Just did a quick look at Jewel's bio: she is Atz Kilcher's daughter. He's one of the main "characters" on the show.

I didn't put two and two together with Jewel.

Watching the show makes it seem they are way out in the sticks. But a search on Google Earth shows they are 25 miles east of Homer and maybe a mile off a paved road.

The associated family members run bed and breakfasts, outdoor classes, bird watching, etc. They have a variety of websites. The patriarch's homestead cabin is a museum.

So, like all reality TV shows, it's hard to tell what's real and what's "reality." (Nod to ASKER's comment above.)

But it's still fun to watch.

Note to nursemike: took me awhile to figure out the hill-williams comment. Just say hillbilly and be done with it. I take no offense at the term. I have second cousins who lived off the land here in the hollows of the Ozarks. I wish I'd been born a few years earlier so I could haven spent time with them to learn their skills before they died in the 1990s.