Building up my ability to hammock camp I found some great parts that make up the whole.
Author Archive: Mrs. WaterBuck
Linda Holliday lives in the Missouri Ozarks where she and her husband formed Well WaterBoy Products, a company devoted to helping people live more self-sufficiently off grid, and invented the WaterBuck Pump. A former newspaper editor and reporter, Holliday blogs for Mother Earth News, sharing her skills in modern homesteading, organic gardening and human-powered devices. To read more, visit her blog.
Why We Must Filter Our Water
Botanist John Muir carried no bottled water when he hiked 1,000 miles through the wilderness from Indiana to Florida. Instead, the 29-year-old drank from streams, lakes and an occasional bayou to quench his thirst and lived to write about it. Muir knew nothing of filtering chromium, lead, mercury or chlorine from water. In fact, his […]
A Call to Revive Victory Gardens
Anywhere there is dirt, we should be growing food. Twenty million Americans answered the call to plant Victory Gardens during World War II, producing 41 percent of the fruit and vegetables consumed then. Could we do that again, please? When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a vegetable garden on the White House grounds, the U.S. […]
Composting with Animal Innards, the 1881 Way
By Linda Holliday Although the language is sometimes cumbersome, I still enjoy old books for learning homesteading skills. A favorite is the “1881 Household Cyclopedia of General Information.” This weekend I took time while it was raining to learn more about composting. Forty years ago, my mother sent us kids out every night to bury […]
Marjory Wildcraft Notes U.S. Parallels with Cuban Economic Collapse
By Linda Holliday When Cuba’s economy collapsed after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Cubans got healthier growing their own food. But first, they suffered, even resorting to eating domestic pets and zoo animals, according to a Forbes news report. Author Marjory Wildcraft wanted to learn how Cubans transitioned to a gardening lifestyle. To do […]
Just One Reason Why We Prepare
By Linda Holliday The older we get, the more often my husband and I catch ourselves saying, “It didn’t use to be like this.” It’s why we’re preppers. Just as environmental scientists predicted 20 to 30 years ago, we do have more extreme weather of every sort – hurricanes, tsunami, too much and not enough […]
Recalling the Wild Game of Yesteryear
Written By: Linda Holliday When my sister and I were youngsters, my mother pulled us in our toy wagon into the woods during small game season each fall. She surely got a workout as she lugged that wagon through furrowed cornfields and thick brush. To entertain us while she hunted, Mom looked for a springy […]
Is Radioactive Rainwater in our Future?
By Linda Holliday Here in the Ozarks, we are expanding our growing areas, relearning old-time skills, acquiring hand tools and building human-powered devices while we still can. But, preparing for radioactive rain? We hadn’t thought of that. While global warming seemed a fairytale to many 25 years ago, I personally banned Styrofoam, aerosol sprays, pesticides, […]