The Journey Continues…

It has been a long and eventful year and I would like to say “thank you” to all who have supported me as I fulfilled a crazy desire to blog about those things for which I am passionate – homesteading, nature, gardening, edible and medicinal plants and of course, the Ozarks. Since I began Show Me Oz in July of 2010, I have written and posted over 70 articles – an undertaking that has been both challenging and rewarding!

Winter Seed Saving: Pumpkins and Squash

By Jill Henderson

With Christmas just around the corner, the last thing people might be thinking of is gardening, but the two go together like pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  In fact, if you grew your own pumpkins or squash this year and plan on using the sweet flesh to make delectable holiday treats with, now is the perfect time for saving their seeds.   Extracting and drying seeds from hard-shelled squash and pumpkins is fairly straightforward, however, you must first be sure that the seeds you save now will come true to type next year.

Otters in the Ozarks

By Jill Henderson

When Henry Rowe Schoolcraft first entered the Ozarks in 1818, he found the area lightly populated by settlers whose livelihoods included hunting, trapping and timber. At that time, the Ozarks were still a secret wilderness overflowing with thick virgin timber and teaming with wildlife.  But it wouldn’t be long before prospectors began to cash-in on the abundance of the land, and a great assault on the precious resources of the Ozarks began.

A Hole Lot of Trouble!

By Jill Henderson

Last week I was in the shop working on a project when I realized that for the entire hour that I had been there, I had been hearing the steady, drumming rhythm of a woodpecker pounding a nearby tree. I stepped out of the shop to look for the source of the sound, hoping to find out which species of woodpecker it was. I scanned the trunks of nearby trees without luck. Finally, I walked around the side of the well house to get a better look at the lower portion of the trees when a small woodpecker shot out in front of me and landed in a low-hanging branch ten feet away. I turned to look at the side of the well house and immediately saw a tidy hole in the wood siding just below the eave.