Category: Latest From High Reaches

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Squirrels and Black Walnuts

Black walnuts pave the road and the yard now. They start falling in early September carpeting the ground with leaves, twigs and nuts. Squirrels and black walnuts go well together.

There were lots of squirrels here when we moved here. Then all of them moved out leaving us with a pile of unused walnuts for years. Now the squirrels are back for a crop that would feed several times the squirrels living here.

squirrels and black walnuts fan
Two kinds of squirrel live around our Ozarks place now. This is the larger red or fox squirrel. It has the red/brown underside and thick, bushy tail. This particular individual lives behind the yard and raids the bird feeder regularly. It has been seen to check out the feeder before the seeds are out in the morning. It chases the smaller gray squirrels away or tries to.

Black Walnuts

These are not the tepid nuts sold in the store. Black walnuts have a strong flavor, if you can crack the shell. Regular nutcrackers do not even make a dent.

There are special nutcrackers available. I resorted to a hammer. It takes a very long time to crack a cupful of nutmeats.

Squirrels have tough teeth. They toss off the hull and start gnawing. Rodent teeth, squirrels are rodents, grow constantly so these lucky ones wear theirs down getting to the tasty stuff inside.

Walking Problems

Black walnuts are round and hard. Walking from place to place with them underfoot is not easy. Picking them up is back breaking work.

However, I do pick them up in the areas we walk frequently and deposit them elsewhere. Squirrels and walnuts can meet up there.

There is also a running battle in my garden. A big tree drops part of its leaves and walnuts in my garden.

Unfortunately black walnuts produce juglans, a form of plant chemical warfare. That part of my garden will not grow tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, beans and some greens. The squash and pie pumpkins do fine.

another squirrels and black walnuts fan
This is a gray squirrel, smaller than the other kind. These also live around our Ozarks place. These seem to be more numerous than the red squirrels. Three were checking for walnuts by the barn one morning. I’m getting suspicious they are also snacking on my winter squash. One morning a gray squirrel was checking for walnuts in a patch of giant ragweed while a chipmunk was climbing the ragweed for the seeds.

Squirrels and Black Walnuts

Squirrels are fiercely territorial. This is why so many get hit on the roads.

A squirrel runs down the road to get a walnut. A car comes. The squirrel can’t run off the road as the resident squirrel will attack. So the poor squirrel must run back up the road to its own territory before being able to get off the road.

There are several black walnuts along our road dropping nuts on the road. I kick them over to the edge so the squirrels can stay off the road. Then I can continue to watch the squirrels and black walnuts for the fall.

There’s more about black walnuts and squirrels in “Exploring the Ozark Hills”.

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Watching Turkey Vultures

Seeing pictures of vultures with their naked necks may give the impression these birds are ugly. Watching turkey vultures for a time erases this impression. I’ve been watching them for years.

Spring arrives for many with the calls of spring peepers. It arrives for me with the arrival of the vultures. Fall ends with their departure in mid October.

Morning Surprise

Fall milking is a lazy affair as the goats go dry after being bred. Much of my time is spent standing in the doorway looking out across the old cow barn and pasture.

There were these big lumps on the barn roof. It took careful looking to finally make out what these lumps were.

watching turkey vultures
Vultures are thought of as being black. Turkey vultures have light gray underwings and their wings take on a brown shade in the sun. They are impressive with their wings spread. Soaring in lazy circles these birds rarely flap their wings, instead taking advantage of every rising air current.

Two turkey vultures were standing on the roof peak, wings outstretched, basking in the sun. These birds are sun birds. They stand basking for a long time letting the air warm up and the heat clean their feathers.

Once the air is warm and rising, the vultures soar off in great swoops and circles rising up until they are mere specks in the sky. Watching turkey vultures soar, they often seem to soar just for the joy of it.

Fall Kettles

A group of vultures is called a kettle. This year a kettle is roosting near the old cow barn. Most sit in the trees with their wings outstretched. A few move onto the barn roof peak.

As the kettle soared up in widening circles, I counted sixteen and think I missed a few. After a few nights, the kettle will move to other trees south of us.

There’s still a few weeks left in October. I’m hoping another kettle will stop by so I can continue watching turkey vultures a little longer, putting off the end of fall as long as possible.

Vultures are the topic in two books. Ross Malone’s story is in “Paws, Claws & Hooves: Footprints on Our Lives“. One of the nature essays in “Exploring the Ozark Hills” is about turkey vultures.

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New Garden Beginning

My garden isn’t moving. My new garden beginning is the start of next year’s garden. It isn’t next year yet, but my garden begins when I plant my garlic patch.

Garden Preparations

Lots of things are on the ‘To Do’ list for next year’s garden. On top is clearing out the remains of this year’s garden.

Once killing frost arrives, the cucurbits, tomatoes and peppers are gone, what is left of them. The groundhog continues to evade capture thanks to squirrels removing the bait from the traps.

New cardboard and mulch are next on the list. Weeding is not the way I like to start next year’s garden. My method doesn’t eliminate the weeds, but does get about 90% of them.

Both raised beds need frameworks for plastic put up. The lumber is waiting. The workshop is being renovated.

old garden resists new garden beginning
Sugar pie pumpkins are supposed to be smaller vines, like butternut squash. These seeds didn’t know that and promptly started taking over part of the garden including racing across the garlic patch to climb up the fence. The pumpkin vines will be gone with killing frost, but the pumpkins will be in the pantry.

Fall Planting

There are greens planted for fall harvest. I don’t count these in my new farden beginning projects as they are a continuation from this year.

The Chinese celery looks great. That’s because the groundhog doesn’t like it. The other greens get eaten the day before I want to pick them. That’s another reason to put frameworks up over the raised beds.

garlic is the new garden beginning
As my garden is surrounded by lawn and pasture, weed seeds move in by the handfuls. The mulch helps keep the weeds at bay while keeping roots cool in summer and warm in winter. The trench in the mulch has garlic cloves planted in it. Once the garlic leaves are up, the mulch will be pushed around them.

Planting Garlic

This year the sugar pie pumpkin vines overran the garlic bed. As summer wanes, the vines are dying back.

There are four varieties of garlic this year: Hard neck (name unknown), German, Romanian and soft neck (probably California white). The patch wasn’t big enough so a row of walking onions left.

Rain has been scarce for a few months. It comes in quarter and half inch showers. The patch was a bit dry even under the mulch. Rain barrels supplied water.

The cloves are planted between piles of mulch. In a few weeks garlic leaves should tower over the mulch.

That will be my new garden beginning to grow, promising a first crop for the new year.

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Munching Monarch Caterpillars

My chickens have the run of the compound by the workshop and barn most of the day. So it was a surprise to find munching monarch caterpillars on the young common milkweed plants.

The chickens are voracious, attacking almost anything that dares to move through the yard. Even though these caterpillars taste bad, chickens don’t tell each other about it so each must sample one.

munching monarch caterpillars
The hungry caterpillar has nothing on these little eating creatures. These monarch caterpillars latch onto the edge of a leaf and start nibbling it away.

Monach Migration

There was a time when I was in sixth grade and saw a real monarch migration. The classes were out for recess. Clouds of these big, beautiful butterflies surrounded us. It was amazing.

I’ve noticed a few Monarch butterflies flying by this year. They have a flutter flight quite different from the more common frittilaries.

These visitors drop by the thistle flowers for a snack. They check out the common milkweed stalks, most of which are brown and shriveled now.

two munching monarch caterpillars
Monarch caterpillars grow fast. They have to as killing frost will arrive in another month and they must pupate and fly off before then.

Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca

These were planted twenty years ago and been a tolerated nuisance ever since. Unlike purple milkweed or butterfly weed, these plants send out gemniferous roots to form clumps. These clumps move from year to year migrating across the yard.

The milkweeds grow tall along with the giant ragweed and other plants growing among them in unmowed territory. They put out big umbels of light pink flowers attracting wasps, bees, bumblebees, butterflies and beetles.

Once the seed pods open releasing their seeds, the plants die. Except the roots busily put up new shoots that don’t get very tall. Their main purpose seems to be to keep me from mowing down the ragweed.

group of munching monarch caterpillars
There is a definite problem looming for these monarch caterpillars. They only eat milkweeds. This late in the season milkweed leaves are in short supply. There may not be enough for all of these caterpillars. I am in search for more.

Another Purpose

The munching monarch caterpillars give these shoots another reason for growing. Unlike the few remaining plants, these shoots have luscious green leaves perfect for dinner, if you are a caterpillar.

All the shoots with munching monarch caterpillars are now surrounded by wire rings. If chickens could read, I’d add signs: Chickens Stay Out.

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Ending Summer Gardening

Fall’s arrival means ending summer gardening for me. It’s bittersweet for me, especially this year.

Many Challenges

Every year brings new gardening challenges. This year brought more than enough. It started with the spring crop of weeds as I didn’t get the cardboard and mulch down over the entire garden. The pathways were ankle deep by planting time.

Many of my crops didn’t come up. There is a black walnut shedding too many leaves, twigs and nuts over almost half of the garden. A wide variety of plants refuse to grow in such contaminated soil.

A new family of groundhogs moved in. So far I’ve eliminated four. The first one leveled the greens which did eventually grow back. The last one wiped out the okra, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and lima beans. Number five is working on the leftovers. Other leftovers were collected by a wood rat aka pack rat.

What damage the chipmunks and turtles did was masked by the groundhogs. Turtles do little damage and are easy to remove. Chipmunks are cute, for now.

Yuxi squash ending summer gardening
This squash is edible young as a summer squash or it will shell into a nice winter squash. I get the seeds from Baker’s Creek. I prefer it as summer squash mostly because if is an awkward shape. the goats love it young or shelled.

Bright Spots

Cucurbits ignore black walnut. Groundhogs and pack rats ignore squash, monster squash and pumpkins. Leeks, onions and garlic don’t seem to be on their preferred list either.

This is the first year in a long time I’ve grown onions. It won’t be the last.

We will also feast on butternut squash all winter.

The goats will enjoy monster squash for months. These mysterious squash seem to be a cushaw/Tahitian melon cross. Some crossed with the yuxi, I think, judging by the shape. The one trait all of them share is size. They are big.

monster squash for my cucurbit year
These are small monster squash. One that fell off the vine mostly shelled is about ten pounds. There are a couple of others similar in size or bigger.

Ending Summer Gardening

The squash bugs have finally overwhelmed many of the cucurbits. The winter varieties are shelling even as the vines die back.

The tomato vines still look lush on top, but fall blight is creeping up. There are few tomatoes as they got carted off or eaten by groundhogs and wood rat. The flowers have no time to develop before killing frost.

Only one container of peppers and one plant still have peppers on them. The okra leaves were eaten along with the flower buds.

With the arrival of October, I will be officially ending summer gardening as I start clearing out the summer crops, laying down cardboard and mulching. Instead I will concentrate on the few winter crops growing in the raised beds.

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Goat Time

So many things didn’t get done over last winter. All spring and summer I’ve been trying to get caught up. It’s left me too busy for some good goat time.

What is Goat Time?

That depends on whether you are a goat or a person. For a goat this is a day spent out eating, relaxing, cud chewing and horsefly avoidance.

For a person, me especially, it’s time to wander out in the pastures with the goats. They may be interested in plants for eating. I’m interested in plants for pictures.

Many of the goats want to come over for petting. All of the goats expect me to lead them to better grazing, then stand guard while they gorge themselves.

Leading the Herd

Being the leader somehow indicates being the one in front, leading the way. My goats don’t think much of this idea.

I lead the goats out to the bridge, or try to. Some days the herd follows eagerly. Other days I, as the leader, am in the rear urging the herd to get moving.

When we finally get across the bridge, I take off. The herd stands by the bridge. I try a different direction. If this is acceptable, the herd follows.

That is, the herd follows until they catch up to me, pass me, crowd into the trail and stop. They are waiting for me to thread my way back to the front to lead them off again.

My Nubian goat herd relaxing for a few hours
Horseflies love hot sunshine. The unused cow barn is cooler and dark, so the Nubian herd moves in while the horseflies are in full attack mode. Even in cooler weather this is a good place to relax and chew cuds.

Horseflies and Heat

Over the summer, the goats spent much of their time laying around in the old cow barn. Horseflies don’t like shade. If you’ve ever been bitten by one of these bloodthirsty insects, you know why the goats avoid them.

The shade and open barn sides are cooler than being out in the sun. The Ozarks didn’t have lots of really hot days this past summer, but the humidity made the ones we did have, miserable. I hid in the house much of the day.

Nubian doe High Reaches Pamela enjoyed my goat time
My herd of Nubians is small now, only a dozen. That makes them timid so they love having me out with them. This day I walked up near the road fence where multiflora roses grow big. They were considerably smaller after the goats got done.

Ozark Fall

There is a yellow tint in the green tree leaves. Days are warm, nights are cool. Fall has started in the Ozarks.

My busy schedule hasn’t eased up much. However, I am finding some goat time now before the cold settles in.

The goats enjoy the company. I get the impression they also enjoy being annoying.

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Meet My Opal Goat

For the last five years I’ve kept my intention to keep no kids, to let my herd gradually dwindle away. Meet my Opal goat and broken intention.

Why Not Keep Kids?

Goats live twelve to fourteen years, usually. Mine are as much pets, family, as livestock and I have no family interested in giving them a home.Over the years I’ve found, even those people with the best intentions, often can’t provide a permanent home for a bunch of spoiled brats.

As I’ve grown older, even become old (much as I hate to admit it), the question of what is to happen to my girls has become important. It was better to stop adding to the herd and plan on outliving them.

Other Considerations

Jennifer, my first goat, was born in June, 1974. Forty-nine years is a long time to be a goat keeper. This is doubly so when they are dairy goats requiring attention twice a day, every day, regardless of weather or health or other activities.

For some years I had someone to milk for me over a weekend or, once, a real vacation. There has been no one now for twelve years.

I do need to take that back a little. I do know someone now who will try to do chores for me now and then. The herd does not agree. They rarely see anyone but me and consider all other people something to flee. It’s hard to milk goats hiding out on the hills.

My Opal goat, Nubian doe
My new Nubian doe High Reaches Drucilla’s Opal is sweet and friendly most of the time. Like all goats she can be ornery, curious and get into all kinds of situations around the barn and out on the hills.

Meet my Opal goat

High Reaches Drucilla had a single doe kid this year. The kid adopted me as well as her mother. I was glad when the person who bought the other doe kid didn’t want her.

Guilt set in. I can barely keep up with chores now. How could I propose to care for Opal for another ten plus years?

Writing came to the rescue. I really enjoyed doing “The Little Spider” and wanted another such project. Opal and Agate (from “Capri Capers”) will hopefully become partners in crime, adventure and more in an easy reading series.

And Opal gets to stay.

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Tall Bull Thistles

Most people mow over thistles, spray them, dig them out, eradicate them. We let several of these tall bull thistles grow each year.

These plants are biennials. In late summer thistle rosettes appear in various places around the yard. We note where they are and pick out a few to avoid with the mower.

Lots of Thistles

There are invasive thistles. Musk thistle is found in this area. Their flowers are a gorgeous color, but the plants are definitely unfriendly. We’ve never had them here.

Tall thistles do grow in the pastures. These native thistles have few spines and are the earliest to bloom.

Bull thistles are the ones that showed up in the yard. They are also native. Unfortunately they do have spines.

There are others, but those are the most common around here.

tall bull thistles attract hummingbirds
The bull thistles are near the line of hummingbird feeders. These birds swoop over to check out the thistle blooms on their way to and from the feeders. The flowers are only popular in the morning with both the hummingbirds and insects, so they must release nectar only then. The seed heads are visited off and on all day.

Why Let Thistles Grow?

If you check the labels on bird seed, many mixtures have thistle seed in them. Birds, especially goldfinches love thistle seed. These golden birds feed their young the seed and line their nests with the downy comas.

The value of tall bull thistles goes beyond this. The flowers attract lots of bees, bumblebees, wasps, butterflies and hummingbirds. Since each flower is actually a cluster of many flowers and each has plenty of nectar, the flowers are very popular.

Amazing Plants

Normally these plants grow about four feet tall with many branches. Not this year. This year our tall bull thistles topped out about eight to ten feet. We had to prop them up against the wind.

These are late bloomers so we watched as the stems got taller and taller. Finally they put out branches with buds on the tips.

Other, smaller plants were already blooming. Goldfinches abandoned the bird feeder to hang on the thistle branches and gorge on thistle seed.

Now the tall bull thistles are in full bloom. The hummingbirds make daily forays. Soon the goldfinches will mob them.

And next year more will grow.

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Resident Fawn

Deer are not uncommon out here in our valley. They can be a nuisance. Still, our resident fawn is welcome.

Why are fawns near houses and barns?

There is a small herd of doe deer frequenting the backyard. They tend to have their fawns and keep these little ones on the hillsides close to the yard.

Coyotes live back up the ravines and will attack fawns. These predators tend to stay away from the areas near our house and barn even though we don’t have a dog and don’t shoot them.

The doe deer seem to think their offspring will stay safer near our yard. That might be the reason one doe had her twins out in the small buck pasture.

Left Behind

Fawns get parked for hours at a time. Their mothers come by to feed them now and then, but stay away otherwise. The small buck pasture has tall grass and weeds making it easy to hide small fawns.

One day the fawns got big enough to stay with the doe. One left with her. The other stayed in the pasture to become our resident fawn.

resident fawn
The resident fawn is a wild white-tailed fawn. It still has spots. All day it stays down in the grass and is invisible. It gets up in the late afternoon and is still up in the early morning. When lots of cars or big trucks go by, the fawn drops down into the grass. Later its ears are visible as it checks if the coast is clear again.

Turning the Fawn Loose

Several times we watched as the doe came back to feed her fawn. Each time it followed along the fence, but wouldn’t try to jump out.

So I locked my herd in the barn lot for the night and left the pasture gate open. The resident fawn seemed to be gone. I even saw it outside the pasture along the creek, at least, I think it was that one.

Watching the Resident Fawn Grow Up

A red pickup stopped, backed up and stopped by the house. “You have a fawn trapped in your pasture!”

Sure, enough, the fawn was out running along the far fence. After reassuring the people we would take care of the matter, they left. And we sat down to watch.

Augustus and the fawn have a relationship going. They aren’t really friends. But the fawn tags along as the two graze in the pasture. Both are happy.

How long will the resident fawn stay? Augustus hopes it will be a long time. We don’t know.

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Square Hay Bales

Almost everyone puts up round bales now. That makes finding square hay bales difficult.

Round bales have advantages. Since they are moved by tractor, no hay crew is needed. They shed rain and can be left outside.

These big bales have one major flaw for me. They are too big to move without equipment I don’t have. Square hay bales are manageable for me. And, with a small herd of wasteful goats, they waste less as less is put out at a time.

My Hay

For years I bought my hay. Now I have people come and custom bale my fields. For a bit more they even put it in my barn for me.

Watching someone else put hay in my barn is hard. I picked up, unloaded, and stacked my own hay for decades. Age catches up with everyone and moving hay is one of my casualties.

Even harder is trying to explain how I want the hay bales stacked. My ancient barn is difficult to stack in. The stacks fit best in one way. And that way makes getting them back out easier too.

square hay bales being made
The tractor growls its way across the field as the claws rake in dry windrow grasses. The baler clunks and chugs pressing the grasses into bales, wraps them in twine and drops them onto the field. This is a urprisingly fast operation as dry grass becomes square hay bales.

Will My Goats Eat the Hay?

I can’t answer this question. The herd goes out and eats the grass plus weed assortment out in the fields. That doesn’t mean they will eat the same stuff dried.

Every fall this turns into a debate. I put hay out in the troughs. The goats check it out. They go out and scrounge in the fields.

Winter sets in. The fields are unavailable due to rain or ice or snow. Suddenly the hay tastes good to the goats.

Winter is coming. The first taste of fall with warm days and cool nights has set in giving warning. The goats may not be impressed with stacks of square hay bales in the barn while the fields are still green and lush.

I am.