The Homestead Issue - Summer 2023

ART IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT

“Fresh Air” mural by Jason Jones, greets visitors to The Ramble, a growing new park with art experiences around every corner.

Experience

EdITOR’S NOTE

Ten years ago, I embarked on an experiment: creating a publication on arts and creative life in Arkansas. Would people read it? Could it last? The answer, it seems, is a resounding yes. And it’s all thanks to you, the readers who have kept us going. But let me be clear, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve always been independent, without corporate backing or a trust fund to rely on. I’ve worked multiple jobs to support myself and keep this publication alive. Sometimes I question why we kept going. Perhaps it’s a touch of masochism or a deep connection to this publication that I couldn’t break away from. Regardless, we’ve persevered.

It’s satisfying to visit larger cities, see their publications, and know that we do it better. Muhammad Ali once said, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.” And it’s true because of the incredible writers, photographers, artists, designers, editors, businesses, and organizations that have supported us along the way. We are all The Idle Class, and we’ve achieved this together.

Now, let’s reap the rewards of our collective efforts in this issue: The Homestead Issue. It’s something we’ve never done before. In a world where businesses shut down, supply chains fail, and droughts parch the land, we must rediscover the forgotten knowledge of survival and self-sufficiency. This issue isn’t about climate doom; it’s about igniting a spark. I hope you can read these articles, do further research, and learn to live more sustainably.

I want to extend a big thanks to those who shared their wisdom and allowed me to explore their properties. Your knowledge is invaluable. I also want to welcome our new assistant editor, Cassidy Kendall, and encourage you to check out her publication, The Hot Springs Post . Additionally, I have to welcome Kathy Forbes as our new ad sales representative, and send a special thanks to Amber Lindley for her business development contributions and Madi Love for her incredible design skills. And, of course, a special thanks to you, dear reader Keep on reading. Here’s to ten more years ahead.

Kody Ford Publisher + Editor-in-Chief

Presenting 25+ performances at Inspiration Point in Eureka Springs and venues throughout Northwest Arkansas

EVENTS in the Ozarks

BENTONVILLE

Diego Rivera’s America

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

March 11 – July 31, 2023

Diego Rivera’s America is a temporary exhibition showcasing the works of the renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera from March 11 to July 31, 2023, and admission costs $12. It is the first major exhibition focused solely on the Mexican artist in over 20 years and provides visitors with a unique opportunity to explore his diverse body of work by exploring his prolific period from the early 1920s to the early 1940s, during which he created iconic murals and paintings in both Mexico and the United States. The exhibition features more than 130 works, including drawings, paintings, frescoes, and studies for pivotal mural projects.

SPRINGS

Farm Fresh Opera: Season 2023 Opera in the Ozarks

June 23-July 21, 2023

Opera in the Ozarks–the renowned summer music festival and opera training program–is set to launch its 2023 Summer Season with numerous exciting opera productions and special musical events across the region. The 2023 “Farm Fresh Opera” season will begin on June 23rd and run until July 21st at Opera in the Ozarks’ venue, Inspiration Point, located on Hwy. 62, five miles west of Eureka Springs.

The 72nd season of Opera in the Ozarks will feature 22 fully staged and costumed opera productions, including three Sunday matinees, with a talented cast of 37 singers and a full

orchestra of 25 professional musicians from across the United States. The season will include three exceptional operas: Donizetti’s Elixir of Love, Copland’s The Tender Land, and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, along with additional special events at various locations throughout Northwest Arkansas. Aside from the main stage performances, there will be over a dozen Children’s Outreach Production performances at various venues throughout the region, a Chamber Music concert on July 17th at Inspiration Point, and two Broadway Cabarets–on July 13th at Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville at 7 p.m. and The 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs on July 18th at 6 p.m. To order tickets, visit: opera.org.

2023 SEASON JUNE 23 – JULY 21

EUREKA

pine bluff

Kim Kwee: A Simple Heart, Arkansas Women to Watch 2023: New

The Arts and

Center of Southeast Arkansas Summer 2023

The Arts and Science Center of Southeast Arkansas has an artfilled summer heading your way. Kim Kwee: A Simple Heart opens in the Kennedy Gallery runs through July 8th. Kwee’s work combines textiles and drawing media. The show is sponsored by Simmons Bank.

Arkansas Women to Watch 2023: New Worlds runs through Aug. 12th in the International Paper Gallery. It is the latest in the Women to Watch exhibition series, conceived by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Guest curator Chaney Jewell, then Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at ASC, nominated four Arkansas artists–Heidi Carlsen-Rogers, Anaïs Dassé, Hannah McBroom, and Aimée Papazian. The event is organized by ACNMWA and sponsored by Relyance Bank. Dustyn Bork: “Blueprints” opens on June 1st and runs through Aug. 13th at the Loft Gallery in The ARTSpace on Main. Inspired by architecture in various stages of building, renewal, and rebuilding, Dustyn Bork’s works in Blueprints incorporate collage, relief printmaking, and screenprinting techniques. The exhibition is in conjunction with Bork’s artist residency later this summer at The ARTSpace on Main.

To learn more about other events coming to ASC, visit asc701.org

Representing Local, Regional, National & International Artists of the African Diaspora

“Nature’s Three Mothers”, 2021 30”x16”x16”, Ceramic Clay, by CHUKES

EASY AS ABC

Author Jane Bosko brings gardening to the kids with her new book, ABC Come Garden with Me

Gardening is second nature for Jane Bosko, and she wants to spread her knowledge and passion for growing food to her family and others. A mother of three, she has worked on her new book ABC Come Garden with Me, writing between homeschooling her children for over a year. Bosko found inspiration from her oldest daughter when writing the book.

ABC Come Garden with Me is an eye-catching introduction to the magic of mother nature for young children. Illustrated by Bethany Klein, the book features visual activities such as a scavenger hunt for various bugs in the images. The story follows the young narrator, Astrid, as she identifies and plants multiple vegetables and herbs, everything from chamomile to kale to quinoa. It’s colorful and educational — an excellent read for a young child.

Bosko plans to write more children’s books, some on growing and cooking your food and some based on bedtime stories she’s told her children.

ABC Come Garden with Me can be purchased on Amazon. Follow Bosko on Instagram at @jane_bosko + Klein at @bayartt.

No Lifeguard on Duty

by: Na'Tosha Devon

I’m considerate when I drown

I know flailed arms and failing That water damaged lunges are no good for help and Hell fire

I don’t scream out to the masses

I’ve learned that my choking on Chlorine only distracts the other swimmers from the necessities of Marco Polo and Deep Sea diving

I’ve fooled my loved ones into thinking that I can breathe underwater

That somehow I can speak to the tide and it waves back at me

That when the ocean opens its mouth

Reveals its teeth

I’m not bitten by the sharp edges of the shore

I wait until the others are busy with cannon balls and back strokes

Tie an anchor around my ankle

Hold my breath, force my remains to the bottom

I sing myself a lullaby just before the boat is overtaken by water And even if by way of uncontrollable waves

My corpse rises to the top

I’ve already convinced those around me not to see me as dead

But to simply think that I’m just floating

Big Piph

IS FAR FROM FINISHED

WORDS / KODY FORD

For years, Epiphany “Big Piph” Morrow has worked tirelessly as a rapper, media figure and mentor, raising his profile across the South from Little Rock to Atlanta. A graduate of Stanford and a native of Pine Bluff, Piph has focused more on his art and his community than material trappings and fame above all else.

Over the last few years, Piph has ventured into digital content with The Glow on PBS, which was based off of his one-man show. This web series saw Piph sitting down with Black entrepreneurs and creatives such as Korto Momolu, Benito Lubazibwa and Chris James. In 2022 he produced a web series for Arkansas Democratic governor candidate Chris Jones. After gaining this experience, Piph decided to mix it up for his latest outing, Far From Finished, a semi-fictional, scripted web series.

In Far From Finished, Piph plays a version of himself that is, in his estimation, about 50 percent the real Big Piph, with the other half being a hyper-inversion of himself, a feat that can be very difficult for an actor to pull off. He describes it as a Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Atlanta meets Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance. At the onset of Far From Finished, the character Piph is nominated as an Artist on The Kusp. The eight-episode season isn’t an entirely linear story, but shooting for The Kusp is the narrative framework for each eight-minute episode that are like vignettes from Piph’s life, with an overall character arc across the season. The results are an entertaining and vulnerable story filled with self-deprecating humor–not a usual hallmark of hiphop–that pays off for the viewer and the star. As for the inspiration, Piph said, “[I]t all sparked from two roles that converged. One was just a personal role

of artistry, wanting to work on a fictional, scripted web series, right? So something where I actually wrote it all out and then also shot it…start to finish. And that kind of culminated with just personally in life, recognizing people in a certain peer set were in a nice position in life, but still kind of wondering what’s next for them or will this be it? Or as I say, it’s like, is this it? And so it’s kind of like really me unpacking that.”

Piph maintained creative control over the project as a writer, producer and star, with Kenneth Bell serving as cinematographer and director. The two have collaborated over the years on music videos. Given the nature of Far From Finished, Piph recruited friends and family members to also perform in the show. He estimates that 80 percent of the cast are non-actors but reiterates that many are creatives with some acting experience. He even cast his mother in one episode, creating a new challenge for him as a writer.

Piph describes the show as Arkansas-centric, shot mainly in Little Rock and Springdale. The sponsors include Lost Forty, ACANSA and Camp Taco. Ferocious Productions handled the soundtrack, the title music and other audio. Shooting lasted over three weeks and took place at 15 locations with 25 actors, an intense production schedule for even the most seasoned filmmakers with a full crew.

Given Piph’s limited resources and multiple roles, things got tough. Still, he persevered, crediting Bell and his friend Tiffany Brown with keeping himself in check and the production focused and moving forward. Wearing many hats during production caused stress, but he knew he had to bring good vibes to the set. Everyone there was watching him, feeling what he was putting off. Just like on stage during one of his shows. Accomplishing such a large undertaking as an eight-episode web series might leave most people ready to kick back and relax, but Big Piph is far from finished. In fact, he’s already writing season two.

Watch Far From Finished and listen to the soundtrack at FFFseries.com.

RANDALL SHREVE

is excessively refined

like it’s the best lyrically, like it’s far and above what I’ve done in the past. I’ve told the band guys I’ve never done an album that felt so like that. I was so proud of the lyrics. The lyrics kind of got the point across in the past, and these, a lot of ‘em are just gold. There’s not a lot of wasted words on the album, but my favorite song is probably that first single, “Pretty Little Freaks.” I was going to release “Lost Boys” first. That’s the one that’s the crowd favorite. It’s the oldest song in the album too. But I was going to release it first, and they said to pick my favorite first because that’s going to be everybody’s favorite, so I picked “Pretty Little Freaks.”

Are there any deeper or more personal meanings in the other songs that resonate with you?

WORDS / LAUREN GANIM

PHOTO / MEIKE REHM

For the first time in seven years, Randall Shreve is ready to bring back his voice and be vulnerable again with the upcoming release of his newest album, Excessively Refined. With themes from his past, present and future, Shreve declares that this is his most raw and honest lyrics thus far in his career. Shreve sat down with The Idle Class to take a deeper dive into the thought process and production of the album.

Was there anything specific that drew you to making this album?

It’s been like seven years since I’ve released a whole album. And this is just the refined version of it. All of the old songs that were originally gonna be on it, like out of all of them, only one is left that actually made it. But yeah, just going through the process of writing it and lasting that long, you know? I was going through all the different things, like the pandemic and a lot of other stuff. Like it just kept changing and evolving from what I thought the album was gonna be. It’s nothing like that. It just turned out to be something completely different.

Do you have a favorite song in the album?

Well, oh my God, there’s so many lines. I really feel

There’s one song we’re talking about doing a video for called “Sober.” Some people thought it was about some sort of substance abuse issue. And I explained that that’s not what the song is. But after it was finished and I listened to it, it seems really obvious that other people can get their own meaning and feeling from it that might help them out in a different way. For me, it was therapeutic because of what it’s about, and my substance was religion, like growing up extremely religious and repressed by religion. Giving that up was harder than any experience with substances, as people think of them. And so it’s kind of painting a parallel. Now I’m sober from what was making a real problem in my life.

What was the whole process like in regards to creating this album, mentally, emotionally, etc?

I had never been to therapy when I put the last album out. I was severely depressed and refused to take any sort of antidepressant. I just thought that’s gonna mess up my creativity. Now I’m able to create without putting it off cause of my depression and stuff like that. It’s been such a different experience. I am writing more clearly. One of my friends, who’s known me longer than almost anybody, heard it and said, “You’re writing with a full range of emotion now. Like this is the best stuff you’ve ever written because all of you is in the music instead of just the parts of you that you’re allowing or able to share.” And that’s exactly right. Now you can hear all of me.

Visit: RandallShreve.com.

Marty Shutter

IS THE Employee of the Year

WORDS + PHOTO / KODY FORD

With 40 recorded albums and hundreds of songs to his name, Marty Shutter’s musical output is prolific, but you might now know it. Shutter has kept his body of work close to his chest, only releasing a handful of songs over the years on Soundcloud and YouTube. But now, he has officially released an EP entitled Employee of the Year, a laid back collection of lightly polished, lo-fi folk pop.

A Chicago native who came of age in Searcy, his interest in music goes back to his formative years watching local bands like The Screaming Mimes play at his father’s pizza parlor and from hearing stories about his great-uncle, George Wettling, an influential jazz drummer who played alongside legends like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and just about every other Chicago player of his era. Shutter later enrolled at the University of Arkansas, a period when he became exposed to a broader musical palette and befriended singer/songwriter C.P. Carrington, of Denver-based Animal Electricity, who sold Shutter his first guitar, and poet Z.R. Hathaway, with who. he co-wrote some early songs in 2000. Shutter still works occasionally with the two under the name Eebus Brothers.

After graduation, Shutter returned to Chicago, studying and performing improv, including with The Second City House Improv Ensemble (TWISTY) and occasionally also programming music for shows there and other gigs. These years of practicing improv in Chicago were pivotal for Shutter’s growth as a musician. Once he returned to Northwest Arkansas, Shutter played occasional gigs, but he found himself without a stage when the pandemic hit. But like a good improviser, he found a way. Reddit Live allowed thousands of musicians, comedians and even

therapy frogs to find a way to reach new audiences during the lockdown. Shutter’s late-night sessions on Reddit Live started slow, with a handful of people tuning in. Within months, he began to end up on the front page late at night as tens of thousands of people tuned in from around the world, giving him live feedback as he tore through his back catalog.

After Reddit discontinued its Live feature, Shutter felt reinvigorated as an artist. He wrote and recorded Employee of the Year at home in Rogers. It has many standout tracks, such as “Salt,” “She Moves” and one of Shutter’s favorites, “No Promises.” Regarding the latter, he said, “There’s a lot of contracts when you’re growing up and a lot of promises like ‘do these things and do those things, and this’ll happen, and that’ll happen’... And you kinda believe the world will work the way it’s being sold to you. And that’s just kind of where that song came from. It was, at least for me, definitely a long period in my life of realizing that I was maybe more idealistic than was practical… And I think that song was me kind of like, ‘Well, you know, they say go get a degree, get a job, buy a house, just do it. Simple, right? Just do it, you know? And it’s like, ah, I can’t.’ It’s not working like you said it would. It made me angry, it made me feel like a fool, but I guess I just kept trying to close the gap in other ways. It’s wild to me, though, because somewhere in giving up the ghost, I actually checked many of those boxes along the way. Got a degree, like my job, own my house, and I am putting out more music than ever.”

As things fall into place for Shutter, this employee of the year might be ready for a promotion.

Visit martyshutter.com.

by Graham Edwards @grahamedwardsar |

ArtCourt is for the enjoyment of the entire community and has been designed to literally play at the intersection of art and sport. The site—which started its life as a family-owned garage in the 1940s—has, through the years, been home to beloved local hangouts, bars, theaters and a playhouse. Today, ArtCourt sits in the heart of Dickson Street’s lively nightlife scene and alongside The Ramble–Fayetteville’s continually expanding arts and culture corridor. The court is open for basketball from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. No reservation required. One unique feature of the Art Court is the augmented reality Disco Ball exhibit that can be viewed through the Hoverlay app.

ArtCourt is made possible through a generous contribution from The Tyson Family Foundation, in partnership with Experience Fayetteville, as a part of their ongoing commitment to supporting thriving downtowns for the region’s diverse and evolving communities.

Original Design by BLKBOX / Site Design & Architecture by Ecological Design Group / Original Painting & Realization by Graham Edwards Art / Construction by CDI Contractors.

ArtCourt.com | Fayetteville

SUSAN bAKER CHAMBERS SUSAN bAKER CHAMBERS

A Natural Fit for Arkansas

WORDS / BRIAN YOUNG

Susan Baker Chambers is certainly a thorough Arkansan with only a brief period away from the state. As an artist her work reveals a symphony of color with a flatness one might expect from a self-taught artist like Henri Rousseau or the Southern artist Carroll Cloar. Yet, like so many artists with a similar style, Chambers’ work might be a bit misunderstood as decorative. Her lush garden images, while charming, are indicative of a crisis the planet faces: the harm from global warming. This aspect is most evident in a series of pieces she did in an exhibition entitled Solastalgia. To learn a bit more about Chambers, we had a series of conversations, some of which are revealed here.

Can you describe a bit of your career history and the evolution of your style?

I studied art from 1970 – 1974 (at Rhodes College in Memphis). This was a time when there were not women artists in Gardner (the early influential textbook on the introduction to Art History at that time). At that time, I just loved the Post-Impressionists; I like Matisse; and I love Henri Rousseau. I went to New York and saw a small show of his work, probably at the Guggenheim, sometime in the 70s.

Later, when attending the University of Georgia for my MFA (’79), Howard Finster, the religiously-inspired folk artist was beginning to create his work near Athens, Georgia, the home of UGA. I also love quilts with their pattern and color.

What was your experience while attending art school when everyone else, such as the faculty, were male?

At Rhodes, there was Mary Sims. As for my MFA, you could not research as easily the gender of the faculty including the number of women, but I do remember that Elaine De Kooning was an Artist-in-Residence, perhaps in name only. Mostly, though, we (the students) did not think about it.

After attending Rhodes College and UGA, how did you end up back in Arkansas?

Well, I was born there. After Rhodes, I was an artist-in-residence for the Arkansas Arts Council where I was placed in the Dumas School System. Then I worked in the Moscow school

system, near Pine Bluff, from 1976-1977. Then after graduating in 1979, I came back to work for the Arkansas Arts Council in Bentonville. After a series of mural projects for the Arts Council, I began to teach as a lecturer and adjunct faculty for UALR and UCA. In fact, from 1986-1990, I was the acting gallery director for the galleries for the UALR Art Department while a member of the faculty. From 1995-2001, I was a lecturer for Hendrix College. Then from 2001-2015 I taught in the public school system at Mann Magnet. While I loved the other positions, being a full-time teacher provide financial security, insurance, TIAA, etc.

As you know, I was at the Arkansas Arts Center (now AMFA). Prior to coming to back to Arkansas in 2016 and working at the Baum, I was

gone for 10 years and I can sense a development. Do you feel the arts scene in Arkansas is fulfilling?

I like the growth. Noticeably at UALR, the Baum, the AMFA and so on.

I know you do not value your drawings as much as your finished work, but I am intrigued by the drawings and the overall process in your work. I especially appreciate the austere nature of your plants early in your layout. Reminds me of Matisse. Can you give the reader some insight into your process?

When I draw or start a composition I try to line up and flatten the shapes. When I begin the painting, I continue the process of flattening space by use of color and connecting the shapes. I erase and refine shapes by painting with gesso and then paint, back and forth until it starts to speak to me. Matisse scraped his paint off to make changes but Acrylic and gesso dry quickly which works for me.

Tell me about your garden which is so prominent in your work.

My garden has changed a lot. I have more native plants and species. We moved into our 1905 house in downtown LR in 1986. We also bought the vacant lot next door for a total of 2.5 lots or 3/4 of an acre because we loved the native White Oak tree ( circa 1905?) on it. We believe that the tree owns the land it is on and haven’t built on the lot. We have planted more natives including Paw-Paw, Serviceberry, Red Buckeye, Redbuds, Dogwood, Goldenrod, Milkweeds, etc. We leave most of the autumn leaves and limit mowing and the yard has become a seed bank of plants from previous owners. This has changed my painting as I now focus on the natives. For example, Pokeberry, Goldenrod

and Aster are seen in many of my recent paintings.

Overall, I feel that as a society, we are not connected to the earth. But now in our garden, with the native species, there seems to be such a flurry of activity from insects and bees and so on.

Do you prefer the garden or painting?

Summer and winter, I prefer my studio as it is either too hot or too cold.

Lastly, as I admitted early on in speaking to you, I did not see confrontation in your work. But you corrected me a bit. Can you speak to your work that veers away from the snapshot of your garden?

In 2007, I had a two-person exhibition (at Henderson State University and the Butler Center in Little Rock) with Louise Halsey entitled

Solastalgia. (Note: Susan Chambers explained this term to me as explained by Glenn Albrecht in 2003. In short, Solastalgia is distress induced by environmental change.) Louise and I paired our works to draw attention to environmental change and how we might address it. Visit

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Miami, Florida

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“End of Summer” by Susan Baker Chambers

THE REVIVALISTS

Arkansas farmers seek new ways to rejuvenate soil.

WORDS / MEREDITH MARTIN-MOATS

PHOTO / KATIE CHILDS

Most Arkansans are familiar with large, dusty fields plowed under by tractors. The disc blades slice deep into the soil and turn over the weeds, giving the farmer a seemingly clean slate for fresh planting each season. But recent studies have proven what indigenous people have always known and what we should have already learned during the Dust Bowl: these conventional farming methods contribute to soil erosion, release greenhouse gasses, and increase both nutrient runoff and nutrient depletion.

Some Arkansas farmers have been rethinking these till-heavy methods and leaning toward less destructive practices. One of the farmers leading this movement is 22-year-old Breylan Portwood.

on fertilizers for production. Portwood uses large specialized equipment with implements and attachments to drill into the soil and plant the seeds. This technique uses less diesel fuel, requires less herbicide and less fertilization, and helps the soil maintain its moisture longer.

Portwood says the no-till method is essential for dyer, sandier soils that quickly dry out and erode. “I tried to do conventional tillage on one of my fields last year, and I tried to plant a field of soybeans with conventional tillage on a real dry land. The moisture was sucked away within two days or less compared to my no-till fields, where I can go right in there and drill into the ground with the weeds already there and the moisture already there. No-till produces a much healthier crop coming right out of the ground.” For those situations where he needs to decrease the weeds first, he says he can always choose burning first: “I can just go ahead and burn them down, and you still have the residue there to keep the soil cool.”

Soil health, and soil experimentation have been on his mind since he was a child. And it’s important to note that Portwood hasn’t given up conventional methods. Like all innovative farmers, he doesn’t make farming decisions based on trends. He gets to know his dirt and pays attention to the soil, figuring out what works best for each plot of ground and crop. He says he sees more and more farmers around him taking up more climate-friendly methods, including his former neighbor who first got him started on his own plot.

A graduate of Arkansas State University with a degree in Agricultural Science, Portwood is part of a new generation of farmers strategizing ways to rethink their relationship to mechanized machines on his 500-plus acres of soybeans, corn, and rice. Portland says no-till farming is strategic: “It’s easier and more efficient,” he explains. Whereas tilling turns over the first six inches or more of soil, undisturbed soil acts much like a sponge, holding on to moisture and woven together by nutrient-rich roots and soil organisms that aid soil fertility. Repeated tilling destroys soil biology and leads to reliance

“He said that that was one of his better-looking rice crops, and it was easier for him to maintain and keep clean,” explained Portwood. “Everybody’s pretty much on the same page with trying to get away with minimum tillage to keep our costs down and keep our soil healthy and in good shape,” he adds.

Read the extended version of this story & get helpful soil tips, visit IdleClassMag.com/therevivalists.

Arkansas farmer Breylan Portwood. Photo by Katie Childs for WinRock International.

GREENING YOUR THUMb

A look at how to get started gardening

WORDS / CASSIDY KENDALL

Nothing can be more intimidating than starting a garden, especially when you’re convinced you have any other color thumb than a green one. However, anyone can do it, and an expert out of Hot Springs is here to help beginners get their foot in the garden. Sarah Enselein, the owner of Let It Bee Garden & Designs, has given tips for those just starting out a garden of their own and those looking to try their hand at composting.

Garden Starting Tips

LIGHT - Most veggies & flowers need 6+ hours of sunlight per day (morning preferred in our heat unless specifically marked heat tolerant). Use taller plants to shade heat-sensitive ones.

WATER - Install irrigation (aboveground drip lines are easy to install), soaker hoses or be prepared to water as needed when dry and daily in heat of summer

SOIL - Must amend soil! Our soil is too heavy with clay and rock. Highly recommend raised beds, hoop frames or container gardening for beginners. I make an equal 3-part mix of topsoil, compost (I like mushroom compost best) and peat moss. DO NOT USE CITY COMPOST!! It is FULL of weeds, and you WILL regret it!

MULCH - Use 2-3” of straw or mulch to help prevent weeds and retain moisture. Same with containers!

GROW WHAT YOU EAT & START SMALL - Start with a handful of plants as you learn. Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, root vegetables & greens are all easy for beginners. Practice companion planting.

SEED VS STARTER - Although

more expensive on the front end, starters save a lot of time & money for beginners. Stick with bush varieties of squash, tomatoes, beans, etc for beginners or small garden spaces. Organic is preferred for eating so buy at your local farmers market or master gardener sale.

ATTRACT POLLINATORS - Fruiting comes from flowering and pollinators are a must for a thriving garden. Plant flowering annuals and perennials within and around the garden. You will need to hand pollinate if you do not have pollinators!

AVOID CHEMICALS - Use of pesticides kills beneficial insects needed in the garden. They do not discriminate! The same goes for herbicides or weed killers. Several organic options are available for both (homemade and prepackaged).

FERTILIZE - Most people don’t think about plants needing food, but they do just like you and me. Use an organic slow-feed fertilizer once a month. Add GROUND eggshells when planting tomatoes, peppers & eggplant to help avoid blossom end rot.

PLANT FOR THE SEASON - Our climate allows for almost yearround gardening! Greens and root veggies can be grown in

both spring & fall.

Composting Tips

IT TAKES A LONG TIME

Composting is a gardening investment as it typically takes a couple of years to achieve usable compost. It is much more than dumping scraps in a bucket.

DRY VS WET MATERIAL

To avoid rotting, a good mix of dry vs wet material should be used. Examples of dry materials are shredded paper or toilet paper rolls, dry leaves, etc. Too dry and compost won’t break down as quickly. Too wet, materials will rot.

TURNING

Turn your compost once or twice a month with a pitchfork, especially in rainy months, adding dry material as needed. Turning helps material break down faster.

OTHER WAYS TO COMPOST

If you do not have the space to compost, consider making your own bird suet! Many fruits & veggies can be added and very nutritious for the birds.

While herbalism tends to be handed down from generation to generation, Emily Benton and Sarah Benton forged their own path. As the founders of Yarb Apothecary, the sisters follow the vitalist tradition and study through the school of evolutionary herbalism taught by Sajah Popham. They read, studied online, attended workshops and practiced things firsthand for about five years independently before launching their business.

“We found herbalism out of necessity within our own healing path, and we were going through a very dark time,” Emily said. “I was in my early 20’s, and I think (Sarah was), like, 18. And we really found the plants, and within our own healing path, it really helped us. So what was born out of necessity kind of turned into a passion.”

This intensive, prolonged immersion paid off as they began seeing results and

TERRAM MEDICINALEM

The Benton sisters, of Yarb Apothecary, look to the Earth for healing medicine.

WORDS / KODY FORD PHOTOS / MIKAYLA WARFORD

desired to share their creations with others. One of their earliest creations was the Sun Keeper Face Serum, now one of their best-selling products. Emily said, “I was dealing with a bunch of face issues, and I kind of did my own research and devel-

my first experience, it completely healed my skin, my scarring. And so, we definitely put a lot of time and effort into researching and testing [before] putting something out there.”

oped it, and I used it for a full year before we even decided to make it as a product to sell. And just through

While they partook of their own herbal medicine, Sarah was the first to jump into the commercial side of things with her original business, Nine Point Remedies. Sarah had been living in the desert and experimenting with native plants and herbs. Emily designed the labels and Sarah made teas and herbal smoke blends. They joined forces to start their own business–Yarb Apothecary–in Colorado in 2019. Sarah had settled down there and Emily decided to pack her bags and leave Fayetteville in her van. They started selling herbal syrups at the Steamboat Springs Farmers Market in northwest Colorado, setting up out of Emily’s van every Saturday. Later that year, they returned to Fayetteville and got a store-

front off Center Street near the bike trail. Things were looking up. They developed products, polished their branding and prepared for a grand opening on the Spring Equinox of 2020–the week everything shut down for the COVID-19 Pandem-

ic. While the quarantine derailed their larger vision, they quickly pivoted to online sales and “herb side pickup.”

Currently, Yarb Apothecary boasts many products, such as teas, elixirs, skincare products and tinctures. They worked with local farmers and grew herbs such as milky oats and chamomile themselves this past year at Forks Farm. Emily said, “We would love to come full circle where we plant the seed, we grow the plant and, you know, we do it all... (but) also it feels good to be supporting the farmers, who are like dedicating their whole lives to making this happen because it is unbelievably hard work. I’m so thankful for the people that are in the United States trying to make this happen.”

So why shop local when there’s a Whole Foods up the street? Sarah has her thoughts on the matter, saying, “Simply put, we truly are a small scale business which prioritizes sourcing, ethics and ecological intimacy above all else. There are few companies who can actually scale up and main-

tain the level of quality we are able to offer. We source directly from organic herb farmers in the United States who have a focus on regenerative farming, grow herbs in our garden or ethically wildcrafted herbs in our bioregion. We intentionally handcraft every offering from growing, harvesting, processing, and bottling.”

Yarb Apothecary has shared a recipe for Fire Cider.

KEEPER OF THE BEES:

Beekeeping provides access to honey and plays a vital role in rural and urban environments. We chatted with beekeeper Mizan Rahman about his love for nature’s pollinators.

WORDS / KODY FORD

PHOTOS / LYNDSEY HUDDLESTON

Mizan Rahman needed a hobby. After a successful career as a civil engineer, retirement brought a sudden abundance of free time, and he was not one for sitting idly. Since childhood, he’d always found bees fascinating and began to explore the idea of starting his colony.

“I’ve always admired bees–it’s just impressive how social bees are and how orderly they are in their sociality and how they maintain the entire culture around this one queen and thrive and do wonder for humankind,” he said.

As a Christmas gift, his wife, Libby, got him a certificate to attend a beekeeping class. This kindled his love for bees and led to his first hive when he lived in downtown Little Rock. Now, Rahman lives on the edge of the Arkansas River and has two colonies in Flow Hives, a newer model of hive that allows for honey extraction without needing to be opened, unlike the more common Langstroth hive, named after its inventor, Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth.

When starting as a beekeeper, one needs to order the bees themselves. According to the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (UAEX), you should begin shopping for your spring bees in early January and set up everything before they arrive. Rahman says you can order a colony with a queen and an average of 10,000 bees as a starter, which usually has five frames in the hive. During peak season, a bee colony contains 20,000 to 80,000 bees, most worker bees. The drones are fewer in number since their sole purpose is to mate with the queen, after which they die.

Location is the primary consideration when setting up a bee colony. Access to food sources and water is paramount. If you

do not live near a significant water source, Rahman suggests having fountains or bird baths nearby the hive for easy access. Also, placing a hive in an area touched by sunlight in the morning–but shaded by afternoon–is best as it will prevent the bees from overheating. Registration for private apiary locations is free and required with the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

Regarding food, the UAEX says bees will forage as far away as three miles to find food, meaning the colony has a potential ter- ritory of 28 square miles. With their remarkable navigation skills, bees are attracted to their queen and won’t go inside other hives. Rahman painted his flow hives red and green because he believed bright colors help the bees know where to go. Bees are generalist feeders who visit any wild or cultivated plant or flower that gives them nectar or pollen. Bees pre- fer a variety of food sources, from sunflowers to clover to rosemary to wild mustards to apple trees. However, UAEX highly discourages planting Bradford pears near a colony. In the winter, beekeepers often put sugar water in or near the hive.

Beekeepers need specific gear to maintain the hives. A veil, gloves

and a bee suit are the essentials, but you’ll also need a hive tool, a scraper, an uncapping scratcher and a honey extractor (depend- ing on your type of hive).

Honey should be harvested once a year, possibly twice, depending on the conditions. Rahman’s frames can hold up to 25 lbs of honey, but he advises against overharvesting because this can lead to starvation in the hive in winter. Hive maintenance takes place throughout the year. Rahman peeks every few days to ensure the hive looks healthy and bees are not dying at alarming rates. He says to beware of moths, who can lay eggs in a hive, and the larva will hatch and eat the bee larva causing a colony to go extinct. However a healthy hive can fight off moths, but if there’s no homeostasis within the colony, things can become dangerous.

Overall, Rahman feels beekeeping is a rewarding and relevant pastime. He said, “I’ve always admired bees. It’s just impressive how social bees are and how orderly they are. In their sociality and how they maintain the entire culture around this one queen and thrive and they do wonder for humankind. I think probably anywhere from fifty to sixty percent of our food supply comes from pollinators. If the pollinators were not there, I’m not sure what would happen.”

Ingredients

1 ½ C water

¼ C Wholesome granulated sugar

2 ½ Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 Frontier Co-op bay leaf

½ tsp. Frontier Co-op coriander seeds

½ tsp. Frontier Co-op

cardamom pods, broken up

1 Frontier Co-op

cinnamon stick, broken up

¼ tsp. bulk allspice berries

¼ tsp. bulk cumin seeds

1” knob organic ginger, roughly chopped

2 cloves organic garlic, smashed

½ C Bragg’s apple cider vinegar

¼ C Spectrum Organic

Distilled White vinegar

1 lb. organic turnips, peeled and cut into batons

2 small organic beets, cut into batons

PICKLED TURNIPS

RECIPE / CHEF HEATHER ARTRIPE

Chef Heather Artripe from Ozark Natural Foods Co-Op is a third-generation cook and cold storage canner. Her roots in canning were a means to have canned tomatoes, pickles, jams, and jellies while conserving time, space, and resources.

Taught by her mother, Heather realized the importance of working with what you have from a young age. If there are cucumbers, beets, turnips, and any produce that may be left over, they get canned. This has allowed Heather to get creative with curating her recipes with different portions of spices, vinegars and herbs. May it be 20 jars on the counter or just a few, canning will always have a special place in Heather’s heart.

Directions

In a medium size saucepan, add your water, sugar, salt, spices, ginger, garlic, and the vinegars. Bring to a simmer, stir often.

Once the sugar and salt have dissolved, turn to simmer.

In a quart size mason jar, add a layer of beets, turnips, beets, and turnips.

Pour liquid over and use a chop stick to go around the edges to remove air bubbles.

Put lid on carefully and sit on counter until cool.

Place in fridge for 3 days for flavors to develop.

FLAVOR

OF THE FOOTHILLS

THE FANTASTIC FUNGI OF OMNOM FARM

Hill began his business seven years ago by moving away from the busy city and onto the then-empty land. In the time since the farm has transformed from a oneman venture into a thriving alternative living commune.

“My intention was to grow a mushroom farm and create an oasis with a lot of little small houses and dwellings,” Hill says. “It’s kind of evolved into more of a community aspect—-homesteading in the forest type of thing—growing our own food. Mushroom jerky, mushroom pickles, mush-

room powders, tinctures, frozen food products, and all sorts of things.”

For those who are considering adopting some homesteading practices into their daily life, cultivating mushrooms is a logical starting point as it provides a natural, recurring source of protein with a minimal initial investment. With the added bonus not requiring sunlight to grow, regular mushroom cultivation becomes possible regardless of season and location.

“If someone wants to start

Just outside the city limits of Eureka Springs lies OMNOM Farm, an offbeat operation that cultivates and sends mushrooms to all corners of Northwest Arkansas.

Led by Ashley Hill, this working collective embodies homesteading practices in a pragmatic manner that is as creative as they are efficient. Each week, Hill and his team harvest and send bulk mushroom orders everywhere from the local Fayetteville farmer market to high-end dining restaurants like Conifer.

growing mushrooms, it can be pretty simple. Especially if you just want to grow food for yourself and maybe your small community” Hill explains. “It’s easy and time-efficient to grow enough food for ten to fifteen people, or even twenty to twenty-five people. With the right supplies and set-up, maybe ten hours a week is all you need to get started.”

To get tips on how to cultivate your own mushrooms, visit: IdleClassMag. com/mushrooms

WORDS/ BRIAN O’DEA PHOTOS / KODY FORD

BE YOUR OWN STOCKYARD

Raising livestock can be tough, but it’s easier than you think.

WORDS / CASSIDY KENDALL

Farmer Troy Ray, the owner of Ray 5 Farms in Hot Spring County, runs a large operation of raising beef cattle, laying hens, meat chickens, pigs and turkeys. But Ray doesn’t discount the value of using small agriculture to make a living and has valuable insight for anyone looking to raise livestock. And not only is independently-raised livestock healthier and more economically friendly, but it is also an essential factor in becoming self-sufficient. When done right, raising your own livestock can provide you with eggs, a variety of meats and dairy that can go to produce numerous products.

Chickens and hens

What kind of chicken you want dramatically depends on the cost and amount of work. For those wanting laying hens — which Ray always recommends getting first before diving into raising meat chickens — all you need is a self-feeder and 15X15 coup. Three or four laying hens will provide three or four eggs daily for about a year and a half. Unlike meat chickens, laying hens are clean, simple and easy. “Meat chickens will test you like you’ve never been tested,” Ray says, adding that the return for meat chickens is well worth it. These chickens must be fed well, and a 50X50 area can hold about 25 birds at a time. They will smell in the summertime and get heart problems if you don’t place their food far enough away from them to promote exercise. They will weigh nine pounds at seven and a half weeks old and be ready to process.

Cows

With beef cattle, it takes about 26 months until a cow reaches the desired upward of 1,000 pounds before it goes into processing, Ray says. If a cow weighs any less than that, the return on beef is not worth the two years of feed and care. Ray does not recommend beef cattle for a small operation or beginner, as it’s more money and work than most other livestock. But having a milking cow, also known as a jersey cow, could benefit a small operation. These cows produce five to seven gallons of milk daily for 10-11 months after birthing a calf. They must live in a covered shelter and require a minimum of one hour in the morning and night for milking a jersey cow. Small operations can have a single jersey that breeds more than once by having it artificially inseminated for about $150.

TURKEYs

Turkeys are low maintenance and “run the farm,” Ray says. Get them as babies, and they will be safe to fly in and out of the other animals’ habitats. Getting them as babies will also ensure they won’t stray far from the property. Their lifespan is 12 years, so they get attached and act like dogs. But a broad-breasted turkey will be processed at 16 weeks and heritage turkey at nine months a half weeks old and be ready to process.

Pigs

The biggest problems Ray sees with those trying to raise pigs for the first time are needing a larger space and placing their pigs on too soft of ground. Often people think a 50X50 pin will be large enough for a few pigs, but Rays says if you want to keep your pigs healthy and smelling well, a 150X150 pin is necessary. If the ground is too soft, like much ground near the Delta is, the pigs will end up in a pen full of cold water and mud when fall and winter come around. With a smaller operation of pigs, moving them will not be necessary. However, they must in turn be wormed every 45 days, which costs about $50 during their lifetime. If you get a good pig in the spring and feed it well, it will be ready to process at 300 pounds by Halloween. The result is 200 pounds of pork in the freezer. The cost of feeding a pig is about $250 during its lifetime. “It’s a good return, but it’s also work,” Ray said.

KOREAN TROUT CAKEs

RECIPE / CHEF CASE DIGHERO

PHOTO / MEREDITH MASHBURN

While this isn’t a meal entirely forged from the Earth, catching your own fish is a great start to living more sufficiently given the many rivers and lakes across Arkansas.

Chef Case Dighero is an avid trout fisherman and he has shared this recipe for Korean Trout Cakes with us. The recipe does require grocery items like soy sauce and Sriracha, but if you really love this dish maybe store a few bottles in your bunker in case of collapse.

INGREDIENTS

Trout cakes:

1 ½ pounds smoked trout fillets, boneless and skinless

½ cup carrot, minced

½ cup yellow onion, minced

½ cup celery, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1 egg

¼ cup sweet chili sauce

¼ cup mayonnaise

2 cups panko

breadcrumbs, divided

8 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup sunflower sprouts

Korean BBQ sauce:

7 garlic cloves

1 (3 inch) piece of ginger, peeled

5 tablespoons soy sauce

5 tablespoons Sriracha

pepper sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon honey

Korean comeback sauce:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Sri-racha

DIRECTIONS

With your fingers in a mixing bowl, break up the trout fillets into smaller pieces, some very fine, but some more coarse to give your cakes more texture; set aside.

In a shallow sauté pan, add olive oil and cook the minced carrot, onion, and celery over medium heat until tender. Remove from the heat and allow vegetables to cool.

With trout, sauteed vegetables, and 1 ½ cups of bread crumbs, mix together the remaining ingredients (sans butter and sprouts) in a large bowl. Carefully form small cakes with your hands – no bigger than a hockey puck, but no smaller than a half dollar.

Let the cakes sit in the fridge for 20 minutes - this allows the breadcrumbs to absorb moisture and set up a bit, which helps the cakes hold together.

When discussing sustainability, the topic of food waste becomes the one giant elephant-shaped meat-like product in the room. We know we are guilty of doing it, but how do we change it?

When discussing sustainability, the topic of food waste becomes the one giant elephant-shaped meat-like product in the room. We know we are guilty of doing it, but how do we change it?

Growing up in Panama, my family’s location and financial status made food accessibility a constraint to think about. Like many families from rural areas, we raised chickens, pigs, and some fruits for self-consumption. The amount of time and resources that goes into raising an animal makes it so wasting anything feels like a crime. For generations, people were forced to come up with clever and new ideas to make every part of an animal, vegetable or fruit into a meal.

All over the globe, access to resources and cold storage have shaped how people consume food and the microeconomics that puts every meal on the table. For many, holistic eating became a survival need that instinctively bled into their cuisines and culture. In Panama, foods like fried chicken gizzards and cow tongue have become popular dishes that trace their origin to the notion of not wasting food.

As globalization has progressed and access to food

Waste Not, Eat All

by Javier Bultron

has become a less prominent concern, our need to use it has dwindled. According to Feeding America, around 119 billion pounds of food are wasted annually in the United States. In a society where slowing down is not an option, sustainability is a difficult concept. With inflation, politics, and financial crises of once in a lifetime popping up every four years, holistic eating becomes one more challenge to undertake; what’s worse, one that feels only doable for Whole Foods’ frequent shoppers.

However, reducing food waste can be much more attainable if reframed. Although responsible attitudes in consumption are crucial to minimizing waste, maximizing how we use everything we buy can be a more effective way to approach this massive issue. Only some people have access or resources to make sure everything we consume is perfectly sustainable, but we can all seek out ways to utilize everything.

Repurposing undesirable cuts of meat, vegetables and fruits into new recipes can be a great way to use as much

as possible. One of the best examples of this mantra is fried rice, which turns leftover rice into a new meal. These examples of maximizing how we use food are not exclusive to foreign countries. Chicken and dumplings are a staple of American cuisine, born out of the need to use it all.

Not all ways to maximize food utilization involve dishes. Women all over Asia and in many Latin American countries have used rice water as part of their beauty routine for centuries. Amongst these women is Ana Maria from Colombia. She explains that soaking her hair in rice water has become a key component of her haircare routine.

Maximizing how we utilize food can be so much more than mere composting and feeling guilty for not being able to afford the extra green items at Whole Foods. It can be a culinary journey through different cultures and cuisines that can enrich our lives, diversify our palate and even save a few bucks.

Try Javier’s recipe for the perfect summer drink, visit: IdleClassMag.com/perfectsummerdrink

Lamb Meatloaf

RECIPE / CHEF MATT COOPER

WORDS / KODY FORD

ITEM AMOUNT MEASURE NOTES

Paprika 8 Tbsp

Chili flake 1 Tbsp

Cumin 4Tbsp

Coriander 3 tsp

Cayenne .5 tsp

Black pepper 1tsp

Ground lamb 5 lb

Eggs 5 Ea

Pecorino shredded 1 qts

gf Panko breadcrumbs 1 pint

Onions 2 Ea small dice

minced Garlic 4 Tbsp

1 C small dice carrots

1 C small dice

Sea salt 2 Tbsp

DIRECTIONS

Mix everything together and pack into loaf pan. Cook at 350 for 1hr and 15 minutes.

In our era of instant gratification reducing food waste is a challenge for any establishment, whether it be fast food or fine dining. At Conifer in Bentonville, Chef Matt Cooper prides himself on working with local farmers to source their food and maximize their purchases. While many restaurants only want a particular cut of lamb, Chef Matt looks for ways to make the most of what they have.

“The local farmers are left with other things that no one else could possibly order that much,” said Cooper. “They can be sitting on a thousand pounds of ground lamb. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s beautiful. In fact, they’ve even put in other premium cuts because the other people don’t

wanna order ’em. Or the local processors can’t process meat correctly to get that. Or there’s not an ability to utilize the whole animal in a way, or not enough collaboration between restaurants. … When you’re a single restaurant, and you can’t get a lot of partnerships, even though all the chefs in town are really good friends–like it’s still very hard to do that.”

One way Conifer makes the most out of a cut of lamb is by utilizing the leftovers for their Lamb Meatloaf. Chef Matt was kind enough to share the meatloaf recipe with us, although the sauce remains a secret, so you’re own to make that.

MAN of THE WOODS

Rick Spicer talks about the basics for surviving outdoors

The name Rick Spicer has become synonymous with survival skills throughout the Ozarks. A minimalist backcountry bowhunter, alpinist and part owner of Pack Rat Outdoor Center, Spicer has spearheaded the outdoor survivalist scene in Northwest Arkansas over the last decade. Still, his foray into nature started much earlier.

“In a way, I’ve sort of never not been outside,” Spicer explained. “Like a lot of Arkansas kids, I grew up hunting and fishing with my dad from a very young age. As I got older, it just morphed from one thing into another. Backpacking, rock climbing, mountaineering, canyoneering and then survival skills. I think it’ll probably keep morphing as I get older.”

This passion-fueled mindset has taken him far and wide, competing in March 2022 in the national survivalism show Alone: The Beast. Back home, Spicer created the annual “Brewha Bushwack” event in the Ozarks, a team-based adventure challenge that tests competitors’ outdoor knowledge and survival skills.

We asked Rick for some basics on how to make it in the wild.

STUDY

Start with books or YouTube channels for outdoor self-sufficiency. However, hands-on experience is

best. Wilderness First Aid training is crucial–Sierra Rescue or Wilderness Medicine Institute offer courses.

PACK THE ESSENTIALS

Whether or not you’re just going on a hike or you’re just generally trying to be prepared, I think that there’s a handful of things that it makes sense for you to have a cutting tool (usually a knife), a versatile liquid container, cordage (rope, paracord, etc.) and a firestarter. Those items are some of the hardest things to quickly replicate. Learning how to do more with less is a good mindset to have. If you have those things and you’re creative, then you can solve a lot of problems.

HAVE A BROAD SENSE OF PREPAREDNESS

Being prepared is always the key. Learn wilderness first aid to manage wounds in remote areas. Recognize the signs of serious medical conditions and when to get someone out. Learn to read the weather and how to safely descend a mountain.

UNDERSTAND URBAN SURVIVALISTS CONCEPTS

Keep a vehicle kit–even in a smaller car–and find unoccupied spaces to store extra gear. Spread safety gear, leaving some on your body in case you lose your pack.

Learning to manage objective hazards such as flooding, rockfall, tornadoes, is important to take care of yourself and respond accordingly.

BE AWARE OF MISCONCEPTIONS

A lot of people fear drinking water in the wild water due to bacteria and pathogens. While it’s important to filter or boil water, taking it to the extreme can lead to dehydration, which will lead to serious short term problems like organ failure. If you find yourself without a way to treat water in the backcountry, it’s better to find the cleanest water you can and consume it after a few days than not drinking anything at all.

KNOWLEDGE IS INCOMPLETE UNTIL SHARED

Sometimes, questions provide new perspectives and sharing your knowledge with others can challenge you to think about things differently and explain concepts in new ways.

To read our full interview and get more in-depth knowledge from Rick Spicer, visit our website.

To read more of our interview with Rick Spicer, visit: IdleClassMag.com/rickstips

WORDS / BRIAN O’DEA PHOTOS / MIKAYLA WARFORD

Ayoung leatherworker named Larry drove into Colorado Springs in the early summer of 1972, a year after my parents were married, from a far-off place called Fox, Arkansas. He and Daddy met through mutual friends at a leather shop near the bookstore where my parents worked. Over beer and joints, Larry extolled the glories of the Arkansas Ozarks: the caves, the music, the swimming holes. Daddy had looked at land in southern Colorado—all he could afford in the state, and the location of the first commune in the US, Drop City, among others—but it was dry and grim. He only knew of Arkansas as hillbilly country, but according to its license plates at the time, it was the Land of Opportunity and anything but dry. And Larry painted a back-to-theland utopia with his stories.

A few days later, Larry’s car was stolen; in Fox fashion, he had been leaving it unlocked with the keys dangling from the ignition. He now had no way to get back to Arkansas. Seizing the chance to observe Arkansas’s bounty, Daddy and his climbing friend, Ray Connor, drove Larry back home in the summer of 1972 with a reticent Momma and six-month-old me in tow. We spent a night with a folksinger

An Excerpt from Twenty Acres

By Sarah Neidhardt

Sarah Neidhardt has worked as a bookseller, secretary, paralegal, copy editor, and stay-at-home mother. She grew up in Arkansas and Northern California and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and teenage son. She is a graduate of Oberlin College.

Sarah was an infant when her parents joined the growing back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. Uprooting their young family to move from Colorado Springs to an isolated piece of land deep in the Arkansas Ozarks, they built a cabin, grew their own food, and for years strove to escape their former lives and achieve an ideal of agrarian self-sufficiency.

In TwentyAcres:ASeventiesChildhoodintheWoods, bohemian counterculture meets pioneer homemaking. Neidhardt revisits her childhood with compassion and candor, drawing upon a trove of family letters to retrace her parents’ journey from their affluent youths, to their embrace of rural poverty, to their sudden and wrenching return to conventional society. As she comes to better understand her family and the movement that shaped them, Neidhardt reveals both the treasures and tolls of an unconventional, pastoral life.

To purchase a copy, visit uapress.com, or stop by Pearl’s Books, located at 28 E. Center St. in

and dulcimer maker, Judy Klemmedson, the first backto-the-lander to come to Fox, in her old, rundown farmhouse in the woods. She had no electricity, and only candles lit the night. A deafening cacophony of night creatures emerged in the utter blackness and spooked Momma as she lay me on a sleeping bag on a rough wooden floor. I woke in the middle of the night screaming inconsolably. Momma groped for me fearfully in the dark, unable to see even her own hands. She was terrified. She always reminds me of this story: “I really was frightened. I couldn’t even see you, Sarah.”

We stayed in a tent for the next few nights, and Momma recoiled at the wet heat (the Ozarks are a humid subtropical climate). Beads of sweat covered my face, neck and chest like blisters, and Momma feared something was wrong. But I was happy, and we sweltered on in the buggy sauna of an Arkansas heat wave while Daddy and Ray looked at the land.

A few days into the trip, Momma sat nursing me in our car in front of a real estate agent’s office on Main Street

in Mountain View. The agent was a heavyset local woman in her sixties with a round, high puff of neatly coiffed hair. Daddy walked out of her office, opened the car door, and told Momma he and Ray had decided on a piece of land.

She stuttered that it was a bad idea. She hadn’t believed it would really happen and had no interest in living in that remote sweatbox.

“You want me to give up my dream?” Daddy protested, already lost in his plans.

Momma fell silent, looking out on the town’s sparse collection of stone fa-

cades, waves of heat haze blurring the road. In late December 1972 or early January, in a long-forgotten whirlwind of packing and goodbyes, Daddy, Momma and I left Colorado’s cold, dry winter bound for Arkansas mud. Daddy drove a moving van towing an International pickup, both vehicles filled with the paraphernalia collected for our new life. Our co-landowner, Ray Connor, followed in a station wagon with his wife, Susan, and their baby Sunshine. We drove away from 1973 into a facsimile of the past, leaving behind wars, oil embargoes, pop culture and the nine-to-five life. The United States was amid an energy crisis, and the Colorado college town we lived in was too close to suburbia. But Arkansas lay before us with the rising sun, a promise of country roads and a bountiful farm.

I was one of the countless American children born of the counterculture revolution who spent some period of their youth living an impoverished rural life. Our parents returned to the land—a misnomer in that most weren’t going back to anything they once knew but rather to some archetypal, pre-industrial past. As many as one million Americans returned to the land by the end of the 1970s. Daddy—twenty-eight, quixotic, impulsive, and headstrong— brought us to the Arkansas Ozarks in a fever for adventure and rugged land, caught up in the zeitgeist of this back-to-theland movement.

This is the story of that life, of a family tucked away in a log cabin of white oak on a mountain in Arkansas that gave me the formative years of my life and changed the course of my parents’ lives forever, taking them on a journey from privilege to food stamps. It is the story of an American era, strangers in a strange land, class, childhood, and memory. It is a cautionary tale and an ode to an unconventional and pastoral life.

When you delve into the stories of other back-to-the-landers, it can feel like we were everywhere, passing each other on the road to rural America with our flea-market farm tools and woodstoves and goats. But I was unaware of that, mainly feeling we were in our own little world. Although my family was part of this more significant movement that now threatens to whittle the experience into cliché, then it was just home. It was on the farm that I learned to walk. To talk.

To sing. To run in woods and swim in rivers. To read and to write. To make a home. It was where I lived at an age when my environment was making an almost biological imprint, the sounds, smells and experiences speaking to my same genes.

Homemaking was the central preoccupation of my childhood. I was obsessed with any feature of the landscape—a canopy created by low-hanging branches, a space between boulders—that could be used for shelter. My parents were busy all around me turning a plot of land into a home: constructing walls, gardens, fences, and a pond, bringing in water and electricity, growing, butchering, cooking. I went to work creating my own little homes and corners of the wilderness to keep me dry and safe.

My sister and I built many playhouses over the years, with piles of scrap wood cluttering the yard from my father’s carpentry work and the building of the farm. We used old trunks and nailed boards to trees. We

own kitchens, picking shiny yellow buttercups and goldenrod and Queen Anne’s lace for our mud pies and dried yellow dock seeds for our stews. We practiced the small ceremonies of everyday life. We stirred and baked and organized our supplies just like Momma. In the heavy summer sun, we cracked eggs over metal scrap left in the yard and watched them sizzle.

Vivid images of our Arkansas land run like a half-ruined movie reel pulled out of an old box in my head—many of its parts degraded and moldy from time but others flashing clear: delicate Queen Anne’s lace gracing the sides of roads; the Old Man’s Beard tree covered in stringy, white pom-pom flowers along the winding dirt road out to our cabin, entrancing me with its name and beckoning us along towards home; and the old for-parts John Deere tractor we played on, its steel bones fading and rusting in the overgrown grass and weeds. In fact, I have an almost photographic memory of our land in my head: one distinct elderberry bush grew on the side of the main highway as it approached the tight curve at Devil’s Elbow. A purple thistle grew along the fence on the last stretch of road to the cabin and a sumac a few feet away on the north side of the fence. The fruiting body of a shelf fungus anchored itself to a tree where the west path opened to the road. A rosebush heavy with hips was down a bit from the goat pen. A pokeweed grew by the compost pile.

dug holes for toilets, not so different from the old metal kitchen chair with a toilet seat that for years my parents kept in the woods behind the house and moved from place to place—the teeming sea of bugs on the forest floor could dissolve the shit in a day (dung beetles were childhood favorites) unless the dogs or other animals got to it first. And we set up little tables and shelves in makeshift kitchens.

I watched Momma make bread, beans and butter as a toddler at her leg and then as a young girl who could have joined in. But Momma never had us help in the kitchen, where, after years of modern kitchens, she was learning to cook over wood and with all the parts of the animal. While she hauled water and stood over the wood cookstove, my sister and I went foraging to stock our

I kept a sticky-backed photo album labeling leaves and other plant specimens I collected. I was paying close attention to the flora and fauna around me. We plucked stunned june bugs off the screen door, and Daddy tied their fragile legs to string and threw them into the air, turning them into tiny kites bobbing above our fingers. We smeared acrid, dusty, glowing firefly bellies onto our shirts. We dug up fat white grubs— the larval stage of june bugs and dung beetles—from their parallel universe beneath us. And we smashed blood-swollen purple dog ticks between rocks like ripe berries. Details as mundane as the empty husk of a molted cicada cling to my memory as emblems of that time, magnified by a child’s ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. My world was turning on one leaf, bug, conversation, and toy at a time, like lights coming on at dusk.

CALL OF THE WILD

The lack of jobs meant a dismal economic outlook in Stone County, Arkansas, in the 1960s-1980s. Many families were self-sufficient with farming, cattle and hunting. Still, the average per capita income was $351 per year in 1961, which was only attractive if you were looking for cheap land and a culture of self-reliance.

Nationally, the folk movement of the 1960s sparked local efforts to improve Mountain View’s economic opportunities through music and craft. Forward-thinking people who devoted their efforts to this vision developed the Arkansas Foothills Handicraft Guild, now the Arkansas Craft Guild, and Ozark Folk Center State Park.

Inspiration and practical guidance were provided in popular publications like Mother Earth News and Whole Earth Catalog during the same time the Ozark Folk Center was being built in the early 1970s. Locally, the folk music, pioneer crafts, and generosity of an older generation—often descendants of 1800s to early 1900s homesteaders—created a synergy that attracted a new generation of homesteaders to Stone County. Homesteaders of the 1970s often learned skills from the descendants of the homesteaders of the mid-1880s to early 1900s. We chatted with some of the homesteaders from that era about their experiences.

workshops worldwide, including in Italy, Germany and Istanbul. Their homestead is in Fox, Arkansas, where they have built a house and bead-making studio. Sustainability and “tending of the earth” are vital aspects of Tom and Sage’s lifework.

Visit: facebook.com/PlanetSageBeads.

Why did you choose to move to Stone County, Arkansas?

TOM + SAGE HOLLAND

Tom and Sage Holland are glass bead makers of world renown, with Sage moving to Arkansas from Washington state and Tom moving from Missouri. As master artisans, they have taught

TOM: I was living in Bellingham, Washington, and then moved to Stone County in 1980. Reading the Mother Earth News, finding like-minded people and land could be found for $100/acre at that time. There was a great group of homesteaders out at Tomahawk Creek. And the Ozark Folk Center and Arkansas Craft Guild provided an economic base for a lot of people.

What was the biggest challenge?

TOM: Drought, the soil wears out easily, Japanese beetles and critters

that invade the garden. Road access, flash flooding, drownings—it’s a beautiful and dynamic area—it’s part of the allure and the challenge.

How have things changed over the decades?

SAGE: Solar energy. Technology and connecting online. Staying connected through telehealth, staying out of depression—especially for the elderly. Climate change and change of seasons has things blooming at different times and getting killed by deep frost.

Would you do it all over again?

TOM: It seemed like a fate and destiny and culmination of choices and events. I’m living out the dream that I had when I was 20 years old.

Would you recommend the lifestyle to anyone?

SAGE: Yes, you have to be hardy and dedicated. We need people who are going to be dedicated to the land.

From the 1970s until today, the Ozark Mountains have a pull for those seeking a Self-Sufficient life.

INTERVIEWS / LENORE SHOULTS

We need homesteaders who will have the give and take with land. You have to have good friends, you can’t do it alone.

JERRY + JUDY LOVENSTEIN

Jerry and Judy Lovenstein moved to Stone County from Washington state in 1976 with “…a Mother Earth News education in homesteading and a determination to make it here.” Jerry learned broom-making as one of the first Committee of One Hundred craft apprentices at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. They built a broom-making workshop on the homestead that remains the place of business for Grassy Creek Brooms.

Visit: grassycreekbrooms.com.

challenges?

JERRY: To earn money early on, we left in the winter to plant pine trees in Texas. And Judy worked as a waitress in the restaurant at the Ozark Folk Center, and that’s how we learned about the Committee of One Hundred broom-making apprenticeship in 1978.

I hadn’t thought about making a living doing crafts. The first broom-makers at the Folk Center were Jim Ford and his son, Bill, and they taught me how to make brooms. The Ford family had homesteaded in the area since the mid-1800s. At the Center, I also learned about craft demonstrations and the craft circuit. I remember demonstrating broom-making under the Arch in St. Louis in 1980, and a bunch of us represented Arkansas at the World’s Fair in New Orleans in 1984.

How have things changed over the decades?

JERRY: There’s more periodicals to learn from; back then, we had the Mother Earth News. Land is a lot more expensive, but the basics are still the same.

OWEN: In the Fall of 1980…We were looking for a place to homestead. We were living in Massachusetts, and it came down to either Maine or Arkansas. We chose Arkansas because of the weather, cheap land, low taxes, and there were no building restrictions out in the woods. Plus, the types of trees included oaks and hickories, which were useful for my craft. We saw the Ozark Folk Center on the map and read want-ads for land in the Mother Earth News.

What was the biggest challenge?

OWEN: At the start, it’s new, and you don’t know how to do it. You make a lot of false starts, not knowing what you’re supposed to do. Through fits and starts and most often by mistakes — it’s a rude awakening, and it’s really hard. Being uncomfortable — in the beginning, it’s physically uncomfortable. Water, transportation, weather — it’s winter, and you’re cold.

My generation of homesteaders started on our own without a tradition to follow. Back in the day, people grew up in it, but this generation floundered a lot.

How did you overcome the challenges?

When did you first come to Stone County?

JERRY: We had moved from Washington state to Missouri and visited the Arkansas Ozarks and, along with our two-year-old son, moved to Stone County in 1977. The small cabin that we built burned down in 1978, and we had to start all over again. That’s when we first experienced the generosity of the local community. One man gave us a trailer to live in, people gave us clothes, and they held a pie supper that gave us a couple of hundred dollars to get us through.

The whole idea was to go back to the land. We liked the climate, the price of land was low, and the forest had the kind of wood we needed to heat with.

What was the biggest challenge?

JERRY: Building the homestead and financing the homestead.

How did you overcome the

Would you recommend the lifestyle?

JERRY: They would have to be a special person; it’s not easy. The Internet has changed things because you can have a decent income and work from home or sell your craft online or connect with markets that you couldn’t before.

OWEN REIN

Owen Rein moved to Stone County from the Berkshire Mountains in 1980 for an affordable lifestyle. He built his own house and workshop and uses only hand tools to make the baskets and rocking chairs for which he is renowned. Raising a family on the homestead and still living on the property today, Owen utilizes the trees to craft his products.

Visit: owenrein.com.

Why did you choose Stone County, Arkansas?

OWEN: I did not give up — roll with the punches.

How have things changed over the decades?

OWEN: Communication. When we first homesteaded, we couldn’t even get a phone signal out here. Now we have the Internet. And employment. Most all, homesteading requires supplemental income from outside to pay for the land, and, at that time, there were hardly any jobs. Today, you could find work.

OFF GRID

What makes a man forsake the creature comforts of modern life, return to the wilderness and try his hand at living off the land? One could make a list–climate change reports, social media conspiracies, inflation, supply chain failures–each person has their reasons. But those who have, quickly found out that it’s more akin to the stories of Cormac McCarthy than Laura Ingells Wilder. Well, maybe it’s in between. In our search for young adventurers braving their way in the hills and hollers of Arkansas, we came across two men– Asa Arnett and Forest Peterson– living off the land in the Ozarks. While their stories are long, their thoughts on certain key elements regarding their journeys are here.

Asa Arnett Madison County

When answering the initial question of “Why?” I stated it just made sense. That is largely due to the burden of late-stage capitalism. For decades that has been a direct pipeline to rural America as we know it socioeconomically. I’m just thankful I love this earth & don’t mind physical work. In all, moving to the woods & curating a life to exempt some of those burdens is not a realistic model for everyone, nor should it have to be. In variations, an “off-grid lifestyle” was the only lifestyle prior to colonialism. But at this point, society could not resort back to that. I love gardening & food in general. Another initial reason towards these endeavors for me is to hopefully fulfill a role in food accessibility within our community. There is certainly an increase of interest in the subject now more than ever, which is great! I’m glad there also seems to be a coinciding interest of wanting to hide in the woods with getting back to our roots as humans approach.

How’s it going? Ridiculous in a lot of ways. The work never stops. But, every day, I learn so much. That being said, the excessive work is partially specific for my scenario and still starting off. If the land you’re looking to live sustainably on already has a solidified living situation, then that helps for sure! Obviously, there is still a heaping to-do list if you’re living self-sufficiently. But those chores, in my opinion, fall suit to the work we all know. At the end of the day, us humans do not have much of a problem fulfilling work that is needed if that is all that is needed. With any and all situations, it does become hard to suffice capital when your daily work is for your own well-being, plus you’re rural. Not only has the colonial societal switch really disconnected us from work like this, it has also made it immensely hard for it to realistically take place.

Forest Peterson Newton County

Generally speaking, I am trying to live simply and peacefully. I bought this land with a buddy of mine back in 2010. It’s about 10 and a half acres. It’s in Murray Valley in Newton County. It’s a pretty magical piece of property. There’s water on both sides of it and really good neighbors. A bunch of older back-to-the-land hippie folk that have planted themselves in that neighborhood from the Seventies. And they’re still here. Currently, there’s a pretty decent garden orchard. There’s several houses. Most of them are micro, tiny houses, and one that’s about 400 square feet that I started building two years ago. Yeah, it’s off-grid…

I personally try and be as simple as possible. I still wear some clothes I was wearing in high school. I’m definitely a simple man. When I think about the homestead in general, though, part of it is not having utilities. I mean, having a wood stove and gravity-fed water, it doesn’t cost anything as long as you’re running your own chainsaw or firewood and willing to work on that pipe when it freezes. But yeah, so the bills out there are very minimal. There’s a small amount of property tax, but other than that, I’m just putting gas in my car, paying car insurance and monthly cell phone bill.

I definitely feel like farming is something that is hard to do successfully these days. A lot of what I’ve seen and heard is that people that are larger-scale farmers get by with subsidies, and if they’re not getting by with subsidies, they’re getting grants. And if they’re not getting grants, they’re getting community assistance. Someone like myself who’s very small time, I’m primarily growing food for myself and whoever’s a part of my close family and friends. But yeah, the amount of time it takes to grow food fills up my schedule.

And so for myself, I traditionally, in the recent past, have worked about one day a week for financial gain, that is. The rest of the time, I’ve been doing things for either the homestead or for myself that I have interest in. And I think it’s a beautiful way to live because my time’s probably the most important thing I have. And thinking about where I put that time, I couldn’t think of anything better than working for myself on a piece of property that’s going to give it all back to me once I complete some of the things I’ve been starting.

rocky MOUNTIAN HIGH LIFE

rocky MOUNTIAN HIGH LIFE

Nate Stewart grew bored with the grind & found freedom in Van Life.

Back in 2012, Nate Stewart felt listless, ground down by the routine of commuting to a cubicle daily. He dipped his toes into the world of vintage Austrian mopeds. The “ride slow, live fast” culture scratched his itch for a while, but something felt off. “There was something about being in one area doing the same things no matter how enjoyable, I felt a longing for wanderlust,” Stewart said. “I began looking at alternative living (before van life was really a thing) and found guys building earth homes, living in storage units, and finally outfitting box trucks, vans, and even tent living.”

One day, Stewart hopped on Craigslist and applied for jobs in the Rockies. He sold a Harley he owned and bought a van, rigging it out before hitting the road for Colorado two weeks later. He worked various jobs for a month or two, living extremely remote in the mountains. Having remodeled many vans over the years, Stewart’s has a few favorites. He said, “I am a sucker for 80s-90s Chevy and GMC vans. They are cheap, hardy and parts easy to come by. Most of them are blank slates to start with and are friendly to scale as you go. You do not have to spend 50,000 dollars to have these amazing adventures you see on social media now. Part of the fun is the struggle, and believe me, there are lots of that along the way.”

The struggle certainly exists. Stewart mentions many daily comforts, such as showers and A/C, must be considered before living the van life. His suggestions include the following:

• A gym membership for a national chain.

• Having a plug-in to shore power with a window unit.

• Building out an extensive battery bank.

• Adding cut-in rooftop units.

He also had a passive trickle charge wired up so the batteries would re-

fill as he drove. Other issues include people needing to understand the vehicle they are purchasing, such as if it can be swapped to a fourwheel drive if necessary, availability of parts, common recall histories, engine life span, notorious parts of sensors that go out and more.

“Study is key here. There are ama zing resources online, which can be unearthed with a bit of digging,” he said. “Each vehicle I purchased for these treks I dove deeply into, getting Haynes manuals, reading hours and hours of forums, watching every video YouTube had, and even looking into examples of camper builds of similar direction to see peoples process and tips.”

Costs can vary from $2,000 to $30,000. A person’s budget can certainly test their comfort level, and the vehicle is an investment in comfort while on the road. After the initial purchase, Stewart says he never spent more than $5,000 on a remodel. He suggests efficiently checking how mechanically safe and sound the van is and being

cost-effective with the material–doing as much work on your own as possible on a longer, tiered timeline, not rushing to have all the bells and whistles at once. Sportsmobile even builds custom vans this way with packages. Start small, build up once the van life engrosses you or give yourself some time on the road to know it’s worth investing in. While it can be cramped and inconvenient sometimes, Stewart still feels the good outweighs the bad.

“You see life at a different angle. Everything you used to do without giving thought is put on its head,” he said. “The small things become more romantic such as cooking myself breakfast sandwiches over a fire at night so that I could grab and go in the morning. I even met some fellow travelers that I would trade an egg biscuit for some hot French press coffee. Paid a camper with a more robust rig to pull me out of the snow for a small bottle of vodka. You live freely. I still worked, but not as intensely. There is something about slowing down that gives you time to really be in the moment and experience existence fully.”

WORDS & PHOTO / KODY FORD

EXTRAORDINARY dwellings

Lisa Lynn and Paul Majors have spent the last few decades living life their way.

WORDS / KODY FORD PHOTOS / GABE GENTRY

Lisa Lynn and Paul majors aren’t ones for living an ordinary life. For years, the couple’s forms of housing have bucked conventional trends, leaving them far from the all seeing eyes of an HOA. Their first form of alternative housing was an earthbag house, which they eventually tired of and looked for a life on the road, embracing the “skoolie” lifestyle.

“I believe everyone has the inalienable right to build and live in a home, or hut, or barn, teepee, mansion, earthship, or earthbag, or whatever one wants as long as it doesn’t cause harm to anyone or their possessions,” Lynn said.

THE EARTHBAG HOME

The Three Little Pigs were innovative builders, using the best materials at hand, but in the end, only one held up against the tornado-like bellowing of the Big Bad Wolf. The lesson here is that creativity is great, but utility is king. Majors and Lynn found a happy medium when they built their Earthbag Home. While the couple no longer lives in the house, they fondly remember the construction and their time there.

“Earth homes are environmentally more sustainable, more energy efficient, safer, uses a fraction of materials, and definitely makes you proud of yourself for a great accomplishment,” she said.

An earthbag home is merely stacked bags filled with earth–large 50lb bags made of polypropylene (misprints) with two strands of barbed wire between rows of bags for tinsel-reinforced

or traditional house. An earthbag house looked pretty easy to build using very cheap but strong materials.”

strength. They became aware of this type of home after seeing a book called Earthbag Building by Donald Kiffmeyer and Kaki Hunter on a friend’s coffee table; this began a 10-year endeavor for the couple. Lynn said, “Paul and I chose an earthbag home because we did not want a 30year mortgage on a stick frame

The couple sourced misprinted bags from Oregon, using about 2,000 bags and 100 tons of crushed limestone from a local quarry. Such an endeavor takes time–filling and stacking bags, adding stucco to the inside and outside, building custom features and incorporating as many free and recycled materials as possible. Rather than hire a contractor, the couple worked on it and utilized a worldwide volunteer program called Workaway (www.workaway.info). Hosts provide room and board, including meals, in exchange for four-to-five hours of free labor per day with weekends off. They invited travelers to stop in Arkansas to help us to build the home. In five years, they hosted over 50 volunteers from Australia, Switzerland, France, England, Netherlands and the US. This international, intercultural exchange of ideas, friendship and physical assistance helped us tremendously, and they made life-long friends as a result. One major challenge for them

was code enforcement. Earthbag homes have walls up to two feet thick, making them a fortress against earthquakes and tornadoes and energy efficient. The homes have been tested on seismic simulators in California and withstood rigorous testing. However, the inspectors in Benton County had their doubts. They loaned their earthbag book to the inspectors, who eventually contacted the California code office for further information. This helped them get approved more quickly, and they also agreed to provide a written waiver releasing the county officials from liability and safety issues.

Earthbag homes have other benefits besides being more substantial than anything engineered by a Little Pig. Lynn and Majors lived off-grid using solar energy with a 1,000-watt system with a massive battery bank, with all components totaling $5,000. And given how the couple self-financed over a long period, they increased the value of their home with no bank loans or house payments.

The couple eventually sold their earthbag home, opting for a life on the road in a remodeled bus.

SKOOLIE LIFE

Lynn and Majors have been living in a 40-foot bus they converted four years ago. They are finishing their second off-grid “skoolie,” the nickname for refurbished school buses.

The subculture surrounding these skoolies has been gaining popularity in recent years. It is a community of people who seek to live a simpler, off-grid lifestyle by converting an old school bus into a livable home. Skoolie enthusiasts share their knowledge, experiences, and tips on social media platforms, forums, and blogs, creating a supportive and informative network. Many people are drawn to this subculture because of its freedom to travel and live anywhere while being self-sufficient. The subculture also emphasizes sustainability and repurposing, as many skoolie owners use recycled materials in their builds. The skoolie community is a vibrant and creative group that celebrates individuality and encourages a more mindful way of living.

“I wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything now,” said Lynn. “I’m happiest when I’m exploring and get so much inspiration for my art from people, places, and life experiences on the road.”

The couple’s 40-foot bus has a solar system with 2,500 watts of power, which supplies enough energy to power their full-sized refrigerator, Instapot, electronics, lights, and small A/C. They also have 200 gallons of fresh water, a diesel heater, a gas stove, hot water on demand, a subway tile bath, a 13” memory foam bed, and all the amenities of an RV. Their steel-clad diesel bus can carry the extra weight of ten solar panels and is less expensive than an RV, usually made with inferior building materials.

They have traveled as far north as the Dakotas and as far south as Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, covering about 26,000 miles and 13 states and two countries, even during the height of the pandemic. Living on the bus has allowed them to avoid house and automobile payments and electricity bills, and their bus insurance costs less than $40 per month. The only disadvantage is the cost of diesel fuel.

Majors and Lynn have remodeled a second “short bus,” which they recently took on an adventure to Mexico. Lynn plans to paint a series of works at each stop, hoping to show them upon her return. While they love being on the road, they always return to the Natural State. Lynn said, “At times, we get homesick and retreat to Arkansas to visit family and friends. It doesn’t take long before we get the itch to get back on the road and set out for new horizons!”

For anyone interested in learning more about the “skoolie life,” a variety of resources can be found online and on YouTube.