Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Get the most out of your vehicle and your maintenance dollar

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Grow some winter squash this year

Gardening the Year ‘Round

By Alice B. Yeager Website Exclusive • September, 2006 Normally, we gardeners tend to make plans to begin planting our gardens during early spring. We select...

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

Use Old Newspapers to Make Your Starter Pots

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

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

Trusses — Low cost marvels to roof over most large spaces

Build a cistern out of corrugated road culvert

Build your own repeating mouse trap

Build Your Own Hoop House

Self-Reliance

Stay clear of young wild animals

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part III

By Annie Tuttle Issue #147 • May/June, 2014 Previous in Series Me with Brownie, Cupcake, Red Velvet, and Flan (mostly hidden). These were...

A young couple moves to the country

By Jessie Denning Issue #175 • January/February/March 2019 As many of you know, I’ve been the managing editor of this magazine for the last four years....

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 ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest have to fear

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 Great Depression — A reminiscence

Constitution of the united States of America

The time-travel ad

Remembering what grandma used

Firearms

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

How to shoot a handgun accurately

By Massad Ayoob Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 "I want you to do an article on how to shoot a handgun accurately," Dave Duffy told me....

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

By John Moody Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 In my youth, I remember my dad dragging my brother and me out of bed in the middle...

Affordable firearms

By Massad Ayoob Issue #134 • March/April, 2012 Knowing that frugality is one of the cornerstones of rural living, Editor Annie Tuttle suggested that I tackle...

Preparedness

What to do when there’s no doctor

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

Avoiding heat illness

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

Start a fire in any weather

Survival firebuilding skills

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...