Dear reader, I hope your wildest dreams are realized in this new year. Thank you for stopping in to my blog! The following is the text and images from my monthly newsletter Wild Ozark Musings. If you’re already a subscriber there, then this is going to be a repeat for you.

Looking towards the future

Every year I try to look back on previous years and see what worked, what didn’t, what I wanted to get done versus what actually got done… what mattered and what didn’t.

Honestly, this year I just don’t have the energy for it. So the way forward this go around will just have to reveal itself to me as I go. Nothing has ever worked according to my plans anyway, so I am surrendering.

While I will build some sort of general idea of where I want to go, just as I do when I’m literally wandering the roads or forests and creeks. I’m just trying to avoid a rigid schedule to do so. I get what feels like ‘bright ideas’ all the time, especially when I’m trying to sleep.

This year, I’m just going to follow the ones that stay with me until daylight next day. And when I pursue, it’ll be in a sense of wonder and exploration. If it works out to an endpoint, great! If it doesn’t then it was a fun rabbit hole to wander around in for a bit.

And that’s actually my favorite way to make a trip that’s just for fun – no set agenda or itinerary. Just a general direction of travel. I’ll attempt at making a trip around the sun without an agenda. I love to wander and explore, so this will be a year of wandering.

So it’s not a tough guess what my 2026 word of the year will be: WANDER.

Not only will I allow myself time to wander on foot, but also when I’m out and about I’m going to take time, once appointments & schedules are met, to wander outside the dedicated route. My mind will be allowed to wander freely, explore the options and see where it takes me.

No plans set in stone, no goals to reach. Just living and adjusting as needed with my 2026 word of the year lurking in the back of my mind. And I plan on going down whatever rabbit holes entice me to enter.

One of the ideas that came to me when I allowed my mind to wander was to do an online course for paint-making. Well, to do that, I actually do have to have a plan with an agenda and goals. But it was the wandering that got me here, so it’s not a complete reversal on my plan to not plan, lol.

Skool

(https://www.skool.com/make-handmade-paint/about)

Those of you on my workshops segment to this list got the announcement a week or so ago – since I sent that email out, I decided to change the pricing structure.

This, too is something I’m figuring it out as I go.

The course is $35.

I believe the community discussions are available at no charge. Here’s the first one I posted to introduce myself. This course is going to force me to become better at speaking on camera eventually. But today is not yet that day, lol:

 https://www.skool.com/make-handmade-paint-from-rocks-9687/a-beginning?p=06153bed

Suddenly Seeing Fossils

My 2026 word of the year really suits my rock and fossil finding mission. While walking the same route I always walk to feed the chickens and horses one morning, I saw a fossil in a rock. I’m sure that rock has been there quite some time – it didn’t suddenly appear.

But either it somehow got turned over, or for whatever reason I noticed it this morning. It does seem like we grow rocks out here, but this one didn’t look freshly sprouted, lol. The fossil looks like a stem or small piece of woody plant.

Art News!

I’m happy to say that I was accepted into Oil Painters of America 🙂 Now I need to get more paintings done so I can try to get into some of their exhibits, but in the meantime will work with the ones I have done already, like the old shed.

Old Shed Prints

I can’t make prints 16 x 20 or larger yet, but up to 12 x 16” of the Old Shed, Red Sunset painting are now available. Note cards, too. As soon as I get the painting scanned, then I can offer the larger sizes.

https://shop.wildozark.com/product/old-shed-red-sunset-print/

Print Prices

Because I have my artwork at Saatchi, and prints are also available there, I have to raise some of the prices on my website to match theirs (8 x 10’s will be affected at least, going from my usual 25.50 to Saatchi’s 40.00). Newsletter subscribers can continue to receive my old prices, but you’ll need to email me to let me know you’re a subscriber and have placed an order. Then I can refund the difference to you.

What’s on the Easel

A barred owl is on the easel (in my mind). I haven’t started it yet, but that was the image that got the most votes for what to paint next 🙂 So it WILL be what’s on the easel next. I also want to do a closeup of my horse’s eye that I think is pretty cool looking. I’ll put them both on the easel at the same time so I have one to work on while the other has to dry. My 2026 word of the year plays into this, as well. I may wander a bit in the painting subjects I choose.

What’s on the Horizon

I met a shop owner in one of the vendor spots in Santa Fe while we were there who would like to make a display with some of my art because it’s nature-related. So now that the holidays are over, I’ll coordinate with him to send over a few of my smaller paintings and see if he manages to find them home. This is going to be an exercise in trust to some extent, I know. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Real Estate

My foray into real estate has taught me that I need to learn time-management. This endeavor is full of rabbit-holes for wandering, but it can also easily eat up all of my waking hours. So, while I do want to continue being an agent, I definitely want to learn how to rein in some of the time I spend doing it (while also getting the things done that need to be done).

Writing & Everything Else

I have only been writing things to use on my website, newsletter, and materials for my real estate business. Add my Skool curriculum to that list now, too. But I want to wander more into my fiction and finish the trilogy that’s been on the back burner far too long plus begin some more.

As for the ‘Everything Else’ category, there’s a lot to fit into that spot. I want to work with my horse so that he’s better prepared for the day his mother, my other horse, dies. Hopefully it won’t be soon, but that day is probably sooner rather than later, given her age. I’m hoping that if I spend more time with him to train (both of us need the training), then he’ll have a better connection with me and be able to weather the loss of his companion.

Other things that fit this category include working on my ginseng nursery to try and ‘pig proof’ my seeding beds at least. And to work more on building our household food and medicine garden.

One of the paths I want to wander in 2026 is to host some herb-walks and bring others into my normally solitary practice of observing, gathering, and using the medicinal plants that grow around me.

Anyway, that’s the gist of my direction for the coming year.

Happy Twenty Twenty-six!

May you all have a wonderful year during this trip around the sun. If you’ve made resolutions or set some goals, share!