Well, howdy there! I guess you’ve ended up on this page wondering just who’s behind this website. Welcome.

A bit about me:

So I grew up in the Midwest, in a small town just north of Milwaukee. Wisconsin has always been my home. Living close to the woods and fields was great, and it allowed me to roam far and wide outside and really get to know the surrounding nature. I loved it!

After high school it was off to college for a degree in biology. Who woulda guessed, right? UW Madison was a great place to be, and I miss it a lot. (The thought occasionally crosses my mind to head back there for a graduate degree some day — ya never know.)

But, now after a marriage come and gone, and raising a wonderful son to be off on his own, I’m back to living in a small farming community, far from where I grew up but still in Wisconsin. It’s different. There are good days (when I get to be close to nature), and some not so good days (when there are conflicts with the neighbors). Overall it’s been quite an adventure.

This blog is where I get to explore various topics that interest me, as well as work on my writing skills. Some of the categories I’ll be working on for this site are homesteading, chickens, campfire cooking, mushrooms, bushcraft, botany, art, farming, and small farm business. Hopefully you’ll like some of it.

Because I’d really like to remain anonymous at this time I decided to hire a photoshopper to “reimagine” a photo of me that someone took of me a few years ago. So I’ll be up front, this looks a lot like me (maybe with a little more makeup, ha), but it’s an artist’s interpretation. Thank goodness photo editing programs can help us make our photos looks better! I’m also using a pen name, a time-honored practice by writers that want to remain anonymous. I realize there are plenty of people that are going to hate on me for using photoshop to reimagine my image, but I have my reasons. In the meantime you can all imagine that this is me. Consider this my avatar. Thanks for your understanding!

Thanks for stopping by.

— Natalie Brooks

 

A Note on Images

Nowadays it’s super easy to copy and paste just about any image from anywhere — without permission. I try my absolute best to find images that are

• Taken by me or my family.
• Open source, or Creative Commons license.
• Created by myself with AI art tools, like Midjourney.

Even if an image is open source I generally like to include a credit to where I found it. Hopefully that leads you to some other cool places on the interwebs.

A Note on Affiliate Links

Here and there throughout my site there are a few affiliate links. Most of the time they’re to Amazon. A few might be directly to product or business. So far I haven’t earned anything from these links, but I hope one day they can provide enough cash flow to pay for the hosting and operation of this site. A few bucks here and there would be great. Thank you to anyone using those links! Products don’t cost any more for you, but every little bit helps to support my writing.

You can tell if a link is an affiliate by hovering over it to see where it will take you. If a link goes off-site it’s most likely an affiliate link. Feel free to not click on them. But I genuinely appreciate when you do. So, thanks!