Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2022 i The New Pioneer

Watching events unfold during the past six months has brought back memories of working on the first issue of The New Pioneer as the Great Recession was hitting bottom. Although the causes of that severe jolt to the economy were very different, the last few months have felt as if we were entering another sharp downturn, but this time the country’s mood is darker. Gas and food prices are soaring; current events are violent and frightening; people are confused and angry, wondering why life is not better now that COVID appears to be under control. “How do we cope?” they ask. For the go-getters featured in this issue, the answer is the same as it was when TNP first appeared in 2010: practice self-reliance by growing as much of your…

As you start cutting trees, you will realize that getting logs out of the woods can be a problem. If you’re cutting smaller trees, you won’t need heavy equipment. Small-scale loggers have several pieces of equipment to choose from that will safely help transport logs out of the woods. Arches: LogRite makes a log arch, which enables ATVs to move logs and, unless the log is extremely long, will keep the log off the ground. Arches come in different sizes and can be used with ATVs, UTVs or tractors. Log skid plate: Montana Jack’s Outpost sells plans for building your own skid plate. This design can safely pull logs up to 20-feet long without significant soil damage, and by slightly lifting logs, you reduce drag, which allows the log to…

According to Master Gardener Claire Cresto, this concoction will last through several rains and repel all kinds of animals. Do not use it on maturing fruit or vegetables since it tastes as bad as it smells. • ½ cup milk• 1 egg• 2 Tbsp. baking soda• 1 Tbsp. powdered garlic• Big squirt of dish soap• 1 gallon of water Mix 1 quart of water with the rest of the ingredients, shake well, then add the rest of the water. Let it sit for a minimum of 48 hours. Apply using a watering can. The longer it sits, the more it smells and the better it works. Store it outside.…

There are plenty of YouTube videos and websites showing wood-gas units in operation around the world. An excellent place to start is the Drive on Wood forum, hosted by wood-gas guru (and holder of the land-speed record for a wood-powered vehicle) Wayne Keith. There, you will find an extensive library of information (including the FEMA gasifier plans) and a friendly community that is welcoming to new members and committed to helping people around the world build and set up their own units. Hope to see you there!…

“I paid $5 for one ear and $20 for a four-pack of freshly decorated, right-off-the-roaster corn,” my niece, Shari, told me on the phone. At the time, I was sure that Shari had lost her mind. She continued to sing the praises of this delicious corn on the cob she’d bought from a food truck that had only been in business for two years. “People line up and wait for 30 minutes to an hour while their corn is being roasted, seasoned and decorated,” Shari said. Getting The Scoop So I called Phillip Powell of Bessemer, Alabama, a former car salesman and certified welder, who had also owned a bankruptcy business, to learn why he gave up those pursuits to go into his Aww Shucks fire-roasted, gourmet corn business. He…

One of the most popular areas of the fair is the pantry hall where treasured baked goods are entered in the hope of earning a blue ribbon. If a winner comes home with the best-of-show ribbon, that’s the ultimate accomplishment. As a pantry judge at our state and local fairs, I’ve judged many baked goods. A variety of issues present problems for bakers, but certain ones show up consistently. Here, we will address the most common obstacles encountered with simple yeast breads, muffins, quick breads and pies, particularly pie crusts. An excellent crust is as important as the filling! When preparing for the fair, get the little ones involved, too—make your baking a family project. From learning to break eggs properly to mixing batters and doughs, the children will have…

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, quilters around the world have been designing quilts and quilt blocks to raise funds for the besieged nation along with sponsoring fundraising events. While each effort—like a single fabric patch—may appear small, when pieced together, these small efforts have created something spectacular: hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Ukrainians. Among the many Ukrainian-aid projects sponsored by quilters, here are three winners. STAR WITHIN A STAR Quilt and fabric designer Pat Sloan, a Northern Virginia quilter and fabric designer, has been moved by the plight of the Ukrainians. “Quilters like to help,” she explains. “Quilters are very community-driven and do a lot of charity work. They have a helping mindset.” Inspired by Maria Nelga, president of the Ukrainian Quilters Association, Sloan…

Trees are a bountiful source of life in so many ways for so many forest creatures, including us. It’s no surprise, then, that we invented the Tree of Life concept millennia ago to honor the mighty tree. The Tree of Life is symbolic in many mythologies as well as in religious and philosophical beliefs. Various trees are prevalent in folklore, culture and fiction, often signifying immortality or fertility. The Tree of Life appears in Norse religion as Yggdrasil, the world tree, a massive ash or yew tree with extensive lore surrounding it. There are accounts of Germanic and other tribes honoring sacred trees within their societies—for example, Thor’s Oak, the Druid’s sacred groves and the sacred tree at Uppsala in Sweden. Recently, I decided it was time to create my…

We focus on raising sustainable beef finished on recycled by-products that are fed to cattle in the field. Grass fed on pastures at both our ranch and Kyler Beard’s, the cattle are rotationally grazed. Movable hot-wire fences keep them in one area until they graze it down and are moved into a fresh field the old-fashioned way—with horses and dogs—which is less stressful on the cattle. Before being butchered, the cattle are fed in the field with a mixture of used grain from a local brewery, bakery by-products, hay dust, hay chaff and trace minerals suspended in molasses. The feed line acts as a manure spreader because it is moved toward fresh pasture as the cattle munch away and nourish the soil while they eat. The entire process reduces our…

Barley: Best planted in the late summer, barley is drought tolerant and does well in poor, even alkaline, soils. Like Austrian peas, it will not survive winter and can be left in the ground until spring. Radishes: There are a number of forage or oilseed radishes (Daikon are one type) that are fantastic late-season cover crops. Not only do they provide a considerable amount of biomass, but their large roots also break up compacted soil. When they suffer winter-kill, the spaces where their roots existed improve soil filtration. Plant an edible variety if you want to enjoy a few in the fall. Hairy vetch: Besides having pretty purple flowers that beneficial insects love, hairy vetch fixes nitrogen in the soil, making it an excellent choice for a living mulch. Cut…

It was 1907, in what was then Arizona Territory, where, then as now, the sun shines more than 320 days of the year. A miner, more than a little the worse for wear after spending the day guzzling whiskey, bought a dozen eggs from a traveling vendor. Heading back to his shack, he dropped one of the eggs on a rock so hot it fried the egg immediately. Perhaps realizing that he could save himself the trouble of dirtying a pan back at home, the miner cracked the rest of the eggs on the rock and made himself a large omelet. Alas, reported the local paper, the meal killed the miner, for he’d eaten not chicken eggs but those of a venomous Gila monster. That mishap aside, the expression “hot…

The Powells originally offered four roasted-corn flavors. One day a customer asked to buy a four-pack: one of each flavor. So, the Powells purchased disposable aluminum pans to hold four flavors of corn. If you take a four-pack home with you and put the aluminum pan in the oven at 250 to 300°F for 10 to 15 minutes, Phillip says he believes the corn tastes even better—especially if you wait a day to heat up a four-pack. “The flavors of the fire-roasted corn have an opportunity to develop more in the corn before you eat it. Eventually, we plan to cook our corn, season and decorate the ears and have them in grocery stores.”…

1. Read the entire recipe first. “Do this even before you get out the bowl.” This sound advice is from Cheryl Bullis, a Brown County, Ohio, baker and blue-ribbon winner. “My grandma taught me to bake at an early age,” Cheryl told me. 2. Use fresh flour—and the proper kind. Old flour can produce an inferior loaf of bread, so check the expiration date. The gluten/protein in old flour can’t produce elastic dough. All-purpose flour is the “go-to” flour for most recipes. Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose. 3. Bleached vs. unbleached flour. Bleaching is an aging process that softens and whitens flour. It can be done naturally or chemically. Flour bleached naturally is labeled “unbleached.” This takes time. Flour labeled “bleached” is chemically bleached, which is a much…

Thanks to Orange, I am about to tell and show you how to make an ingeniously simple, practical, durable and inexpensive holder for long-handled tools, including forks, rakes, shovels, crooks and the like. Let me explain. Orange Judd (1822-1892)—and, yes, Orange really was his first name—was an agricultural scientist, editor and publisher who specialized in farm journals and books dispensing useful knowledge to farmers and other rural dwellers. Judd’s magazines, including American Agriculturist and Hearth and Home, were primary resources for American country folk, especially in the decades just before and after the Civil War. Among his publishing company’s many book titles was Farm Conveniences, a compilation of tools, devices and techniques contrived by “a score of practical men in all departments of farm labor.” Farm Conveniences has been republished…

• You may have to trim your branches here and there to get your subjects to fit—I had to several times. • Be sure that your Tree of Life will fit in the space you have in mind before building it. • Be creative. I made the snood on the turkey beak out of leather (I’m a leather-worker), dyed it red and then glued it on with wood glue. Gobbler snoods are part of the bird’s mating display. • Pre-drill the narrow leaf stems lest you split them. Use wood screws. I sometimes use sinew to attach leaves. • Keep it real. The two ducks I put on my tree might seem out of place in a tree, but hooded mergansers and goldeneye ducks both nest in tree cavities.…

When you need light in a tight spot (camping tent, workshop, garage) and you need it fast, don’t stay trapped in darkness, reach for your BearTrap. Streamlight’s new high-power work light delivers up to 2,000 lumens for automotive and other inspection, identification and repair uses. Featuring both spot and flood beams, the light can rotate 270 degrees in its frame and clamps to virtually any surface or stands on its own for hands-free task illumination. It also features a magnetic base and a hanging hook for additional hands-free lighting options. The BearTrap provides six output modes, including three spot and three flood settings. Flood mode fills work areas with soft, bright light, ranging from 2,000 lumens on high with a 2.5-hour run time to 575 lumens on low, with an…

“I was about 8,” Sara Hunter told me when I asked her how old she and her sister were when they began helping their dad, Greg Lutovsky, at his farm, Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, in Ellensburg, Washington. “He would give me a field to irrigate by turning the valves on and off and say, ‘I’ll be back for you in about an hour.’ Alexa is two and a half years younger than I am, and she joined me when she was about 10.” Both girls kept helping Greg through high school and college. Alexa remembers Greg taking her out of high school for a couple of days to drive the tractor pulling the seeder when she was 14. Today, she is the ownder of Irish Eyes, LLC, and Sara runs…

Birthing baby pigs doesn’t come with an instruction book or a step-by-step YouTube video, and finding the right crops to grow on a new homestead isn’t always easy. Yet, escaping suburbia and building a small farm using sustainable agriculture that pays for itself is the dream of many 30- to 50-something victims of corporate America. Going from city slicker to successful homesteader is more than getting a piece of land and watching things grow. Creating a sustainable small farm often has a harsh learning curve that takes lots of work, misery, trial and error. The problem is finding the information, equipment and skills to make farming and raising livestock work. Getting Started Lana and Gary Loyd visited the Ozarks several years ago and shortly after that bought a 25-acre homestead…

• Clean the vase or other container with soap and water, even a little bleach, to remove any harmful bacteria. • Likewise, clean scissors or other trimming tools. • Cut off 1 inch of each stem at a 45-degree angle so it can best absorb water. Add store-bought flower food or mix your own: 1 quart water, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ tablespoon household bleach. • Fill vase with fresh water and change water daily. • Remove any leaves below water level and any brown or droopy leaves and petals above water. • Every few days, recut stems at an angle.…

If you are fortunate enough to own a woodland, you know it’s a great place to pass time, but on a recent walk-through with friends, they were surprised when they saw one of our recent 2-acre patch cuts. I took the time to explain why we had chosen this harvest method as we navigated our way through the harvest site, and I pointed out small seedlings of white oak, sugar maple and tulip poplar that were beginning to take advantage of recently arranged sunlight. On this cut, we had harvested all the eastern red cedar—the remains of a former field that had grown into cedar some 40 years earlier. In many cases, complete harvest cuts are the best way to provide sufficient sunlight to oak seedlings, which are shade intolerant.…

There are lots of good reasons for keeping backyard chickens, and getting fresh eggs is at the top of the list. Finding a fresh-laid egg in the coop is a thing of wonder. No matter how many times you collect eggs, it never seems to get old. So, what’s the scoop on this nutritional marvel? How do eggs form? How do shells get their color? Do all eggs look like grocery-store eggs? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at eggs from the chicken to the plate. How Eggs Are Formed When a female chick hatches, she has thousands of ova (immature yolks) in her ovaries. They represent all the eggs she can ever lay—more than enough for her lifetime. As she grows, her left ovary matures and becomes the dominant, functional ovary.…

A bear hightailed it away as I stepped across our property line in Ozark National Forest. It was February, so this bear should have been deep in hibernation, but he was wide awake and skedaddling in overdrive. For two weeks, the U.S. Forest Service fire crews had been burning thousands of acres on the mountain above our house. Evidently, the fire woke the bear, so he left for the safety of our inholding. Critters are being pushed around all over the country. The New Pioneer’s editor, Nancy Tappan, who lives in southern Oregon, has watched dozens of unwanted deer arrive the past two years as their native habitat was destroyed by wildfires a few miles away. Their food became scarce and the deer migrated any place they could find browse.…

Not being a “skilled tradesman” has never stopped me from undertaking projects. Neither has fear or common sense. I’m supremely skilled at overestimating my ability. Shortages in skilled labor and limited finances have required me to push personal limits involving carpentry, electrical, HVAC, painting and drywalling, leaving me dirty, cut, bruised, sore, dizzy, cranky, stressed— and, once, slightly electrocuted—but generally satisfied with the work. I have established boundaries. Being wet, getting other things wet and ruining everything I touch involving water prevents me from practicing plumbing, by order of Management. Regardless of your skill set, be advised: Remodeling work on older homes often includes additional unseen difficulties. Rule Number One: Never assume a remodel will be easy or go as planned. Unlike new construction, remodeling is fraught with hidden hurdles.…

Step 1: Pick a post with plenty of overhead room (someplace your critters don’t often congregate is best). Step 2: Hold your longest fork in front of the post so that the tips of its tines are safely above the head of the tallest critter in your barn. Mark where the butt of the handle needs to be. Step 3: Bolt the bottom shelf to the post so the shelf plate is at the mark. Make sure the plate is level. Step 4: Drill a single hole and install the top shelf so that the plate is about one foot above the lower one. Step 5: Insert that longest fork in the center of the holder. If it leans out too far, relocate the top shelf upward—that will draw the…