Category: Self-Reliance
These are all of the posts that have to do with homesteading, self-reliance of any sort. Getting our home business up and thriving is part of our self-reliance plan, so some of the posts are related to products and projects toward this end.
If you’d like to be able to do without a grocery store or Walmart, these posts may interest you.
Our goal is to be able to get by just fine if none of the usual shopping haunts are available anymore. We are not at that point yet, far from it. I personally will suffer extreme internet withdrawal symptoms if the grid suddenly crashes, haha, but I’m sharing what I know and as we learn something useful, I’ll try to post it.
If you have links to share, please add them in a comment on a post that is similar in nature or email me at madison(at)wildozark(dot)com. I’d love to hear from you!
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Check the Spring Tank
When it’s a drought, we monitor our water usage more closely than when it isn’t so dry outside. When it gets like this, before I do anything that uses a lot of water, like washing clothes, I take a hike …
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My mind is on art, even while digging ditches, it seems
Even while doing sweat-inducing work totally unrelated to being creative, my mind is on art. Look at the color I found while I was digging a ditch 🙂 Needless to say, I had a pocket full of rocks by the …
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Rural Life in the Ozarks | Winter
I love our rural life in the Ozarks, where everything urban is at least 45 minutes away, and there’s a long dirt road to get to pavement. The wildlife and scenery inspire me on a daily basis. But it has …
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Running Errands, Preparing for Bad Weather
The approaching weekend and the week after has foreboding forecasts, so today I spent the day running errands. And preparing for bad weather. That usually means COLD weather out here. The only other thing we get during warmer months is …
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Cutting Firewood, an Endless Homestead Task
Today is Christmas day and the family festivities are over. I had taken some pictures the other day with the intention to write a blog post about firewood, an endless homestead task. But time got away from me and so …
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An Herbal Remedy for Winter Crud featuring Mullein, Beebalm, and Echinacea
Here’s my 2023 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 …
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Hiking up the Mountain
This morning I went hiking up the mountain to check on our water tank. It’s been very dry here for the whole summer, and the recent rains haven’t added anything to the creeks. The creeks are almost completely dry. Every …
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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 …
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Art Inspiration Moments on a Non-Art-Making Day
Even in a day full of non-art related tasks, there can be moments of art inspiration. Equine Escapees In the mornings after I get out of bed, I go outside on the porch to have my coffee and listen to …
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Musings from an Ozark nature artist
I’m at an ‘in between’ time at the moment. Between rain showers and rainy days, between things scheduled on my calendar. And since I just finished a painting, I’m between paintings, too. But this is a great time for …
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Plant Walk & Nature Journaling at Wild Ozark
There are other plant walks in Arkansas, but this one is probably a little different. The trails we’ll follow are deer trails and logging roads. The drive to get here is gorgeous. And the biodiversity here at Wild Ozark is …
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Ozark Winter Storm | Jan 24 2023
Progress on my painting of Kings River in winter came to a grinding halt a few days ago when we got our first Ozark winter storm of the season. We’ve had some freezes, and a little snow, but those little …
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Pivot to Online Art | Stocking the shelves | Art Prints for Sale
I’ve been hard at work behind the scenes here at the website stocking my online art shop. Artists everywhere are trying to develop a way to market online art. Here’s the update on my own effort to stock the Wild …
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The Bear Issue with Our Spring-fed Water Line
So I’ve done a good job of making sure the water is dripping on the cold nights and so far so good with not letting the lines freeze (since the first time I let it happen this year). But this …
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Leave the Water On
You’d think by now I’d remember to do that when the first true cold snap arrives. But no, I always forget, just like I forgot last night. And now, of course, there’s no water running from my faucet when I …
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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! Rosy colored variety of Pedicularis, with a bumble bee visiting. A pale yellow-colored lousewort. Some lousewort, showing …
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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 …
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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 …
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Using a Spring for Water – Winter Issues
When you rely on a spring for water, you need a tank. This is our 1500 gallon water collection tank. Using a spring for water requires more effort than relying on tap water. Sometimes, just because you turn on the …
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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.…
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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 …
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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, …
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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 …
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Compost Sifter
Rocks are everywhere here at Wild Ozark. Even when I rake leaves or clean out the chicken house I get rocks mixed in. A compost sifter would help when I’m trying to separate rocks and weeds out of the pile.…
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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 …