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The New Pioneer
Fall 2019The New Pioneer is your guide to everything the land has to offer. Every issue is packed with useful how-to information for back-to-the-landers, plus spotlight pieces on couples and families that have actually “been there, and done that” with success! The New Pioneer is also chock full of expert advice on must-have tools and homestead gear, planting and farming, strategies for achieving energy independence and buying rural land, do-it-yourself projects and how to get the most out of living the rural life.
IN THIS ISSUE
catch the pioneer spirit
When I told a friend that we were focusing on DIY projects in this issue, he said, “I know the perfect guy—he sums up what it means to be a new pioneer and a DIYer—Michael Garnier, Mr. Treehouse.” How right he was! One of our regular contributors, Paul Fattig, had met Michael and offered to tell us how he made his improbable dream come true: to earn a living on 40 wooded acres doing what he loved—building treehouses. Not those like the little one my father built in our backyard oak so we could climb up and play, but marvels of innovative design, some 50 feet up complete with lights, a bathroom and a spiral staircase. The same mindset led Jeff and Sherry Owen to finish building their sweet log home…
breaking news!
The New Pioneer is now on Instagram at instagram.com/thenewpioneer. Be sure to stop by our page, give us a follow and share your photos with us by using #thenewpioneer or #thenewpioneermagazine. Keep your helpful Facebook comments and emails coming so we can provide the information you crave. Your letters prompt us to order feature articles. We do read your comments. If you know a family who might be a good cover story, let us know. We also want more of your helpful “It Worked For Me” stories. Cut and paste your 350-word manuscript into an email and attach a high-resolution photo (between 1 and 5 MB) or two for illustration purposes. We’ll pay $100 upon acceptance. Email us at editdesk@ athlonoutdoors.com.…
about our authors
Carol J. Alexander writes about sustainable living, health and wellness, and home remodeling topics for print publications, blogs, and websites from her home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her credits include Grit, Hobby Farms, Living the Country Life, and Family Handyman. She is the author of Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals. Cody Assman has been blessed to write for outdoor magazines all across the country. His interests include bowhunting, trapping, horses, primitive camping, living history, and all things western history. Recently he published his first book The Wild Adventures of Old Bill Williams and will soon publish Journey of a Mountain Man. Both books and Cody’s creations can be found at his website frontierlife.net. Marti Attoun is a freelance writer who lives in Joplin, Missouri. She has written…
apple growing abcs
A few miles outside of booming Columbus, Ohio, Andy Lynd, a fourth-generation apple farmer at Lynd Fruit Farm, knows that most people think of apples only in the autumn when it’s time for picking. He also knows that he’s been thinking about this fall fruit since spring when the success or failure of an apple crop begins. “Between the mowing, the spraying and the pruning, the monitoring for diseases and insects, deciding do you spray or don’t spray, spring is the busy time,” he says. “Spring is almost busier than fall, because once the growth starts, there are a lot of things you have to do on a timely basis. You’ll get one shot.” WEATHER MATTERS That shot starts with the weather, and spring can be a fickle partner, especially when you own…
10 tips for the home apple grower
1 Do research. Know the conditions where you want to plant and get to know available apple varieties. 2 Plant for disease resistance. Make sure the trees you plant aren’t highly susceptible to fire blight and apple scab. 3 Know what you’re buying. Semi-dwarf trees fruit in three to five years. Fully dwarf trees fruit the year after planting. 4 Buy from a good source. Andy recommends buying from Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Co. because the company’s website offers small quantities of varieties suitable for the homeowner and includes helpful You-Tube videos. Gurney’s sells two MAIA apples: Baker’s Delight and Crunch-A-Bunch. Andy often recommends Pixie Crunch and Goldrush since they’ll cover early and late seasons while producing both sweet and tart fruit. 5 Prune wisely. “The more you prune, the less likely that tree…
midwest apple improvement association
The Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA) started with Mitch Lynd (Andy Lynd’s father), three colleagues, plus pollen from a Honeycrisp apple tree and a Fuji apple tree. Twenty years later, the MAIA grower-owned cooperative is leading the way in developing apple varieties that are particularly suited to the Midwest climate. It has trademarked and named several apple varieties, and the first and biggest—EverCrisp—is now grown around the world. “Dad collected the Honeycrisp pollen from our orchard here and took it to another grower up near Youngstown when the Fuji trees were just about ready to bloom. They pollinated the Fuji and then marked the branch and we picked that fruit in the fall and the seeds got planted,” says Andy. “From this planting, one tree was exceptional, and that tree was…
