Category Archives: Self-Reliance

Lousewort, Bumblebee Food and Medicinal Herb

Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis) is an interesting plant. It’s a medicinal herb said to be effective at muscular pain relief. The bumblebees love it! An interesting find In May of 2014, I noticed an interesting plant. Well, I’m *always* noticing interesting plants, so it wasn’t the first time to notice an interesting plant, but the first […]

Simple Survival Skills: The Multipurpose Pashmina Shawl #survivalhack #homesteading

A scarf by itself might not be enough to keep you from freezing to death in extreme temperatures. But a large scarf, known as a shawl, can serve multiple functions aside from keeping your neck warm like a scarf. It takes up little space in a glove compartment in your car. Keep one in your […]

Simple Survival Skills: Limited Water Washing

I forget, until I have to use them, how many simple survival skills I’ve used since moving to this remote and rural Ozarks life. Washing dishes with limited water is one of the most useful things to know. Simple Survival Skills This post will seem silly to some people, especially people who have washed dishes […]

Using a Spring for Water – Winter Issues

Using a spring for water requires more effort than relying on tap water. Sometimes, just because you turn on the faucet, that doesn’t mean the water will come out like it’s supposed to. Yesterday, while Rob worked on changing the O2 sensors on his truck, I burned some calories. It was only twenty degree as […]

Long Dirt Road: Why it Takes me an Hour to Drive 12 Miles

This is a post from a few years ago that I love, so I’m reposting it. We live down a long dirt road. This little facet of our lives is the main thing that makes or breaks most newcomers to rural life. It takes a long time to go anywhere, if you go slow enough […]

New Tax Rule – Arkansas Sales Tax on Digital Products

This year there’s a new tax rule that will affect the people who buy digital goods from Wild Ozark. We have to pay retail sales tax on ebooks that I sell in our online shop as of January 1, 2018.   Sales Tax on Digital Goods only for Arkansas Residents Just as with other sales […]

Elderberry Flowers Oil Infusion

Elderberry flowers have a light, sweet fragrance and all manners of pollinators love them. Which Elderberry Flowers? The variety I’m using for this is Sambucus canadensis, which is the native elderberry in our area.  Black elderberry (S. nigra) is the european comparative variety. Don’t use red elderberry if it grows in your area because that one […]

2017 Farmers Market Schedule

I decided to just update the schedule on my “appearances page“. Please check there for the latest dates. The link to get there is https://www.wildozark.com/appearances-workshops-herb-walks-presentations/  Schedule of farmers markets & events 5/26/17 – Friday I’ll be in Jasper, for a change of venue.  I’ll have a couple of older ginseng plants (2 yr and 3 yr plants), ginseng […]

Ginseng Seedlings for Sale! At the Huntsville Farmer’s Market on Tuesday

Look for the Wild Ozark booth at the Huntsville Arkansas Farmers Market. First market day of the 2017 season is Tuesday, April 11. We’ll be there with ginseng jam, herbal syrup, books, and nature art. Stop in to say hello!

Sunrise Sounds at Wild Ozark

In the mornings, we don’t hear highway noise of people rushing to get to work on time. Our sunrise sounds belong to nature. Sunrise Sounds Remodeling We’ve been particularly busy lately here. Rob’s remodeling the bathroom. We thought it might be a weekend project, just a new coat of paint and put up some trim. […]

Starting Seeds and Straightening Tines

Yesterday I decided it was time to get busy starting seeds for our garden. Hauled the seed vault out and began the painful process of picking which of the very many seeds I have saved that I want to start first. Starting Seeds Means Choosing WHICH Seeds The pile quickly grew too large. And so […]

An Herbal Remedy for Winter Crud featuring Mullein, Ginseng, Beebalm, and Echinacea

Here’s my recipe for an herbal remedy I use every year to combat what we’ve come to call “Winter Crud”. We also take it at the first sign of anything that feels like trouble coming on. This year’s formula uses mullein, echinacea, ginseng, and beebalm.

How to Identify Plants in the Wild, How to Search and Find Clues

Earlier this year I surveyed my newsletter members for their top questions. Here’s one about how to identify plants found in the outdoors. Top Questions It’s more of a comment than a question, but I’m creating this post in response to it. Although I’ve paraphrased some, I believe the underlying question would be “how to identify […]

Get in Shape with Nature- Starting out the Day Hot & Sweaty

This morning I didn’t bring my camera so I wouldn’t be tempted to stop and take pictures. The point is to get sustained heart rate elevation. I didn’t almost step on any snakes or encounter any bears, so no excessive heart rate elevation occurred either.

No Water

This morning I turned on the faucet to put some water on my toothbrush. Nothing but a few drops came out. Then, nothing. No water. No Water My thoughts immediately led to the question in my mind, which was “Where did all the water go?” This isn’t the first time I’ve had nothing at the faucet first […]

Photos of Plants – Medicinal & Useful plants down the Wild Ozark Driveway

I’m still mostly stuck in the house because of my knee (dislocated it a little over a week ago) but I took the four-wheeler and camera down the driveway to get a few photos of plants unfurling or coming into bloom. Doll’s Eyes versus Black Cohosh Late last year, after the flood in summer, I […]

How to move a round bale without a hay spike by using the front-end loader instead.

I’ve been using a chain with the tractor and front end loader to move round bales to the horses. We don’t have a hay spike or fork attachment. This how-to assumes you have a tractor with a front end loader attachment. Before we had a tractor, I used to fork hay each day to the […]

Repairing Our Wild Ozark Spring Water Line

Today I repaired our Wild Ozark spring water line Since I’ve learned how to do this myself, I figured I’d do it while Mr. Wild Ozark was at work. Later this summer we have plans to change out the entire spring water line and bury them, but this smaller repair needed to be done sooner […]

A problem in our gravity feed spring water system

What is a gravity feed water system? We are fortunate to have our very own spring fed water source that runs all year long. It is a spring that pumps out enough water, without fail, to serve our household with daily water. Even more lucky to have gravity feed. The spring is located on the […]

Warm Egg on a Cold Day

There is something quite satisfying about finding a warm egg in the henhouse on a blustery 15*F morning. I tried something new to help me wake up a little earlier this morning. It wasn’t until 5 a.m. when the strange noises began that I’d remembered what I’d done, though. Fresh coffee brewing in the bedroom, […]

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus), one of the useful “weeds” to know

I saw a young Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) the other day when I walked down the driveway. Usually, unless I’m specifically looking for younger plants, when I notice this plant it’s already matured and ready to produce seeds. Yellow dock, while not native to our soil, is one that will make its way into the next […]

Exercising in Nature – or – Why it takes me an hour to walk to the mailbox and back

Exercising in nature is as easy as taking a walk to check the mail. It helps if you have a long driveway. One of my resolutions for the new year and the rest of my life is to get into better shape. So I figured I’d use our natural resources here at Wild Ozark to […]