put to bed for a few months.

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Autumn Blues

The trees here turn the usual autumn colors: yellows, reds, purples. There are blues out on the hills as the asters are blooming. Most of the ones along the road fell victim to the brush cutter.

I’m the one with the autumn blues.

My garden is sad as the summer crops wither away. A week of nights only a degree or two above freezing took its toll. Nothing is black yet, but soon.

autumn bounty for the goats
After gorging on acorns, my High Reaches Nubian herd moves into pastures now lush after rain broke the drought to gobble grass and delicious weeds. Later these goats will waddle into the barn, after I chase them in, and relax chewing their cuds, ignoring the milk room and grain.

Piles of tomatoes and peppers make me feel guilty every time I go in the kitchen until they are put up.

The days keep getting shorter. There is less and less time to get things done and the ‘To Do’ list keeps getting longer with autumn clean up added.

Black walnuts and leaves are falling like the rain my garden wishes would fall. No one in town is buying the walnuts this year. I still have to pick a lot up or go suddenly roller skating across the lawn.

New England Asters are part of the autumn blues
Fall is aster time. Most asters are some shade of blue. New England asters are royal purple with gold centers. The plants can be four or five feet tall covered with flowers, a spectacular sight.

Acorns are falling on the hills. My goats spend their days gorging and don’t bother to come to the gate in the evening, much less come in to eat and get milked. It can take almost an hour to find the herd and chase it in.

Autumn blues reflect the end of the summer, the coming of winter cold, another year gone by.

These are a matter of point of view. There are good things about autumn. The trees are lovely in their fall colors. My favorite New England Asters are blooming where I asked the brush cutter to spare them.

fall seedlings cheer up autumn blues
These bok choi and Chinese Napa cabbage are growing fast this fall. The bok choi is more tender frost wise, but the shade house will become an unheated greenhouse after killing frost. And old blankets and towels are great for seedling and plant protection.

My fall garden of cabbage, lettuce, bok choi, turnips and rutabaga is up. There is even a line of spinach missed by the mole that dug up many of the seedlings.

The goats are in breeding season. Even though I keep no kids now, spring kids are fun to watch and enjoy for a few months.

Out on the hills the barred owls are calling. The deer and wild turkeys are out.

I may have the autumn blues now, but they will pass leaving the anticipation of making plans for next year.

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Pawpaw Bonanza

After a couple of lean years due to late frosts, this year is a pawpaw bonanza year. The kitchen window sill and counter are piled up with these delicious fruits.

Although pawpaws can be used in most of the ways bananas are, we choose to eat them fresh. I do little dessert baking now, so freezing them for this is pointless.

That is one of the annoyances of growing old. I look at desserts and spend a couple of months taking the extra pounds off.

pawpaw flowers
Once spring has warmed up, the pawpaws open their flowers. These red/purple bells hang down in lines from new twigs. Often a line of flowers from green bud to fully open line the same twig.

Can Pawpaws be Commercial?

There is again talk of making pawpaws a commercial fruit. The idea is doomed as a pawpaw bonanza year is not reliable and growing them is not easy.

First, pawpaws are a true understory tree. Others like redbuds and flowering dogwoods are called understory trees, but they grow is many directions seeking light. Pawpaws grow straight and tall in deep shade with their large leaves spread out.

Redbuds and flowering dogwoods grow happily out in full sun. Pawpaws, if they survive the first couple of years as UV light kills them, grow with their leaves hanging down as if to show their misery.

Second is pollination. Many of our fruits are pollinated by bees with their hives moved around on trailers. Pawpaws are pollinated by flies and beetles farmers like to assault with sprays.

pawpaw bonanaza fruit
Pawpaw fruits can be single or up to seven in a cluster. Larger clusters have smaller individual fruits. They spend the summer growing from tiny green tubes to these large green potato-shaped fruits. Raccoons move in just before they ripen and nibble the ends off or toss them on the ground, breaking branches as they move through the tree. For home use, pick the fruits as they start to soften. They will continue to ripen in the house and are ready to eat when soft.

Third is their fruit. Pawpaws look like green potatoes. They have two rows of large seeds. Not everyone can eat them without reacting to the flesh.

Our Pawpaws

We don’t mind. Our pawpaw bonanza is disappearing rapidly. We’ve been planting them for years and have many patches in addition to the original one now. The trees tend to have large fruit on them.

Smaller fruits are left for wildlife. They are popular with raccoons, opossums, foxes, coyotes and deer among others. They appreciate the pawpaw bonanza too.

A plus for us is having a native fruit tree growing in our ravines needing little care. The apples, Asian pears, pears and plums we planted have mostly perished from insects and disease in spite of our attempts to care for them.

This makes the year’s native persimmon and pawpaw bonanza even better.

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Brushcutter Coming

City people don’t have brushcutters. In the country a brushcutter serves an important purpose as so many rural roads are lined with wild plants.

That is the draw of the roads for me. Many plants grow along the roads and are hard to find anywhere else. There are other advantages to plant hunting along the roads too.

before the brushcutter comes
Yellow ironweed lines the road. Tucked under it are the asters just starting to bloom. Several smartweeds, ground cherries and more line the road trying to set seed to grow next year.

Why Walk the Gravel Road?

First and foremost at this time of year is the lack of seed ticks. You’ve never heard of seed ticks? Lucky you.

Ticks lay eggs. When these hatch into hordes of barely larger than microscopic seed ticks starving for a meal, any passerby is fair game. They latch on by the hundreds, even thousands. And bite. And suck up a blood meal. The only good thing about them is their lack of diseases. Those they pick up from their hosts.

Second is the ease of walking. Roads, even gravel roads, are fairly open, level and hard making walking easy. Pastures and hills are much harder walking due to exuberant plant growth and terrain.

Third is the definite path. I don’t know how many plants I’ve found out in the woods and could never find again. Not even trying to have a landmark near the plant helps as some creature can come by eating or stepping on it.

brushcutter coming
The brushcutter is big. The rotary cutter can be turned to shear off bushes sticking through the fence. It can reach up to trim the trees overhanging the road. Very few plants escape it.

Disaster Looms

My nemesis is the brushcutter.

This huge machine has a rotary blade on a long, jointed arm. It mows down every plant along the road to a height of four inches. It shatters tree limbs to keep them from sagging down into the road.

After the brushcutter leaves
The flowers are gone. The plants are four inches tall. Many people like this as it increases their visibility driving down the road. Those people rarely notice the wildflowers. The brushcutter operator did skip a few places I flagged and I savor those places still covered with wildflowers.

I am left with few alternatives. One, I can stop photographing plants for the year. Two, I can restrict my walks to ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area. Or three, I can brave the seed ticks out in the fields.

No sprays seem to discourage seed ticks. I will lay in a supply of masking tape to remove them. And continue to take pictures.