Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

How to buy your first sheep without getting shorn

Your survival depends on water

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

By John Silveira While we are waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to subside enough so society can get back to normal, there are powerful and...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Three Raised Bed Designs

By Joe Mooney Issue #150 • November/December, 2014 When it comes to gardening, almost anything can be used to create a raised bed. Tires, blocks, rocks,...

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

No Worrying About Fire Blight with Orient and Kieffer Pears

How to become a backyard beekeeper

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

Here’s an Easier (and Cheaper) Way to Make Wooden Beams

The Mini-Skyline — A homemade yarder to bring firewood up a draw

Make a Quick and Easy Tipi

Build a Trapper’s Tilt

Self-Reliance

Make a Sure-Fire Live Trap

Bath herbs

By Cynthia Andal Issue #86 • March/April, 2004 The visceral pleasure to be gained from drinking wild herbal teas that you have harvested yourself pales in...

Medicinal uses of garlic

By Joseph Alton, M.D. and Amy Alton, A.R.N.P. Issue #134 • March/April, 2012 One of the greatest gifts of natural medicine that can be found on...

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

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

Gee-Whiz: Insects

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

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

Constitution of the united States of America

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

The summer of ’35

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

Firearms

The light at the end of the gun

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

By Massad Ayoob Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Jeff Yago, Backwoods Home's energy writer, recently completed a couple of concealed carry handgun courses. The classes apparently...

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • July, 2008 Fifty years ago, Savage Arms introduced a new bolt-action sporting rifle. In the gun world, this was news....

Inexpensive retired Russian military rifles can be the ideal backwoods meat guns

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #47 • September/October, 1997 Like many another rural person, I've often found a firearm to be my most important tool. No,...

Preparedness

The Five “P”s: A fire evacuation grab ‘n’ go kit

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

Prepper power! Part 1

Homestead security for women

Keep the Ice On

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

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...