Category: Latest From High Reaches

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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.

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Really Big Garden Weeds

I’ve mentioned my weedy garden a few times lately. Perhaps you are picturing those pesky little seedling weeds needing only a bit of cultivating to end their careers. Picture instead some really big garden weeds.

Ozark Spring Plant Paradise

Usually the Ozarks enjoys spring for, at most, a week. Then temperatures and humidity soar into summer. That didn’t happen this spring.

Cool weather now in the seventies with frequent quarter to half inch rains are only now edging toward those summer temperatures. In the meantime the cool crops like turnips, cabbage and snow peas are looking luxuriant. Weeds love this too.

meet some really big weeds
Although lambs quarters and evening primrose are allowed to grow in my garden, they do tend to become a nuisance. These have invaded my asparagus patch and will end up as goat treats or compost. They did get really out of control this year.

Classes of Weeds

There are those pesky little seedling weeds. Then there is the chickweed beloved by baby chicks and others about ankle tall. Lambs quarters, daisy fleabane and oats are some of the really big garden weeds.

Another way of dividing weeds is into those that stay and those that definitely go. Many weeds have lovely flowers. I leave a few – note the word few – of these to bloom. All others leave as soon as I can get to them.

Weather Considerations

I will work out in the garden in a misty rain. It is annoying, but not enough of one to make me quit and head for cover

Serious sprinkles and downpours mean garden time is over. Lately I’ve taken several showers as I head for the house.

Moth Mullein is not one of the really big weeds
Moth mullein is one of the wildflowers I let grow in my garden. Others are: chicory, evening primrose, yellow wood sorrel, lambs quarters, blue and purple morning glories and chickweed. Although I enjoy having them there, they do tend to become a problem as they produce lots of seeds. That means many of the plants are pulled out as weeds with only selected plants allowed to grow and bloom.

Where Do Really Big Garden Weeds Go?

Since the grasses are busy making seeds, the compost pile is not a good option. Grasses and small weeds end up on a brush pile.

The really big garden weeds get pulled, trimmed, piled and carted off each afternoon. I pile them up in the goat hay trough shortly before letting the herd in for the night.

Goats are sloppy eaters so many stems end up on the floor. These will end up in the compost pile. The rest is savored by the herd.

There will be a lot of unhappy goats when the really big garden weeds are all pulled.

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Watching Wildlife

We own no dogs. This isn’t because we don’t like dogs, as long as they belong to someone else. It’s because we enjoy watching wildlife.

The other morning, I needed to fill the water fount for my baby chicks. There is a hand pump on a cement pad over an old dug well. Something was curled up on the pad. What?

I cautiously approached to find a young fawn curled up on the platform. We often have fawns in the small pasture, but not in the barn compound. Does like leaving them near us for safety.

baby fawn makes watching wildlife special
A young fawn has few protections from predators. They have no scent. Lying still is another. If disturbed, a fawn is a fast runner. Finding one like this is a real treat.

Watching Wildlife at the Bird Feeder

Lots of things happen around and on the bird feeder. Usually, it’s the various kinds of birds. Lately other visitors are showing up.

Gray squirrels move in and sit at one end of the sunflower tray eating. The birds come and go from the other end of the tray. When the red squirrel shows up, the birds and gray squirrels flee.

Now the chipmunks are back. They bound through the grass with their tails held high. The posts are no problem. Even the lip around the edge of the feeder is not a deterrent. Each chipmunk moves in, stuffs its cheek pouches and leaves.

At the Hummingbird Feeders

Four quart feeders hang from the eaves of a shed. They are busy with hummingbirds. These swoop in, chase each other, sit and drink and whirr off.

Earlier orchard orioles visited the feeders. One year a pair stayed to nest. Usually they visit for a few days and move on.

A new visitor is a downy woodpecker. Evidently this one has a taste for sweets. It scoots up the corner of the shed, flits over to the end feeder and drinks from several holes before flying over to the suet cake.

nuthatch and downy woodpecker on bird feeder
The downy woodpecker is on the right. They are a small bird with a long tongue making using the hummingbird feeder possible. A nuthatch is on the left.

Dogs and Watching Wildlife

Dogs bark, chase and need attention. I might appreciate having the backyard groundhogs chased off to the hills, but I would also miss the squirrels, chipmunks and deer. Opossums can be a nuisance as can raccoons.

Several years we had gray foxes raise their young around the house. Having a dog would rob me of these opportunities. I prefer watching wildlife.

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Good Goat Vets

Next month will be my 51st anniversary of having Nubian dairy goats. When Jennifer was born, in 1974, good goat vets were unknown in my area. Veterinary schools barely mentioned goats.

If something went wrong, the goat owner had to deal with it. So, I bought a good veterinary book for small livestock. I still have it, old as it is, and still look things up in it. It was written by a practicing vet and is a fairly reliable source of information.

I also have a clinical goat veterinary book. It’s rather technical, more a textbook than a reference book. A good dictionary is helpful with it.

goats need good goat vets
When Nubian doe kid La Nina was born, her front legs would not uncurl. She was walking on the front of her front hooves. That made walking slow and difficult.

Just Google It

What I find out now, is that most people just go online for information. When La Nina was born, my vet books weren’t much help, so I tried online. I am so glad I read up about the problem in my clinical book first.

La Nina was born with her front legs drawn back. They would not straighten. Online advice was to give a BoSe or selenium shot and brace them.

That shot is for Johanne’s disease. La Nina does not have this disease and did not need such a shot. There can be side effects from this shot, if it is not needed.

Nina’s problem was either from inbreeding or being curled up wrongly before being born. The latter usually affects the rear legs which tend to a stretched tendon the kid grows into in a few days.

Because her tendons were so tight, it did take a month of braces before the front legs straightened out. She is quite normal now – spoiled rotten and into everything.

Nubian doe La Nina
Those front legs are now straight. La Nina walks, jumps and plays like any normal kid her age.

Good Goat Vets Now

Over the past years I have had some really good goat vets. I learned a lot from them. They are sorely missed now.

Large animal vets are getting rare. Large animals like cows and horses can hurt you. Even sheep and goats can do a lot of damage. Treating them often means a farm call requiring an expensive truck set up to carry medicines and equipment.

Cats and dogs come to the clinic. They bring in a lot of money. The hours are regular. Both vet clinics in my town treat only cats and dogs.

My nearest goat vet is about a hundred miles away. I am again left consulting my vet books and doing my own work. The books are my first reference, then I go online with enough knowledge to know whether or not what I’m seeing is reliable.

New problems come up regularly with any livestock. Good vet books by practicing veterinarians should be on any goat owner’s shelf.

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Why Garden?

Why garden? I don’t know why other people garden. Sometimes I’m not sure why I garden. It’s a lot or work for produce cheaply available in the market.

Then again, much of what I grow is not in the market, cheap or expensive. Perhaps that is an answer to Why garden? There are so many available varieties.

Exercise?

Tillers, hoeing, weeding, planting, picking all provide exercise. These can strin the back, ruin the fingernails, wear out jean knees and more. They do burn off a lot of calories.

Some of these methods are long since discarded in my garden. Tillers are verboten. Hoes are used sparingly. I prefer potato forks, weeders and mulch.

More to the point, gardening gives a way to destress. Mad at someone? Pull some weeds and pound them to loosen the dirt in their roots. Feeling blue? Enjoy creating color and food.

Prize Peppers an answer to why garden?
Growing your own vegetable varieties lets you grow heirlooms like my Prize Peppers. This is one you will not find in any catalogue. It’s a Macedonian sweet pepper that won blue ribbons at the Indiana State Fair. The seeds were a gift from a friend. As all such heirlooms, it’s continuation depends on those seeds being shared with other gardeners unless some seed company like Bakers Creek wants to add it to their collection. This is one of two Macedonian sweet peppers I grow every year as they are the best peppers I’ve found.

Health?

More and more I hear this answer to Why garden. Market produce is sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Seeds can be treated as well.

All these chemicals do provide those perfect, or close to perfect vegetables we get in the market. They cut down on any actual work such as weeding, cultivating and mulching not really feasible on huge scales.

So, is home grown produce really better? It can have fewer chemicals dumped on it. But, is any place really chemical free?

Probably not. Manmade chemicals are in the rain, the air. Watering hoses shed them. They are found in the remotest places on Earth.

The only advantage is having fewer chemicals in my organic garden. Since the insets take their toll on my produce, the chemical load must be less.

Why Garden?

Thinking about it, I garden for many reasons. One is having many different tastes and vegetables. Another is the exercise and mental reflection time. It’s nice to have fewer chemicals on my food.

Most of all, I garden because I love cooking up a dinner of produce I just picked out in my garden.

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Desperate Seedlings

May is here with warm, wet (very wet) weather in the Ozarks. Trays of desperate seedlings get carried out to the porch in the morning and back into the house every night.

They aren’t taken in every night because of frost. Moths come out at night. Cut worms and other caterpillars make meals out of the seedlings. These are really hard to find as they dig down into the dirt during the day.

desperate seedlings
The cups are roomier than the usual ones for seedlings. Still, my tomato seedlings are more than ready to move out into the garden. The pepper seedlings and other plants are just as desperate. This weekend is their escape, if I can work fast enough.

Frost Date Is Past

The average frost date was a week ago. These desperate seedlings are begging to get transplanted into the garden.

Experience tells me to wait. Setting out tomatoes and peppers before Mother’s Day is usually a mistake. The weather is watching for anyone foolish enough to try it.

Late frosts are a surprise. The evening is warm enough to leave the gardener confident. In the morning those precious seedlings are black.

Not Ready Yet

Waiting is easier for me this year. My garden is not ready for all the summer planting. I am still setting things up.

Several new containers need holes drilled, gravel and dirt. The small raised bed is getting rebuilt, sort of. My impatience and sloppy masonry skills are obvious.

Last winter had cold, wet weather so some things didn’t get done. I know: excuses. It doesn’t help as I pull weeds. At least most of the garden did get done, although the weeds are moving in as fast as they can.

What Garden Plan?

There is a garden plan. All the beds, containers and extra spots are labeled. Future occupants are listed for each one.

It seems I now have a sage and a French tarragon to take over two containers. The carrots have to move to? The parsley doesn’t seem to be on the list. Oops.

Then there are the extra Black Krim tomato and two globe artichokes. I won’t mention the four kinds of basil, four kinds of marigolds, all needing to be separated from each other.

Those desperate seedlings will make it into the garden. I’m aiming for Mother’s Day, depending on the weather. The blankets will be at the ready.

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Lazy Days Tempting

The trees have a blush of green, but the pastures are lush with new green grass. Warm sun invites my goats to spend lazy days basking. They aren’t the only ones wanting to enjoy the weather.

sycamore flower
Sycamore trees have male and female flowers on the same tree. This is a male flower that will produce pollen. The female flowers are little green balls that become the seed balls of late fall into spring.

Blooming Trees

Many trees, like oaks, hickories, elms, ashes, walnuts, willows and more, don’t bother with insects. They use the wind to carry pollen and fertilize their flowers. They produce clouds of the yellow stuff that coats everything around on these warm lazy days.

The floods toppled a sycamore so it lies across the creek. It’s still rooted so it wants to leaf out. I took note as sycamores bloom up, far up above my head and I wanted pictures of the flowers. This tree is producing its flowers at eye level.

Good-Bye Winter

The air is warm much of the time. Temperatures are in the springtime range. My tomato seedlings are eager to get out into the garden.

Milking time is done with impatient goats. No sooner am I done, than the herd is ready to barge out the gate for the day. Then the goats stand looking around. Should they go north into the pasture? Maybe across the creek and south has better grass. Then again, across the creek and up the hill is nice.

One thing is sure, the herd is back down near the creek around noon. That’s when they enjoy the lazy days lying around in the sun until they are too hot, then the shade to cool off. All the time they are chewing their cuds filled with spring’s bounty.

Nubian doe and her two kids, doe La Nina and little buck, are relaxing in the sparse shade of a persimmon tree on one of the lazy days.
When I had the time, I would go out with my herd for part of the day. At first these goats go racing off. They tear off mouthfuls of greens along the way, but they are on the move. After a time the goats settle down and graze or browse, still slowly moving. In a couple of hours the herd arrives at a favorite or inviting spot and they lie down to chew cuds and sleep. Warm weather seems to make these times more numerous and longer.

No Lazy Days Here

Insects are buzzing from flower to flower. Now is their time of plenty.

Lone star ticks are out and eager for a meal. For the next several months these things will make life miserable for the goats and me.

And spring chores are on a long list. I may feel like enjoying these lazy days, but I won’t. Well, maybe for a little while.

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Beginning With Baby Chicks

April is my preferred month for beginning with baby chicks. The weather has, hopefully, settled down a little. The pullets will reach six months in the fall and, supposedly, lay through the winter.

Getting Baby Chicks

Traditionally eggs are set under a broody hen. She hatches out and raises a group of baby chicks. I have done this, but don’t now as black snakes usually eat the eggs.

Incubators are another popular way to set eggs. A friend is hatching some eggs for me this year. They should be hatching about now. These will be what the hatcheries call straight run, a mix of pullets and cockerels. Eggs and dinner.

Then there are the hatcheries. I’ve gotten baby chicks from Cackle Hatchery many times and will again this year.

Cackle Hatchery helps with beginning with baby chicks
The Cackle Hatchery building is plain, nondescript except for the name on the door. However, the car is eye-catching. Inside the building are books, supplies and more to aid the beginner and the long time chicken owner. This year the line for baby chicks was long as was the line for online chick orders.

Only the First Step

Beginning with baby chicks doesn’t start with getting the chicks. Even before they arrive home, there is preparation to do.

I have a dedicated chick house. It’s used for storage over the winter, but in April it is again set up for chicks.

Plastic feed sacks go down on the floor boards to protect them from spilled water. A heat lamp is set up as chicks need to be warm. Waterers and feeders are set up. Chick starter is purchased and set up.

I know some advice is to never use newspaper on the floor for baby chicks. It works for me and has for decades. It has several advantages for me.

I put out layers, five sheets thick, enough for ten to twelve days. They are offset a bit so I can tell each layer. Each day I can roll up the dirty sheets and leave the chicks with a fairly clean floor for the new day.

beginning with baby chicks starts with baby chicks
My baby chicks are pullets. There are Dominiques and Easter Eggers. They have just been put into their new home and are starting to look around.

New Residents

The house is set up. The heat lamp has it warm and cozy. The waterers and feeders are filled.

When the chicks come home, each chick is taken out, bill dipped in water and set down. It doesn’t take long before these little ones are off exploring. That stops as soon as they find the food. Now it’s just a matter of time waiting for them to grow up.

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April Ozark Wildflowers

A county road runs in front of our house. Lots of vehicles go up and down the road when the redbuds and dogwoods bloom. Driving by, they miss the kaleidoscope of April Ozark wildflowers lining the road, out on the hills and up the ravines.

Most of the April Ozark wildflowers are old friends for me. But I love to go out to visit them again as most are here for only a short time before vanishing until next April.

April Ozark wildflowers include bellwort
Bellwort is an interesting Ozark wildflower. The flower hangs down and never fully opens. It seems to be pollinated by bumblebees. The bee crawls up inside the flower making it bulge out. These stalks came up through the fire blackened area in this ravine.

Along the Road

Late mornings and early afternoons are slack times in the traffic. That makes those times good for walking along to see what is growing and blooming. Since much of the roadside burned, I get a chance to see what survived as well.

The fire burned the leaf litter and moved on. Lots of plants are sprounting up through the ash. Bellwort is one. Even driving home from town, I spotted this gorgeous clump out on its own and had to go back on foot to admire it.

Along the way I found others: orange puccoon, violet wood sorrel, blue violets and early buttercups. Around the bellwort were toothwort and rue anemone along with a rock fern.

April Ozark wildflowers include orange puccoon
The bright color of this orange puccoon’s flowers is easy to spot. The plant gets, maybe, six inches tall. The flowers bloom into summer. It would make a nice ground cover in a sunny location.

Up a Ravine

Wandering across the hill I tried to miss stepping on too many Johnny Jump Up violets. Down in the ravine my first stop were large patches of Virginia bluebells. A few years ago there was only a single small patch, now there are lots of these lovely blue flowers.

More toothwort and rue anemone were scattered on the sides of the ravine. The Christmas ferns were putting up their fiddleheads.

Christmas fern fiddleheads
The Christmas fern got its name because it stays green through the winter. The fronds darken and lie down on the ground. In the spring the new leaves emerge as fiddleheads that unfurl into fronds. I have kept this as a potted fern and it does very well.

So Many April Ozark Wildflowers

I didn’t intend to make such a list and it isn’t complete at all. The spring ephemerals are out in a mad race to beat the tree leaves. They come in many colors, often bloom for only a few days, set seed and vanish for another year.

Virginia bluebell flowers
The Ozarks is in Missouri, but Virginia bluebells grow well here in ravines. It likes moist places. The flowers begin as pink buds, turning blue when they open. Some flowers stay pink. Occasionally some are white. They make quite a show as a large patch.

Driving by, even slowly, you won’t see most of these flowers. To meet and admire these wildflowers you must stop, get out and walk along a gravel road, a nature trail in a Conservation Area, even a road in town as many grow in lawns. Do it soon or you will miss the April show.

Wildflowers are in many essays and pictures found in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“. “Missouri’s Milkweeds, Milkvines and Pipevines of Missouri” is a guidebook to these Missouri flowers.