Pick up know-how for tackling diseases, pests and weeds.
Farm bill, farm marketing, agribusiness webinars, & farm policy.
Find tactics for healthy livestock and sound forages.
Scheduling and methods of irrigation.
Explore our Extension locations around the state.
Commercial row crop production in Arkansas.
Agriculture weed management resources.
Use virtual and real tools to improve critical calculations for farms and ranches.
Learn to ID forages and more.
Explore our research locations around the state.
Get the latest research results from our county agents.
Our programs include aquaculture, diagnostics, and energy conservation.
Keep our food, fiber and fuel supplies safe from disaster.
Private, Commercial & Non-commercial training and education.
Specialty crops including turfgrass, vegetables, fruits, and ornamentals.
Find educational resources and get youth engaged in agriculture.
Gaining garden smarts and sharing skills.
Timely tips for the Arkansas home gardener.
Creating beauty in and around the home.
Maintenance calendar, and best practices.
Coaxing the best produce from asparagus to zucchini.
What’s wrong with my plants? The clinic can help.
Featured trees, vines, shrubs and flowers.
Ask our experts plant, animal, or insect questions.
Enjoying the sweet fruits of your labor.
Herbs, native plants, & reference desk QA.
Growing together from youth to maturity.
Crapemyrtles, hydrangeas, hort glossary, and weed ID databases.
Get beekeeping, honey production, and class information.
Grow a pollinator-friendly garden.
Schedule these timely events on your gardening calendar.
Equipping individuals to lead organizations, communities, and regions.
Guiding communities and regions toward vibrant and sustainable futures.
Guiding entrepreneurs from concept to profit.
Position your business to compete for government contracts.
Find trends, opportunities and impacts.
Providing unbiased information to enable educated votes on critical issues.
Increase your knowledge of public issues & get involved.
Research-based connection to government and policy issues.
Support Arkansas local food initiatives.
Read about our efforts.
Preparing for and recovering from disasters.
Licensing for forestry and wildlife professionals.
Preserving water quality and quantity.
Cleaner air for healthier living.
Firewood & bioenergy resources.
Managing a complex forest ecosystem.
Read about nature across Arkansas and the U.S.
Learn to manage wildlife on your land.
Soil quality and its use here in Arkansas.
Learn to ID unwanted plant and animal visitors.
Timely updates from our specialists.
Eating right and staying healthy.
Ensuring safe meals.
Take charge of your well-being.
Cooking with Arkansas foods.
Making the most of your money.
Making sound choices for families and ourselves.
Nurturing our future.
Get tips for food, fitness, finance, and more!
Understanding aging and its effects.
Giving back to the community.
Managing safely when disaster strikes.
Listen to our latest episode!
On Travel
I love to travel. The ramble I’m currently on is the longest and least structured trip I’ve ever made so it will probably tell me something about myself. Am I a real traveler, like the guy I met last week who had been on the road for seven months sleeping in the back of a Prius. Or am I a weekend warrior unwilling to give up the comfort and security of home for the adventures and misadventures of the road. We shall see.
I’m a very disorganized traveler. I read a lot, but I don’t bother reading up on a places I am visiting. This slip-shod approach to travel means I must miss lots of interesting things, but I like the spontaneity of not over-planning. I see a town name that intrigues me, like Dead Dog, Wyoming, and off I go. Not much there, I can report.
I’m reading about, and in my typical disorganized fashion, traveling along the Oregon Trail. My guide book is John Unruh, Jr.’s “The Plains Across,” which uses primary sources to recount the challenges a quarter million Americans faced as they traveled from the United States to the future states of Oregon and California between 1840 and 1860. A scholarly tome that helps get me in the mood for turning in early.
Travel in my new Nissan minivan is easy, fast and comfortable. I average 70 miles an hour on good roads while the overlanders might have made 15 miles a day. Many of my miles are on dirt roads and I can attest to their dustiness. Put a couple dozen wagons, a hundred oxen to pull them and assorted horses, mules and people walking, and the overlanders must have consumed their body weight in dust.
My little NV-200 (the 200 is the number of cubic feet of cargo space) is tight and compact but inside I have a twin sized mattress setting atop a platform fitted with four drawers that open out the various doors. In fact, I’m writing this atop one of the drawers that pulls out far enough to give me a convenient desktop.
I’ve read all of the Jack Reacher books and enjoy the notion of traveling light - a toothbrush and his expired passport. I am not there and would not enjoy such a Spartan life. But, my little rig is far from glamping. I run my C-pap machine off of a rechargeable lithium ion battery pack that holds a two night charge. Recharge is either off solar panels or the van charging system.
Water is stored in five milk jugs. Bathroom provisions are sketchy and work well in the wilds where I spend most of my nights, but not so well in crowded campgrounds. Food choices I maker are probably not found anywhere on the food pyramid. I try to get one meal a day and then just make do with cereal, granola bars or whatever. A proper cup of coffee in the morning has been one of my biggest challenges, but I’m getting there.
Unruh tries to answer the question of why people would give up a settled and usually comfortable life for a four- to six-month journey across the wilds of middle and western America. Ultimately, he found no single reason people made the trip. Some traveled to start over, some traveled in hopes of finding things better where they were going, some for the adventure, some hoping to find riches and status, and some just got caught up in hype of the moment.
Like the overlanders, I have a number of reasons for hitting the road. I told my high school counselor I wanted to be a truck driver. She didn’t even listen and suggested a number of other alternatives. But just the act of driving, I find relaxing. Seeing new sights, new places, experiencing new things, and finding new plants along the roadways all interest me. And, being untethered from the real world has great appeal. I haven’t heard the news in over three weeks and yet the world goes on spinning, unaware of my ignorance.
Gerald Klingaman is a retired Arkansas Extension Horticulturist and retired Operations Director for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. After more than two decades of penning the popular Plant of the Week column, he’s taking a new direction, offering views on nature as he pokes about the state and nation. Views and opinions reflect those of the author and are not those of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Klingaman about these articles contact him at musingsonnature@gmail.com.