Category: Nature
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Chasing Windmills and Wildflowers in South Texas
My past week has been filled with family and friends in Louisiana and Texas. While in Texas I got the notion to gather a collection of photos of the old windmills that are out there. Most of these are in …
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Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) Unfurling
The blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) is awake early this spring. I found some the other day, in three different stages of unfurl. The one completely unfurled is in a pot in the nursery area, the other two are in the …
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Dirt Road Photos – Ozark Sunset Silhouettes
Scene from the dirt road in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas. The Ozarks from a Scenic Dirt Road I was driving home from my daughter’s house this evening as the sun began setting on our beautiful Ozark hills. Just so happened …
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Stone Tool – Relic of a Long Bygone Era
I knew when I saw the rounded hand-sized rock that it was more than “just a rock”. It was a stone tool, & probably several thousand years old. There is something special about holding a stone I know once was …
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Coyotes at Midnight
I had trouble getting to sleep last night. Then there were coyotes at midnight, just as the drift of dreams was beginning to take hold. It went on for so long I had time to turn on the audio recorder …
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Delve Deeper to Observe Nature
Take a moment from your day and delve deeper to observe nature. You’ll gain a sense of awe and wonder. Delve deeper Truly experience that moment. If it’s a plant you’re observing, reach out and touch it (be reasonable – …
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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 …
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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 …
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Kings River Falls – Photos from our hike
On Sunday I went hiking with my two oldest children and their children, one of my daughter’s friends and her children, and my parents to the Kings River Falls. This trail is a little north and east of Fallsville, AR …
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A Poem by Joanna Macy
This is an untitled (newly titled!) poem by Joanna Macy, a deep ecologist. I found this poem many years ago on a website long lost to memory, but I’ve linked to Joanna’s website in her name below. I stumbled …
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The Sound of Winter
Some sounds are distinctly “winter”. Sometimes the sound of winter is marked by the absence of sound. Maybe it’s more correctly described as the “silence of winter”. I am often reminded of how grateful I am to have my sense …
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Meet our new team mates – Bat Cave Botanicals
Wild Ozark is pleased to announce that we’ll be working with Bat Cave Botanicals to bring wild Appalachian ginseng roots and leaf products to our online shop. About Bat Cave Botanicals My partner & I are fortunate to live …
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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 …
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What is Humanity’s Role in Nature?
Humanity’s Role in Nature Have you ever thought about humanity’s role in nature? Our various mythologies and religious origin stories offer some ideas that are generally accepted by many, but those are conflicting and I still wonder. Are we here …
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Snow is Beautiful but Hoar Frost is Magical
The sight of hoar frost makes me smile because it brings a memory to mind, one with imagery that could have been ripped from the pages of a fairy tale. Hoar frost happens when fog freezes on the trees and …
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Exercising Outside on a Crispy Ozark Morning
A crispy cold morning, great for exercising outside I did my exercising outside this morning, jog/walked to the mailbox in under 20 minutes – a milestone for me! Exercising Outside Feeding the critters acted as a warm-up spell, but it was …
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Wild Ozark Musings – December Newsletter
Below you’ll find the December issue of Wild Ozark Musings, a newsletter about nature, ginseng, and our wild Ozark life. Ordinarily I send this out as an email near the beginning of the month to subscribers. This month I didn’t …
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Did you know Osage Oranges evolved with wooly mammoths?
Osage Maclura pomifera, also known as Osage Orange, Bois d’Arc, Hedge-apple, or Horse-apple, the osage tree is native to our area. Even so, there aren’t very many of them in our particular neck of the woods. A bedraggled osage tree. …
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With a departing roar
With a departing roar the storm rolled off to the east. Clear skies between broken clouds filled the southwestern wake. Nature is my muse. I’ve been working hard on my novel, trying to get the first draft finished by the …
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Winter Solstice 2015 – A Widdershin sort of Time
Winter Solstice 2015 occurs tonight at 10:03 p.m. CST It’s a widdershin sort of time, an unwinding, a releasing. A loosening of the grip on things I need to let go of. Actual New Year’s Eve It’s Winter Solstice, the …
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Finding Lost Fungi
I brought the camera today to get some photos of fungi I’d spotted a few days ago. When I rode out with Rob the other day I saw the mushrooms on a log and figured I’d come back and get …
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Looking forward to solstice
Pulled this one from the archives. It’s from when I worked in Bentonville, leaving before dawn and getting home after dusk. I hated that and am glad to be working from home now, but I still look forward to mid-winter’s …
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Killing Pretty Roosters
First I tried selling pretty roosters. Then I tried gifting pretty roosters. Yesterday we killed pretty roosters. It was my chore to pick which ones. I felt a bit like Kali (Goddess who is both giver of life and bringer …
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Inspired by Nature
Nature has inspired some pretty cool inventions. And lots of art. My guess is that Mother Nature is the muse to a lot of artists of all types. How often do you see something in the natural world and marvel …
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Looking back on 10 years of roughing it in the Ozarks – Happy Thanksgiving 2015
Many would consider us still roughing it. Life is a lot more comfortable here now, but we learned a lot about survival since we moved to these wild Ozark hills. Our Wild Ozark Origins When we first moved here to …