Category: Latest From High Reaches

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Latest From High Reaches

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.

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My Cucurbit Year

Somehow my garden is having a cucurbit year. I don’t think I planned it this way. It just happened.

I like growing and eating squash, melons, pumpkins and an occasional cucumber. My goats love the squash and pumpkins too. The chickens prefer melons.

Beginning Squash Plans

butternut squash for my cucurbit year
This year I planted the butternut squash so it would grow up over the shade house cattle panel arch. It worked fairly well. I do have to check every day for new shoots trying to spread out across the ground. The squash are not too big for the vines to support them hanging. Some do get caught on the wire and have to be moved off.

Summer squash is a popular item. So I planned a bed for my favorite zephyrs. Three hills with three plants per hill. I plan ahead for losses due to squash bugs and borers.

These are supposed to be semibush. Not this year. This year robust vines five and six feet long wander out across garden paths and other garden beds.

Winter butternut squash was slated to cover half of the shade house. It didn’t listen. These vines took up their half and we are having an ongoing battle over the shade house interior plus the lima bean section and a couple of garden paths.

The usual monster squash, a goat favorite, went into a large 30 foot square bed by itself. Vines now fill this bed, climb up the six foot fences around the bed and try to invade the yard. Leaves tower four feet over the ground.

monster squash for my cucurbit year
This is still an unknown squash variety. The vines are tremendous, spreading out sixty feet, if they can. The leaves are over a foot across. Mature squash can be over 12 pounds. The goats love this squash. It keeps for months once its shelled.

Unplanned Cucurbits

My long beans didn’t come up for some reason this year. In a lapse of sense I put in three pie pumpkin seeds. These are happily taking over the front corner of the garden.

Another winter squash, Yuxi, went in when the winter melon seeds didn’t germinate. These monster vines are flowing up along one garden fence and trying to invade the tomatoes next door.

Although planned, the royal watermelon has in past years been very small. Compared to the nearby monster squash, it is still small. But the vines are running amok across a front section by the water barrels.

Cucurbit Year Invasion

At least a third of my garden is now buried under cucurbit vines. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the leaves weren’t so big.

Although I have only an inkling of how many monster squash are hiding under those leaves, judging from the butternut crop, this cucurbit year in the garden means we will be eating a lot of squash this winter as well as this summer.

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Latest From High Reaches

New Septic Tank

When A-1 Septic came out, the man found out our ancient metal tank had rusted almost through. Luckily our vehicle normally parked in the garage hadn’t fallen through. We needed a new septic tank.

A previous owner of our house built a garage over the old one. This is not a good arrangement so the new one would be put in the front yard.

My goats were not impressed when the backhoe, the Bobcat, the big trucks and several men arrived at milking time. They got milked anyway.

500 gallon septic tank is big
The new septic tank isn’t that heavy. It does more than fill up a regular pickup bed. The rib design is to add strength to the tank sides.

Setting Up For the New Septic Tank

In the meantime the backhoe had dug a big hole. The new septic tank holds 500 gallons of waste and is four feet long, three feet wide and three feet deep. It needed to be a foot underground.

The old tank was crushed. A thick layer of gravel cushioned the new pipe going across to the old pipe and out of the garage. More gravel went on top of the new pipe.

Once the tank was in place and the pipes connected, a new problem arose. In order for the new septic tank to settle correctly, it needs to be at least half full of water. We have no hose.

new septic tank in hole
A backhoe lowers the new septic tank into the hole it dug for it. New pipe is needed to hook the tank up to the sewer system. Being plastic, the tank doesn’t stay settled down in the hole very well so it needs to be half filled or more with water. Then the dirt is piled back on top.

Problem?

We do have rain barrels. The rain barrels have tadpoles in them. I grabbed my fish net and started moving tadpoles out to only one barrel.

A small pump moved the water into the new septic tank. We ended up with one barrel of water to hold my plants over until rain could fill the now empty barrels back up.

Now the pile of dirt started going places. Some went back on top of the new septic tank. Some went into the garage to fill in that hole. The rest is sitting in front of my vegetable garden to fill containers and raised beds once the rocks are removed and compost is mixed in.

Surprisingly, this whole operation only took a couple of hours. It’s a nice feeling to have this potential disaster averted.

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Dealing With Septic Tanks

In the city everyone hooks up to the sewer system. No such system exists in the country, so most people use septic tanks.

Decades ago these tanks were made of concrete or thick metal. Polypropalene ones and concrete ones are available now.

Kinds of Waste Water

Two grades of waste water flow out of the house. One, the grey water, is from sinks and the bathtub. This water has mostly water, dirt and soap in it.

The second comes from the toilet. This has urine and waste in it.

Many old houses like mine have two sewer systems. One takes out the grey water. The other takes the sewer water to the septic tank.

A-1 Septic helps dealing with septic tanks
When a septic tank gets full, a service like A-1 Septic in Salem, MO, sends out a truck to pump the solids out.

Taking Care of Septic Tanks

Since septic tanks let solid matter in and keep it there, the less that goes in, the longer it takes to fill it up. Water flows through the tank and out to a leach field.

One way to cut down on the solids going in is to not flush paper down. Instead this paper is burned or put out with the trash.

According to Daniel Black, owner of A-1 Septic, the tank should be pumped out every three to five years. This keeps it from packing so solid it is hard to empty.

The solids are taken out to be sprayed out on hay fields as fertilizer. It breaks down quickly to grow grass well. A field isn’t cut for over a month after spraying so the waste is washed by rain and broken down by bacteria and the sun.

Old Septic Tanks

I’ve learned a lot about this lately because my tank needed to be pumped out. It had seemed just fine for three decades and was easy to ignore.

The crew came out. First, they had to find the tank. They have a little camera on a long line that goes up the pipes to the septic tank exit. This can be found by a device like a homing device.

Second, the dirt is taken off of the top of the tank. The smart way is to have a clean out pipe, but mine didn’t have one. This is not unusual for old houses.

Metal tanks have a big defect. The metal rusts. My tank had almost rusted away.

Now I need a new septic tank.

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Necessary Rain

City people might look at rain as a nuisance. Country people don’t usually. This necessary rain waters gardens, grows pastures and woods and brings up mushrooms.

The lack of and the abundance of rain are the mainstays of rural conversation. Here in my part of the Ozarks both conditions have been topics this summer.

cover for "My Ozark Home" by Karen GoatKeeper
Floods and rain are some of the images and haiku topics found in this retrospective of our first 25 years living in the Ozarks.

Local Focus

News is reporting on both ends of the rain spectrum lately. New England is flooding. The Southwest is dry and being cooked.

These reports are disturbing. Even the reports of similar problems in Europe and Asia are concerning.

However, my focus is here. I rarely go even thirty miles from home. This is my world. I do sympathize as such weather, to a degree, has come here. But the reports are for far away places I will never visit. I live here.

More than necessary rain
This is from a flood in 2015 here in the Ozarks. It took off most of the planks from our bridge. They got caught down the creek where we found them and hauled them back. The creek was a foot over the bridge, but dropped rapidly after the rain slowed and stopped.

Heat and Drought

Last summer saw temperatures over a hundred here along with dry weather. Hay fields burned up, including mine. Hay prices soared, if I could find any.

My goats survived on mulch status hay and cold pastures over the winter. The garden lasted into early winter under plastic with well water and mulch.

cover for "Exploring the Ozark Hills" by Karen GoatKeeper
Storms are part of life in the Ozarks and are the subject of some essays and photographs in “Exploring the Ozark Hills”.

Cool and Rainy

This summer has stayed cool, rarely seeing even ninety degrees. A couple of days flirted with the hundred degree mark during a dry spell.

Now clouds cover the sky for days. They don’t drop a lot of rain, but enough for make the pastures lush.

Hay is still a problem and the prices are still high. First it got too dry and burned the fields. Now the necessary rain falls and it’s too cool and wet to make hay.

Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover
In this new novel the main character Mindy must survive a major flood and put her life together afterwards.

How Does This Matter?

In my world, this matters a lot. This is where I live, where my goats live, where my garden is.

For the people living in other places, enduring weather so much worse than I am seeing, it doesn’t matter. What matters is their local weather because that is where they live.

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Summer Squash Time

Gardening is rewarding, sometimes too rewarding. Summer squash is one of the prolific rewards.

There are many varieties to choose from. My preference is Zephyr.

Planning for Summer Squash

One garden bed is designated for planting these big, demanding plants. I dig down at least a spade’s length and dump in a pile of manure. The soil is put back on top to form the hill. Three fit in one bed.

Mulch hay is packed around the hills six inches or more deep. This will keep moisture in the soil and keep it cooler as the Ozark summer sun is hot. It does provide a place for squash bugs to hide.

Zephyr summer squash
Zephyr summer squash has distinctive coloring. The squash seems to stay tender to a bigger size than many summer squash types.

Planting

Summer squash is very frost sensitive. It is also fast growing. I stick three seeds in each hill.

The advice is to pull two of the three sprouts. I ignore this. I know squash bugs and borers will move in and can decimate a plant overnight. Leaving all three in each hill is insurance some will survive.

Growing

The fun part of growing my plants is watching them get started. They put out their first leaves. Their little roots are reaching down through the hill.

Those roots find the compost. Overnight the plants double in size and keep growing. The leaves are bigger than dinner plates. Flowers open.

squash bug eggs
A main enemy of summer squash is the squash bug. This is a cluster of squash bug eggs. The eggs are often on the under side of leaves, but can be on stems or on top of leaves. They should be destroyed.

Bug Wars

My big plants make the bug wars easier. I can get down on the ground and look up to see under most of the leaves. Squash bug eggs are collected and dumped into the tadpole rain barrels to drown. Bugs are squashed.

A watering can is another weapon. These bugs panic when they get wet. I water the much and stems so I can dispose of the fleeing bugs. I know I will eventually lose, but this delays the inevitable.

squash bugs
The newly hatched nymphs are green and barely an eighth of an inch long. They soon turn gray and grow quickly to this one close to adult size. The adult has the triangle on the back and overlapping wings of a true bug. The predatory wheel bugs look similar, but are good to have around. Squash bugs can destroy a squash plant overnight.

Harvesting

Summer squash must be checked and cut every day. Everyone’s plants produce about the same time. There is a glut of summer squash.

There are lots of recipes using squash available. I don’t do much cooking in the summertime and rarely do any desserts.

What do I do with this bounty? I sell some. We eat some. The goats eat some. I cook up some and puree it, freeze the puree and have great soup stock for next winter.

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Finding Culver’s Root

Finding Culver’s Root was a challenge. This wasn’t because the plant was hidden away somewhere or growing in some special place.

The plant was growing right there along the road. It was even in the same general location where I had seen it several years ago.

Memory versus Reality

I remembered Culver’s Root as being tall and robust. The flower column was several inches tall lined with white flowers. It caught the eye.

The guide book “Missouri Wildflowers” reports the plant can be six feet tall. Maybe my memory wasn’t really at fault.

This year the Culver’s Root plants are much smaller and thinner. Perhaps the recent dry weather and late spring frosts affected them.

Waiting

Finding Culver’s Root was only the first step. The whorled leaves and flower stalk marked these few plants as the ones I sought.

However, the flowers were still buds. That means checking the plants every couple of days until the flowers open.

Culver's Root flowers
Sometimes the flower spike on Culver’s Root stands straight up. The plants I found had interesting curves in theirs.

Photographer’s Problem

The Culver’s Root plants were beside the road. They were also near the top of a hill and over the edge. This is a steep hill dropping down into the creek bed.

Although I know the drop is only 30 feet or so, it looks much farther to me. I don’t want to slip on the gravel and go over. Heights bother me.

The Solution

The flowers started opening. As is true of many such flower stalks, the lower flowers open first. As these fade, the ones above them open until the top flowers open.

I sat down on the edge of the road. The plants were just within reach. I pulled a couple over, steadied them and took some pictures.

Now that finding Culver’s Root is off my list, I think I’ll tackle the native cactus. A friend spotted a plant so the waiting for it to bloom begins.

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Thirsty Plants

Summer has arrived in the Ozarks. Along with summer have come tiny rains and hot temperatures. That adds up to thirsty plants.

Wild plants along the roads stand with drooping, wilting leaves. There isn’t much help for them. That is the terrible thing about even a small drought: watching day by day as everything dries up and turns brown.

In the Garden

Some gardeners let their gardens dry up. Their plants must survive just like the wild ones as the gardeners pray for rain that may, if the garden is under the right cloud, fall in time.

I prefer to water and mulch. My garden represents a lot of planning and work. The plants are finally starting to produce vegetables for the table.

Getting Water

The only water sources near my garden are a dug well with a hand pump, the rain barrels and the creek. There is no faucet and hose. Instead, there are two watering cans.

Thirsty plants need plenty of water. Each of 60 tomato plants requires a full can. The pepper plants are smaller and take a little less. The squash plants need full cans and more. It adds up to about 80 cans of water and hours of time.

A better solution is pumping water up from the creek. This is an adventure.

eggplant experiment
Eggplant is a plant I rarely grow as my garden seems to be flea beetle central. These two plants have been under mosquito netting until they began blooming. Maybe they are big and healthy enough to survive now.

Creek Water and Fire Hose

A few years ago, the old water hose wore out. The replacement hose is a discharge hose, better described as a small fire hose. It is designed to move as much water as possible in the least amount of time.

There is no way to water my thirsty plants this way without getting wet, very wet. That is not a problem in the hot weather

The biggest problem is reducing the water flow enough to not uproot the plants while trying to water them. Mulch helps.

butternut squash vines are thirsty plants
My garden never has enough room in it. This year the butternut squash are growing up over the shade house. It does save space and shades the interior, but the vines can’t put down extra roots. If any of the squash get too big, they need supporting. And the vines try their best to escape and spread all over. There are three plants on each side. All take a gallon of water a day once they are twice this size. At least the squash bug eggs are easy to spot on the leaves and vines up on the cattle panel.

Waiting For Rain

Twice a week now I argue with the hose. My thirsty plants look good. I’m picking squash and watching tomatoes hoping they will turn red sometime soon.

My garden survives because I can water it. My pastures were ready to cut for hay. The balers haven’t gotten here. In another week, there will be no hay, only straw.

The clouds drift by. Maybe my pastures will be under the right cloud soon.