Category: Latest From High Reaches

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Glade Exploring

Glades are special places often with plants found no where else. There is a small one near my home, so I went glade exploring.

What Is a Glade?

The ones I have visited have lots of rocks, thin soil and lots of dryness and heat. They are sloped. Chiggers love them as numerous lizards often live there, the preferred host for the minute biters. Before going glad exploring, be sure to spray to discourage these little attackers.

My small one is up on the side of a hill. It would seem unusual in that it is not far from the bottom of a small ravine. Yet it is definitely very dry much of the time with no trees other than some invading red cedars – the enemy of a glade.

Missouri Coneflower found when glade exploring
There are so many yellow aster type flowers. Although Missouri Coneflower reminds you of Purple Coneflower, it is in a different group, Rudebekia. They are still lovely to see especially when there are several dozen blooming.

What Did I Find?

No real rain has fallen in several weeks so all the plants were wilted to dried up, even the grass. Still, a few plants were still surviving. I was mostly interested in a yellow coneflower and the blazing star blooming among the rocks.

What I hope to find is an Adder’s Tongue, a type of fern. This grows in glades, but, being a fern, likes moisture. When the weather is dry, it withers away.

This fern puts up a single leaf, not a frond. It is usually seen in spring and fall when rain is supposed to fall.

Blazing Star Liatris
Three of these small Liatris flowers grow in my area. This one is officially called Blazing Star, although the others are often called that too. What sets this flower apart is the calyx below the tube flowers with the fat and pointed scales plus lots of hairs on the edges. To me this flower is purple, but it is often listed under pink in the wildflower books.

Another Fern

I have found another wet weather fern. It’s called a Resurrection Fern and grows on a large rock outcrop. Whenever it rains during warm weather, this fern unrolls its fronds.

This gives me hope the Adder’s tongue will reappear in this small glade once fall rains decide to come and visit.

Will it rain soon? Actually almost an inch fell the other day and the temperatures dropped into the eighties.

The rain is still on a cloud to cloud basis. This is when a thunderstorm cloud floats by and drops rain in one small area, but leaves nearby areas dry.

That small rain means I will go glade exploring to see if the small area has perked up as much as my pasture.

Find out more about many Ozark plants in Exploring the Ozark Hills.

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Doing Cold Canning

Late summer has arrived in the Ozarks along with sacks of tomatoes and peppers. That leaves me doing cold canning.

Then the library obtained a book called “Cold Canning” by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough which I checked out as soon as it was put out on the shelf. It isn’t exactly what I wanted, but I’m glad to read it for new ideas.

What Is Cold Canning?

Regular canning is hot work. It requires a big canner which is a pressure cooker, special jars with lids and rings and lots of time and hot work.

The result is a pantry filled with jars of various vegetables, sauces and more. My problem is how long those jars sit on the shelves as two old people don’t eat that much.

So, I gave up my canner and changed to freezing my vegetables. In other words, I’m doing cold canning.

Speckled Roman tomatoes for cold canning
There are lots of paste tomato varieties. Some are determinate like Roma which ripens all its tomatoes at the same time. Speckled Roman is indeterminate so it produces tomatoes the whole season. It is prolific and has a good taste.

Doing Tomatoes a New Way

My favorite tomatoes for freezing are Speckled Romans. These red and yellow striped paste tomatoes are indeterminate so the crop comes in a bag or two at a time.

Forget peeling the tomatoes. There’s nutrition in those peels most people throw away. Instead, I dice the tomatoes into a big stainless steel pot and cook them down into a thick soup.

This is strained using a colander. The juice is frozen in quart freezer bags. Then the pulp is pureed and frozen in quart freezer bags. Only two or three cups go into a bag, enough for a meal.

Those Pretty Jars

In “Cold Canning” sauces, condiments, jams and more are frozen in glass jars. The pictures look so pretty. I suppose I could use jars.

However, using bags lets me freeze them flat. This makes lining them up in the freezer easy and saves a lot of space.

The recipes are the attraction in “Cold Canning”. This year I want to try making some salsa and doing cold canning is my preferred method.

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Growing Potatoes

Potatoes are cheap in the market. So, growing potatoes seems silly unless it is some unusual variety.

This isn’t silly to me. I like growing Yukon gold potatoes. Every year I put in a row, less than a dozen seed potatoes, just to have the pleasure of doing it.

Weather Problems

Potatoes like cool weather, but not frost. They like moist dirt, but not wet. It’s getting hard to have these conditions every spring.

This year started out too cold and the seed potatoes hunkered down to wait. Later the temperatures were cool enough. However, it was very wet, making a couple seed potatoes rot.

Last year frost kept nipping off the potato vines. Other years it stays too cold or too wet or too dry or too hot. I almost gave up growing potatoes and have given up growing more than a few.

Hilling vs. Mulch

Weeds love it when I try to hill potatoes. The last time I tried hilling, the giant ragweed got so big I had to use a saw to cut it down. Needless to add, the potatoes didn’t do well.

Now I use mulch. A standard flake gives the right distance between plants. Two flakes wide is a good width for my single row. Otherwise, a flake is a good distance between rows.

Not all purchased potato varieties do well growing under mulch. Purchased Yukon Gold do well. A way to get around this is to keep your own seed potatoes, choosing those from the plants that grow the best.

growing potatoes is fun
Yukon Gold potatoes do well growing under mulch. Ozark spring weather can make growing potatoes difficult, so I grow only a few.

Harvesting

Just because the potatoes were grown under mulch, doesn’t mean I can just rake the mulch off and pick up the potatoes. All the mulch does is keep the weeds from taking over and replacing hilling.

When I harvest the potatoes, I push the mulch away from the base of the now brown plant and pull. Then I know where to start exploring in the dirt for the potatoes. They can be anywhere in a foot across circle and up to six inches down.

For me, seeing the row of bushy potato vines and later bringing up those lovely potatoes is all the reason I need to grow a few every year.

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New Barn Kid

All I needed was three more days to clean out that last corner of the barn. My Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela presented me with a new barn kid before I got done.

Of course, the corner still piled high with old manure was the place of choice. My only consolation was the thick, dry layer over the top of it.

Cleaning the Barn In the Heat

Heat stroke is not something I enjoy at all. July was hot and humid. By noon the sun was too intense to be working outside.

My morning routine was to milk fast and a bit early. Put up the milk. Run the goats out to pasture. Move in with the tractor and start forking out manure. Two loads took me to noon.

It still seems unreal how much bedding and manure ten goats can put down in a winter. This last winter was wet, so I couldn’t keep taking the surface layers out each week.

Nubian buck kid
Pictures in the barn are so dark. This Nubian buck kid got plopped down outside in the sunshine. He was napping. Once he wakes up all the way, it will be hard to get a picture of him standing still.

New Barn Kid

Pamela’s little buck kid wasn’t concerned. He moved right into his corner. His mother was at his beck and call.

Within a day this kid was up exploring the barn. Tractors did not phase him. Being moved out of the way was only an annoyance easily overcome by begging for attention.

Loss of manure pile was annoying. His corner kept shrinking until it was gone. Even that was fine as soon as fresh straw arrived to soften the cement.

Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela's new buck kid
This two-day-old Nubian buck kid is already to run around out in the sunshine. He hasn’t met the horseflies yet.

By three days old this new barn kid has taken over the barn. He defies any of the goats to get in his way or push him around. After all, he has his mother to back him up and she is a big doe.

The world is a bigger place for this little boy now. His mother takes him out into the barn lot every evening as she is hungry and the new hay hasn’t been cut and baled yet. That’s fine with him too.

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Please Wait, Pamela

Normally I am impatient for one of my goats to have her kids. Not this time. My Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela is due anytime. Please wait, Pamela!

Cold, Wet Winter

I know I should keep taking the dirty, loose bedding out of the barn all winter. That way it doesn’t mat up into an icky mess many inches deep by spring.

It was too cold. It was too wet. I was busy. So many excuses.

Wet Spring

The barn needs to be cleaned out by the end of June when fly season goes into high gear. It kept raining on days I was home or the mud was too deep. The bridge washed out and need patching. So many excuses.

Please wait High Reaches Pamela
Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela looks very close to kidding. The barn is almost cleaned out. It’s a race.

And July Arrived

Pamela will have Terrill Creek Huckleberry’s first kids here at High Reaches. Her due date is about August 1.

The barn had over a foot of wet, matted mess on the floor. This is definitely not good for kids, the herd either.

So the race is on. It is hot, too hot for me to clean barn by noon. I can get two loads out before then, loads dug out with a pitchfork and piled on the tractor platform. This clears about two feet of barn floor.

It will take another three days to finish cleaning out the barn. The goats are complaining as they have no bedding, only cement to lie on.

Tough. New bedding must be taken out before I start to clean. The cement – a big headache for barn floor – must dry out.

Please wait, Pamela

Only one corner is still piled high. I hope three days will get the last of it out. Manure is deceiving. Taking a load out should make the pile look smaller. It doesn’t.

But I do want that barn floor covered with fresh bedding before those new kids arrive. Hang on, Pamela. I’m working on it.

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Intricate Flowers

In science texts flowers are drawn as lilies. These are simple flowers, easy to diagram. In reality many plants have intricate flowers.

Milkweeds are one of these flowers. European botanists started studying these in the 1500s. Yet the flower wasn’t completely diagramed out and understood until the 1960s.

Passion Flowers

Most passion flowers are tropical. Missouri hosts two of them. One is the large one commonly called Maypop. This four inch across flower is purple and white, hard to miss on its vine draping across bushes.

The second is the yellow passion flower. You have to take your time and look for this one as it is only a half inch across and a pale yellow green. This is a delicate vine that twines around other plants or fence wire in shady, moist areas.

Intricate flowers green passion flowers
These interesting green passion flowers are easy to spot once you recognize the leaves. The vines average four feet long. Later small, round berries hang down and turn purple when they ripen.

Intricate Flowers

A lily has a single set of petals called a corona. Passion flowers are different. They have an outer corolla made up of wavy filaments. Then is an inner short corolla sticking straight up. The little green passion flower has a third corolla of rolled petals.

In the center of the flower rises a single stalk. At the top three stamens branch off to hang down. The club ends open up to expose yellow pollen. Three pistils branch off opening sticky ends to gather pollen.

Maypops or Purple Passion flowers
Maypops or Purple Passion flowers can be grown in the garden. The fruit is edible. It is similar to a pomegranate in that the edible part is the flesh around the seeds inside the fruit.

Finding Intricate Flowers

Many of the wildflowers blooming over the spring and summer look like simple ones. Looks can be Deceiving.

Those dandelions, asters, daisies and sunflowers among others are really groups of flowers. Ray flowers form the petals. Disk flowers open to give off pollen and/or collect pollen to make seeds.

Aristolochia flowers have intricate shapes. Insect eating flowers form complex traps.

Dismissing flowers as simple bits of color is a mistake. Stop and take a closer look at them and discover some of the intricate flowers or even admire the simple ones which are more complex than the text diagrams make them seem.

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My Pullet Group

Not so long ago my little chick house had lots of room for the 35 chicks living there. Now my pullet group fills the roost plus window sill plus feeder bucket plus waterer.

Why 35 Chicks?

I really plan on adding about 10 new pullets to the hen house every year. However, it makes no sense to order fewer than 20 chicks due to an extra handling fee. So I ordered 10 Dominique and 10 Easter Egger pullets. An extra Easter Egger was with the order.

Then a friend set some eggs for me. I wanted roosters called dinner. That added 9, but only 5 roosters. She gave me another pullet.

Another friend gave me 4 more chicks. Three of them are roosters.

my pullet group
Although I grew up with single breed flocks, I found there are so many lovely chickens breeds, my flock is now mixed. Easter Eggers have those cute cheek puffs and lots of color combinations. Dominiques are a great coloring. The white with black tail is a Light Brahman with leg feathers. My pullet group is interesting to look at and to watch.

My Pullet Group

In the morning I toss out some scratch grains and open the door. A flood of color pours out the door and scatters into half grown chickens starting to cluck instead of cheep. They stretch their wings, race across the little yard and peck madly.

When the yard gate opens, the flood spreads out across the compound grass. Some fly up on the bench under a tree. Others explore the pile of top soil still waiting to move into the garden. Half end up by the big chicken yard eating the special grain tossed out there for those hens who insist on flying out over the fence.

In the evening my pullet group greets me at the barn. They swirl around my feet as I walk to their yard trying to not step on any toes to toss more scratch grain out. Their feeder needs refilling.

I take a scoop of chick feed and sit down in the house doorway. My pullet group gathers around to eat out of the scoop, sit on my knees, slip by to eat in their house or pick at my shoes as those laces just must be big worms.

Dilemma

Even though the roosters will become dinner, there are still 25 pullets. My big chicken house isn’t big enough for the old flock and my pullet group to fit in.

My neighbor needs some pullets. My dilemma is: which ones do I part with? This is about the friendliest group I’ve had. My knee sitters will definitely stay.

Chickens figure largely in “Mistaken Promises – Hazel Whitmore #3.

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Honeybee Swarm Capture

“I heard this loud buzzing when I came out of the house. When I went to look, there were thousands of bees coming into the yard.” It was a honeybee swarm.

My companion was watching a special sight, one the local beekeeper who put up the bee trap has never seen. The mass of bees landed on the box and gradually disappeared into it.

Persimmon Trees

The bee trap was strapped onto a native female persimmon tree. We enjoy her fruit every fall. The goats go crazy for them.

Insects like honeybees go crazy for the flowers and this tree was in full bloom. This was probably why the swarm’s scouts knew about the tree and came to check for a good place to live around it.

honeybee swarm capture bee trap
A bee trap isn’t very large, only a couple of feet long, a foot high and half a foot wide. The bees must be very crowded inside, but they don’t seem to mind.

Bee Traps

The local beekeeper told us this is more of a bee lure than a trap. The scouts a honeybee swarm sends out are looking for a place with room inside and a roof to keep the rain out. A bee trap provides this plus foundation for a honeycomb.

These scouts found the bee trap, went back to the swarm and it came our way. In a couple of days the swarm has settled into their new home.

Bee Trap Door
A bee trap is a temporary home for a swarm. When the beekeeper moves the trap, the door is changed from the open to the small holes. The bees still get ventilation, but can’t get out until they get to their new hive home.

What Is a Honeybee Swarm?

When a hive gets too crowded, the bees raise a new queen. The new queen takes over. The old queen leaves with a crowd of bees to find a new place to live.

Bees can swarm for other reasons. When we first moved here, two hives were in the backyard. After the old beekeeper died, the hives were abandoned.

Parasites moved in. The bees moved out. We knew honeybees still lived out in the woods as they were regular visitors to the white clover in the lawn and the flowering vegetables in my garden.

The local beekeeper will move this honeybee swarm into a regular bee hive. The descendants of the old hives will again live as domestic bees.

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Mushroom Weather

Fungi like it damp and this spring has really delivered on that. They also like it warm and now temperatures are rising. It is mushroom weather.

Although many mushrooms are edible, collecting them to eat isn’t a good idea unless you know what you are doing. I know a few and enjoy these. Others I just look at as they come in so many shapes and colors.

Lawn Ornaments

Little cap mushrooms are sticking up in the overly long grass. Mowing keeps getting delayed by frequent showers. This may be good mushroom weather, but it’s not mowing weather.

Some of these are white and classic mushroom shape. Others look like transparent umbrellas with only their ribs showing.

mushroom weather brought up this stinkhorn in my garden
Stinkhorns are not typical mushrooms. The top never opens into a cap. Their odor attracts flies. Bright orange coloring is definitely hard to miss. They last only a single morning.

Garden Ornaments

I put a lot of compost and hay mulch out in my garden. This year there are mushrooms coming up in many places. Some are like those in the lawn.

Tall clubs are coming up along the wood borders of the beds. These are mostly black. Because these indicate the wood is fast becoming mulch for the beds, I’m starting to replace the wood with bricks.

When the bamboo patch was in the garden, another interesting mushroom made an appearance. The stinkhorns are still surviving as a big one came up near one of the containers.

Dinner Foraging

The lawn and garden ornaments are just that. I think some of them are edible, but I’m not sure enough to risk it. However, I am longing to have some wild mushrooms for dinner.

Are the chanterelles up yet? This mushroom weather is surely to their liking. I know some good places to look.

Unfortunately, one of those places got burned over. Are the chantarelles still there? I don’t know – yet. I will have to go out and look. They would be a really good addition to dinner.

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Intertwined Projects

Haven’t all of us done this? There is something needing to be done. However, before it can get done, something else must be done first. Intertwined projects surround me right now.

First Came the Lights

My barn lights are run from a line to the workshop. The lights started flickering. This extension cord line is buried in the ground and is ten plus years old.

Well, it wasn’t the extension cord. It wasn’t the outlet. The cause is still elusive. A friend will redo the entire line.

Garden containers are part on intertwined projects
Old cattle lick tubs make great garden containers. I now put four half inch holes about two inches up on the sides for drainage. Large gravel is put in to cover the holes. Then dirt and compost are layered in until the tub is full. This one has red mizuna in it. Other crops are napa cabbage, beets, green onions, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, peppers and herbs.

Problems

I needed some topsoil to fill some garden containers. This same friend brought some dumping half a dump truck load in front of my garden. It’s moving away very slowly.

The new electric line for the barn will run under part of this pile of dirt. Intertwined projects begin. The electric line won’t happen until the two foot high pile of dirt moves.

One raised bed got rebuilt and part of the dirt moved. Some half barrels swallowed more of the dirt and now have bush Porto Rico sweet potatoes growing in them. Another flower garden went into the garden requiring more dirt.

Half the dirt needing to be moved is gone. The other half is providing the chicks with a new playground while I get ready to move more of it.

Another Layer of Intertwined Projects

There are three new containers for in the garden. However, one has compost in it which must be moved out before the tub can be used.

Before any dirt goes into the containers, the half inch holes are drilled into the sides. They are put into place. Two inches or so of large gravel (small rocks) is put in. Then the layers of dirt and compost are put in.

The final question is whether or not the containers will hold enough dirt to free up the electric line route. I do want my barn lights to start working properly again.