Category: Latest From High Reaches

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Visiting Yellow Shafted Flicker

The workshop roof does keep the rain out, but has open eaves letting others in. This time it was a visiting yellow shafted flicker.

Finding the Visiting Yellow Shafted Flicker

With the arrival of almost nightly frosts, old blankets and towels are in daily evidence in my garden. Each morning these need to be removed for the day.

Orange Cat likes exploring my garden as so many interesting animals live there, interesting to him anyway. He caught a pack or wood rat as I was weeding. It was too big and escaped to continue raiding my garden.

This time Orange leaped up at the workshop window along one edge of the garden. The flicker was hanging on the inside of the window.

yellow shafted flicker
Although a kind of woodpecker, the yellow shafted woodpecker mostly eats ants. The stiff tail, strong feet and chisel beak show it is a woodpecker.

What Are Flickers?

Only the yellow shafted flicker occurs in my part of the Ozarks. It’s a brown backed woodpecker with a white rump patch and yellow under its wings.

These birds are welcome around my garden although they don’t often come. Their favorite food is ants. I don’t mind ants, but they tend to overpopulate the garden.

Ants like a wide variety of produce and dig holes in things like tomatoes. Their colonies appear under every rock, piece of cardboard, bucket and in the raised beds.

Usually visiting yellow shafted flickers are off along the creek banks raiding the ant colonies there. They take off as soon as I come into sight. This means safety for them and disappointment for me as they are beautiful birds I would like to see close up.

flicker looking to escape
The black face stripe and large red stripe on the head mark this as a male yellow shafted flicker. He is upside down at the peak of the rook on the rafters.

My Chance

Although the flicker in the workshop was not trapped, it had forgotten how it got in. It was a bold bird, staying hanging on the window as I went inside with my camera.

The doors at each end of the workshop make inviting exits for most birds visiting in the workshop, usually sparrow and wrens, occasionally hummingbirds.

The flicker ignored the open doors choosing to fly up to the rafters. There it flew to the end of the room and went out the way it came in: under the roof peak.

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Digging Jerusalem Artichokes

When I mention digging Jerusalem artichokes to people, most of them think about the globe artichokes sold in the markets. This is not what I am talking about at all.

Globe Artichoke or Jerusalem Artichoke?

The globe artichoke is the flower of a thistle. These are enormous flowers, but just like the ones on roadside thistles before they open. If you slice through one of these, it will look like the market variety in miniature.

The Jerusalem artichoke is a sunflower. Wild varieties bloom in August and do have small tubers. My garden variety grows much taller, has large tubers and blooms in late August.

Artichokes and Potatoes

Another comment from people is how a Jerusalem artichoke is like a potato. Other than both being tubers, this is far from the truth.

Potatoes can be grown, dug, dried and stored in the pantry in a box. Yes, Jerusalem artichokes can be grown and dug like potatoes. If you try to dry them and store the min the pantry, they will wither away into husks.

digging Jerusalem artichokes
When the Jerusalem artichokes first get turned up, they are covered with dirt. This clump doesn’t have a lot of them in it. Most of the chokes broke off and had to be dug out. I never find them all.

Digging Jerusalem Artichokes

Since Jerusalem artichokes do not store well, they get dug as they will be used. I dig my first ones after the stalks have frozen and turned brown and brittle. These are chopped off about six inches over the ground and the stalks carted away. The stubs mark where to dig for tubers.

The best tool I’ve found is a potato fork. Pick one plant to dig. Have a bucket of water handy.

Use the fork to lift out the plant. The tubers are connected to the roots and buried in the ground. I use the fork to lift the tubers buried as much as a foot deep up.

I knock a lot of the dirt off. The bucket of water is for swishing off much of the dirt still on the tubers. Not all of the dirt will come off.

cleaning Jerusalem artichokes
Digging Jerusalem artichokes is time consuming. It doesn’t take long to gather up a pile. More time is spent checking for those still buried in the dirt. Rather than taking a lot of dirt into the house, I wash them off in the garden. This is the pile of washed chokes from this batch. Once inside the house, they are cleaned using scrubs and an old toothbrush. They are then ready to become mashed, stir fry like water chestnuts, pieces in stews, broken up in salads and more.

Yield

A single established plant yielded two plastic grocery sacks of tubers. This doesn’t count the discards chewed on by millipedes and sowbugs or too small to bother with.

No matter how carefully you are digging Jerusalem artichokes, you never get all of them. The plant will sprout up again in the spring to yield next winter’s crop.

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Fixing Fence

Fixing fence is nothing new in any rural area. Fencing goes down for lots of reasons including being cut, posts rotting, trees falling on it and flooding.

Anyone who owns livestock knows fences must be checked frequently. It’s far easier fixing fence before livestock wanders through the hole and off sometimes for miles or causes an accident on a road.

fixing fence
First leaves and branches piled onto the fence. The posts began to lean. Then gravel from the road washed onto the leaves. The posts fell flat taking the fence with them. Fixing the fence requires removal of the gravel, the leaves and branches, then using the tractor to pull the posts back into position. A sledge hammer knocks the posts down into the ground a couple of inches so they stay standing mostly up.

Water Versus Fence

Barbed wire doesn’t catch as much debris as field fence with its six inches squares or six inches by twelve inch holes. I have field fence because goats do not consider barbed wire a fence.

Water alone flows easily through field fence. If that water is pushing branches or piles of leaves, these catch forming a dam. Water is powerful when it’s on the move. The wire/leaf dams get pushed over.

One of my fences is along the road. The water moves road gravel on top of the leaves.

Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover
It’s much more fun when flood disasters remain on the page, not out in the field. Unfortunately nature makes sure floods are part of reality off the page too.

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality”

Mindy has a much bigger storm to contend with than the one we just had go through. She has long stretches of fence along the gravel road. Her feeder steers need to be in those pastures.

As I wrote about how Mindy is fixing fence, I remembered the steps I use to repair mine. It had been some time since I had actually done it so I hoped I got it right.

I did. I know this because I am going through those steps now. And those sore muscles and sore back are real.

Facing Reality

The major storms are getting more common. They are doing more damage. Fixing fence will get to be a common chore.

However, I am lucky. I don’t have much fence down from this last storm. A friend told me about a man with four miles of fence down.

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Disappointed Goats

Just the other side of the creek grow two female persimmon trees, both loaded with persimmons this year. When the clouds left, I let the goats out and they ran off to go across the bridge to eat fallen persimmons. Except the bridge is not there now leaving disappointed goats standing on the creek bank staring across the raging flood.

bridge under water
When we first saw the bridge we built across out Ozark creek, the damage was obvious, but not the full extent. The grass shows how it was flattened by flood water now receded.

The Bridge

Over thirty years ago, when we moved here, getting across the creek meant wading through the water. This wasn’t much of a problem during the summer when we didn’t mind wet feet or wore boots when we did.

Half the pastures are across that creek. There was no easy ford to take the tractor across. If we wanted to cut firewood or brushhog, we had to inch the tractor down to the creek and almost pull or push it up the other side.

We bought two I-beams, put in cement footings, cut thick planks. And the bridge was built. It was big enough for foot traffic – us and the goats – and the tractor.

Five years ago a derecho hit damaging the bridge and the creek banks it was attached to. It became only a foot bridge. This storm has shifted and broken one pillar making the bridge unrepairable.

disappointed goats
My Nubian goats herd has used the bridge across the creek for thirty years. Now they stand looking at where the bridge should be, but isn’t. I finally found a place about 70 feet upstream where the banks are low enough and the creek shallow enough for the herd to wade across. They do expect me to lead them across in the morning and back across in the afternoon.

Now What?

Once the flood recedes the goats will wade across the creek. Today’s disappointed goats will be glad to check for all those fallen persimmons.

Spring kids will be left on the barn side of the creek whenever their mothers wade across. These disappointed goats will grow and learn to cross the creek too.

We will be back to wearing rubber boots whenever we want to cross the creek. The easy access for the tractor is washed out too, so the tractor will stay on the barn side.

The Solution?

Build a new bridge. That will end the disappointed goats problem and ours too.

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Frustrating Chickens

Although these livestock animals are among the easiest and most useful, these can be frustrating chickens too. Mine certainly are right now.

Why Chickens?

I like chickens. My parents raised chickens in our backyard. We had fresh eggs.

There were problems like the rooster that attacked my father one to many times. They escaped from their yard only to be herded back by our collie/German shepard dog shadow.

Now I have chickens because they provide eggs, meat and manure. The manure is difficult to use as it has so much nitrogen it burns most plants. Asparagus likes it.

Gray Easter Egger chicken no longer a frustrating chicken
Easter Egger chickens seem to live very long lives. Gray One is at least five. She occasionally lays a blue egg in spring. She is retired the rest of the year. I like these hens for the colored eggs. Good homesteading breeds I’ve worked with are Buff Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex, Barred Rocks, New Hampshires and standard Cochins.

Dangers

People aren’t the only ones who like eating chicken and eggs. Foxes, raccoons, opossums and hawks love chicken. Crows attack young ones. Black snakes love eggs.

Every morning and night I count my hens to be sure none are missing. I lock their door at night to keep out unwanted visitors. Black snakes, weasels and minks can get in, if they want to.

So far my chickens have not had many predator problems. Even the grey foxes sometimes living around the house have mostly left the chickens alone. Of course, I bribe the foxes.

Pippi, one of my frustrating chickens
My chicken Pippi is a cross of, I think, Easter Egger or Araucana and Columbian Wyandotte. The hen hatched only this chick and abandoned her. She was forced to survive on her own. the garden is so alluring and a major place she tries to get into.

Frustrating Chickens

After thirty years of use, the chicken yard was barren. During the summer it is really hot and has little shade. So I let the chickens out during the day.

The chickens love this. They chase down and devour anything that looks edible. I wish they didn’t like the little snakes and spiders.

Here and there the flock establishes dusting areas and dig holes. Lawn mowing gets very bumpy.

Any gate left open is an invitation for invasion. Gardens, especially with mulch, are favorite places to attack. Any tomato with color and within reach is fair game.

What really makes for frustrating chickens is trying to find hidden nests. It’s amazing how easy it is to look at one and not see it.

Will I give up raising chickens? No. I’m already trying to decide which chicks I want to order next spring.

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Falling for Autumn

Picking out a picture book I found “Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn” and cringed a bit. Still, I checked it out as appropriate to the season.

My Opinion of Autumn

Autumn is a prelude to winter. Going out to the barn in the dark and cold is not my idea of fun. Dealing with cold animals is no fun for them or me.

Then there is putting on all those layers of clothes in the attempt to stay warm. When it really gets cold, my layers include long johns, jeans, flannel shirt, vest, hoodie and jacket. It takes almost as long putting everything on as it does to do chores!

In addition, autumn is the end of the summer garden, wildflower hikes and basking in the warmth. It brings killing frost and clearing out the dead plants from the garden.

Such thoughts make autumn one of my least favorite times of year.

falling for autumn colors
Hiking one of the trails at Montauk State Park, we crossed this ravine. It was mid-afternoon with the sun lighting up the colors on the hill above us.

“Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn”

I do enjoy the Pete the Cat picture books. I opened this book. Guess what? Pete wasn’t thrilled with the end of summer, beginning of autumn either.

As I turned the pages to see Pete’s discoveries, I found many of them resonated with me. It wasn’t just the colorful leaves. There were many things to like about autumn.

It made me think of some of the things I do like about autumn. Pumpkin cookies top my list. This is one of the recipes in “The Pumpkin Project”.

There may not be lots of flowers, but nature hikes are still good. I’ve been out admiring the fall colors around home and at Montauk State Park.

Autumn colors glow on the hill
Fall colors are really vivid this fall for some reason. The only real rain in months was when remnants of Hurricane Helene went by. Yet, even the oaks that normally turn a dusky red are glowing reds and oranges. This view was worth the walk up and around the hill above our house.

A New Opinion?

Autumn will still not be a favorite season. However, after thinking about the nice things in autumn, it isn’t so bad. The problem wasn’t with autumn. It was with winter cold and dark.

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First Frost

This Ozark fall has been flirting with frost for a few weeks. The frost date isn’t until the end of October. Weather doesn’t read calendars so the first frost hit with twenty-five degrees.

There was warning in the weather forecast. Balmy days seemed to laugh at it.

Feeling Foolish

One by one I stripped and pulled the pepper plants. All tomatoes of any size came off the vines. Pumpkins and squash moved in on my pantry floor.

The weather was warm. Skies were blue. The only thought keeping me going was: Can I afford to be wrong?

If our first frost didn’t come, my summer garden would still be gone. If it did arrive, my last produce would be safely in the house. Frost would ruin this produce. I couldn’t afford to be wrong.

After first frost surprise
Reptiles disappear all winter. This young northern fence lizard hasn’t gotten the message yet. It’s basking on the old blanket I’m presently using to cover the raised bed.

Watch the Wind

All weekend the wind stayed from the southeast. This means warm or relatively warm temperatures.

Tuesday morning the weather vane began to move to the east. The wind picked up. That cold front was moving in.

Afterwards

Two mornings were in the mid twenties. All leftover squash and tomato vines hung limp, frozen.

There are some cold tender plants still growing because I took out the blankets and covered them. I keep a big stash of old blankets in the barn along with old towels and sweatshirts to use in the garden and on the goats.

Chinese celery won’t take a frost. Using old towels and blankets I’ve kept the plants growing slowly up into January.

Each morning I finish milking and go out into the garden to remove the coverings. It’s nice to see the Napa cabbage, bok choi and Chinese celery looking green and fresh.

banishing first frost cold
Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela is basking in the sun just now lighting up the barn lot after a night of freezing temperatures. Her black fur gets hot. Even the brown and gray fur on various goats gets really warm.

Goats and First Frost

I arrived to start milking and found an empty barn. Nubians love warmth. The herd had moved out in front of the barn to bask in the sun. Their warm fur helps warm up cold hands.

Now the forecast calls for some warmer temperatures. The goats, fall garden and I will be glad to enjoy them.

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Drawing Ozark Birds

Looking out the kitchen window, I saw a titmouse raiding the bird feeder. The local paper had an article about David Plank, a local watercolor artist who is known for drawing Ozark birds like that titmouse.

Years ago I had an opportunity to meet this famous artist and get some tips on using watercolors. This was when I dreamed of doing my own watercolor illustrating, but was too scared to try.

drawing Ozark birds studio
I had pictured some fancy room as David Plank’s studio. It wasn’t. All an artist’s studio really needs is working space with good lighting.

Meeting David Plank

At the time I was writing articles for a local free ad paper called the Kaleidoscope. This gave me several opportunities. One was working with an editor who moved my writing from a schoolwork level to a semiprofessional one. The other was getting to go places and meet people around my area.

Visual Manna held an Art Camp each summer. David Plank was a guest teacher there. I got to attend both to write about the event and to participate. He invited me to his studio.

kingbirds and white crowned sparrow
My photographs don’t do justice to David Plank’s paintings. The kingbirds (top) are his favorite birds. The white crowned sparrow (bottom) is a winter visitor and getting ready to leave in this spring picture.

Drawing Ozark Birds

David Plank has drawn birds since he was very young. It’s his passion, one he followed as a hobby for years before his art drew notice. After that, he could spend all his time sketching and painting.

The studio was crowded with pencil sketches, finished paintings and prints of birds. These took up almost the entire room. His work space took up the rest dominated by a slanted board next to a window.

Carolina wren on gourd nest
Wrens are opportunists when siting their nests. They have nested in my barn, in the workshop on top of band saws or tool shelves. Come too close and they hop around scolding.

Watercolor Methods

There are two approaches to painting with watercolors. One uses lots of water to create washes. This is often used to do sea or sky backgrounds, wide expanses of color.

The other uses an almost dry brush to apply the paint more thickly and precisely. David Plank uses this method to create his birds. This is my preferred method.

Whichever method is used, white is not used as a color. That makes it imperative to know beforehand what your drawing will be. Any area you want to be white, must be blocked off so the white of the paper is left to supply the color. You must see your drawing differently, seeing how the color goes around and augments these white areas.

The paper’s article was a retrospective as David Plank turns 90. Drawing Ozark birds is still his passion. I admire his work, done with a skill I don’t have now and probably never will. But, when he started, neither did he. That skill comes with having a passion for drawing and persistence to keep working at it.

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Planning Ahead

So much is said about living in the now, appreciating what you see, feel, smell around you in the moment. That’s great up to a point. However, if you raise livestock or crops, planning ahead is essential.

goat coats keeping kids warm
If I want March kids, the does get to visit with Augustus in October. Part of planning ahead is to have the kids born when the weather is better. It doesn’t always work well as the goat coats on these kids of my Nubian doe High Reaches Drucilla say this March was a bit cold. Part of planning ahead is having the goat coats clean and ready just in case.

Livestock Planning

For a few years I ran a commercial rabbitry. There were around 120 does in my barn. These were roughly divided into eight sections. Why?

Gestation for a rabbit is four weeks. Weaning of baby rabbits is four weeks. The only income for a commercial rabbitry is from the sale of those baby rabbits, you guessed it, four weeks later.

Every week I bred some does, put nest boxes in for as many others, weaned babies for that many. If I didn’t keep a schedule, my rabbits went hungry.

It’s the same for other livestock. My goats have a gestation of five months. If I don’t breed in October, I have no kids to sell in the spring for money to put hay in the barn.

Planning ahead for Chinese cabbage
Napa cabbage is surprisingly cold hardy. However, cabbage worms love it. I was a bit late, but mine is wrapped with voile. The garden tubs work well for greens like this one, bok choi, peppers, eggplant and green onions among others. These seeds went in during August, so the cabbage will be ready to eat in November.

Raising Crops

Although I am only a homesteader, the same rules apply for farmers. The summer may be winding down and the summer crops with it, but spring will come again. The garden must be ready to plant then.

As a homesteader, I plant spring, summer and fall crops. January is the month to start cabbage and leeks. The end of February is time for peppers and tomatoes. August is time to plant turnips, spinach and greens along with broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

Without planning ahead for these deadlines, my garden won’t put food on my table and in my freezer. The full freezer is sure comforting in the fall.

a section of my Ozark creek
One of the joys of living out on this property is going walking up on the hills, into the ravines or along the creek. The same walks are never boring as the places change as the weather and seasons change.

Enjoying the Now?

Standing in the barn door as my goats eat their grain, I look out over the pasture to the far hill. A breeze ruffles my hair. Birds flit by or stop on a branch to scold the cat.

Even though I spend a lot of time planning ahead, enjoying the now is important. It’s what makes homesteading special.

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Fall Parade of Asters

Most of the sunflowers have gone to seed. They are replaced by the fall parade of asters painting the roadsides white to blue to lavender.

Although fall is not my favorite season as it is a reminder winter is close behind, the parade of asters is lovely. Wild ones may not be as big or showy as garden varieties, but they are prolific.

One of the small white heath asters
Several asters have large sprays of half inch flowerheads. Some are lavender. This one is white. I’m not sure which one this is – yet.

Which Is Which?

Like the sunflowers, asters are difficult to identify. They are like the sunflowers in that they have a ring of ray flowers surrounding a disk of tube flowers.

In the summer, the fleabanes started blooming. These look a lot like an aster, but their rays are very thin and numerous. Heath asters are the same size and similar in color, but their rays look fat and are a single ring fewer in number.

When I take pictures of the asters, there are several important ones, if I want to identify the aster. There is the flower, but the cup under the flower is important too. The leaf matters as some clasp the stem, others have long petioles. The petioles may have wings.

The first larger aster in the Ozarks parade of Asters
Spreading aster is the first larger aster to bloom along my Ozark gravel road. The flower heads are a bit over an inch across spread out along the several stems reaching out across the ground. The heart-shaped leaves clasp the stems. The cup under the flowerhead is light green and smooth with a few darker green bits.

Some leaves are long with a sharp point. Others are heart shaped. Some plants have basal leaves growing from the ground and stem leaves hanging on the flower stalks. Others have only stem leaves.

Stems are important. Some are smooth and shiny or grooved. Occasional hairs adorn some stems. Short fuzz lines others. Longer fuzz makes the stems look soft and white.

highlight of the parade of asters
New England Aster is a tall plant, up to six feet, with numerous branches topped with flowers. It is sold through nurseries. I enjoy seeing it growing along my Ozark gravel road where the ground is a bit moist. Many pollinators including bumblebees tromp over the many tube flowers sipping nectar.

Admiring the Parade of Asters

The identity of the different asters matters for my Dent County Flora project. However, the asters are worth looking at for their beauty.

My favorite is the New England Aster with its deep purple rays and golden disk. There were lots of these along the road for years until it got mowed too often. They are making a comeback this year.

All of the many asters, large and small, make my fall walks pleasant.