Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part II

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

The Great Depression — A reminiscence

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...

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Grow some winter squash this year

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

An Introduction to Small-Scale Home Hydroponics

By Ben Richards Issue #154 • July/August, 2015 As most people are already aware, hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil. This is done...

Want More Fruit From Less Space? Espalier Your Trees!

Use Non-Hybrid Seeds and Save Big Bucks in This Year’s Garden

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

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

A Kid-Friendly Chicken Coop

Building a Ferro-Cement Shed

Stairs — The next level

Build a chicken house in a day

Self-Reliance

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

Make your own firestarters

By Claire Wolfe Issue #129 • May/June, 2011 I bought an old house last summer and inherited lots of the former owners' stuff some of...

Lessons learned from an ice storm

By Anita Evangelista Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 The weather reports indicated ice could be coming in. It was already raining and getting chilly on that...

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: Coffee

Theories of the universe

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

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

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

The barnyard scramble

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

Firearms

Firearms handling refresher Part II: Shotguns

Moderate power firearms

By Massad Ayoob Issue #110 • March/April, 2008 Robert Ruark, the great American writer of the mid-Twentieth Century, was also a big game hunter. One of...

Consider the 20-gauge shotgun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 A year or more ago in these pages, I made the suggestion that sometimes less is more, and...

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...

Preparedness

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Bugging out in place

Disaster preparation!

Prepper power! Part 1

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

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...