Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Lessons learned from an ice storm

Flea market stories and strategies

Homestead burnout — What it is and how to avoid it

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Grow some winter squash this year

By Lisa Nourse I love summertime — I love the green of the trees, the warm weather, and growing my own food. I especially love...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Saving Seeds

By Jackie Clay Issue #129 • May/June, 2011 I go through dozens of garden seed catalogs in preparation for each year's new (and better!) garden. I...

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

Your Manure Pile — For Fuel, Fertilizer, and Maybe Even Improved...

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

Follow Jackie Clay-Atkinson and her husband, Will, as they homestead a 120-acre piece of northern Minnesotan woods entirely off-grid. Sharing their homestead are horses, beef cattle, a milk cow, dairy goats, chickens and turkeys.

Massad Ayoob on Guns

This blog, from a retired police captain and self-defense instructor, covers the use of different firearms, political musings, and self-defense tactics.

Building

Build Your Own Car Wash

Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans

Our Unconventional House

Turning a $10,000 House into a Home — Part 1: Salvaging the Wreck

Self-Reliance

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Vinegar — A splash is all you need for healthful eating, natural healing, and...

By Linda Gabris Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Call me a sourpuss, if you will, but I love vinegar and can't imagine a day going by...

Teach speed reading to your children even if you can’t speed read yourself

By George Stancliffe Issue #59 • September/October, 1999 For over two years, I have had the hobby of teaching speed reading to people in the community...

Animals

The homestead cat

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson We have had at least one cat in our home ever since I was a young child. So it’s no wonder we...

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Raising your own beef

Fermenting Chicken Feed

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Science and Education

The many benefits of garlic

Gee-Whiz: Trees

The coming ice age

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

Energy

Solar power for farm and ranch

By Jeffrey R. Yago, P.E. It may be surprising to learn that there are now all kinds of do-it-yourself solar powered devices specifically designed to...

Power-up bag

Amateur Ham Radio – The Ultimate Tool for Survival Communications

Keep the Ice On

Power Up

Americana and History

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Grandpa’s justice

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Firearms

Firearms handling refresher Part II: Shotguns

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 One reader writes to ask if military surplus rifles are still a good idea for hunting, recreational shooting,...

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

By Massad Ayoob Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 There are so many makes and models of firearms in existence that no one has ever counted them...

How big a gun do you need?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 We Americans like to do things in a big way. Big houses. Big cars. Big boats. And, yes,...

Preparedness

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

What to do when there’s no doctor

Dollar Store to the Rescue

Wildfires: Before, During, After

7 Mistakes of food storage

Articles By Dave Duffy

My View: Call Me Miracle Man!

By Dave Duffy Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes...