Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding

Khaki Campbell ducks — The other egg layer

Eye-catching signs with mirrors

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Use Plastic to Get a Head Start on Corn in the...

By Mark and Lynn Klammer Issue #41 • September/October, 1996 As spring approaches each year, we can hardly wait for the feel of warm earth between...

Start a Self-Sufficiency Garden Even in a Cramped Apartment

Tomatoes, the Essential Garden Crop

Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening

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

Eye-catching signs with mirrors

Building and Using Wattle Fences

Build your own repeating mouse trap

Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding

Self-Reliance

Start a post-construction cleaning business

Finding wealth you can wear at yard sales

By Thomas M. Buckley Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 When you go to yard sales this year, be sure to look for jewelry. I used to...

Buying the right emergency radio

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #98 • March/April, 2006 In our last issue I addressed how to select the best battery-powered lighting for your emergency...

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

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

Three more ways the world can end … and I’m not kidding

Gee-Whiz: Insects

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

The summer of ’35

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

George Washington Carver — He wrote the book on self-reliance

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Firearms

How to shoot a handgun accurately

Firearms handling refresher Part I: Handguns

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • December, 2003 One of our readers e-mailed John Silveira to tell him that taking a handgun afield after a long...

Sight and sound enhancement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 Enhancing vision and hearing can make you a safer, more effective shooter, and sometimes can save human lives. Captain...

Hunting, processing, and serving black bear

By Linda Gabris Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 Bear was a popular meat in our house when I was growing up in the rural woods. Black...

Preparedness

Prepper power! Part 2

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Why you need to addsolar to your emergencypower backup plans

Medical kits for self-reliant families

No dentist? Oh, no!

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

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...