I read with great pleasure about the inception of Backwoods Home Magazine and send my best wishes to all for another 20 years!

I first found your magazine on a store shelf in Calgary, Alberta, and then had a subscription for a while.  And despite moves to Ontario and the Yukon, I have kept a hold of those original copies and re-read them with continued interest.  Now I will admit that I pop into the website and continue to read with interest between managing my gardens and homeschooling my son.

I also never ceased to be amused by the border guards who still ask me if I subscribe to the magazine… I guess Canadian readers are a worrisome bunch…

Many thanks again and best wishes.

Jen Kennedy

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I was a subscriber many years past and enjoyed and tested Backwoods Home Magazine…job loss/more bills piling up/etc and had to drop the subscription.

I was able to re-subscribe here lately and have ordered some of the back issues….which myself and family members have “devoured” and I have noticed…no more poems as once was in the past….what? No interest? Lack-o-room? No…submits?

Just curious.

Curt Richardson

We publish poems as we find ones we like. — Dave

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Dear BHM,

I was sorry to learn of the death of John Shuttleworth through your article Looking back on 20 years of BHM. Over the years I had wondered what became of him.

John Shuttleworh through his magazine, The Mother Earth News, had a profound influence on my life in two ways. First he convinced me I should move to the country. Twenty five years ago I bought the land but I let life get in the way of actually moving. Second he introduced me to Helen and Scott Nearing. I had all but given up on the idea of living in the country but about three years ago I reread “The Good Life”. If Scott Nearing could build a new house at 70 I could at least try. So 2 months short of my 65 birthday I started work on a house on the land I bought 25 years ago and was now paid for. Except for the well and septic system I’ve done all the work myself.

I love getting up in the morning, sometimes a bit slow but my blood pressure is down 10 points and my cholesterol is down 30 points. With a little luck I’ll be living in the house for my 66 birthday in February, 2010.

I quit reading the MEN after he sold it and it moved to New York, but 35 years later, it’s still influencing my life. I hope he knew what a positive long term impact he had on people’s lives.

R V Collins
Sacul, TX

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Hello

I just wanted to drop you a line telling you how much I like your magazine. I have been a subscriber for a year now and I am re-upping for more.

I guess I am like most homesteaders trying to make do with what they got. And, right now I have fifteen acres of land, a house with a roof that doesn’t leak, four Boer goats to clear the land (did I mention that all fifteen acres are filled with blackberries?) and, I got word today that I am getting three and a half Dexters (One bull, one pregnant heifer, and one steer). So far so good right? Well not quite, I am feeling like I am beginning to run before I am able to walk, yet my wife has complete confidence in me even though I am telling her I am making it up as I go along.

So, knowing my situation, I am glad to have found your magazine as it is what us beginning homesteaders need, an experienced practical voice in the wilderness. Saying that I would like to add, I am sorry it took me nineteen years to find your magazine, however, I am glad it didn’t take another twenty.

Once again, thank you.

Happy twentieth birthday.

Jack Chilla

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I really love reading your site and I am seriously considering placing a subscription order – the thing is, my homestead is a boat.

I have a 26′ sailboat here in Oregon City I am refitting for a live aboard.  There are many of the articles that are easily enough adapted to life on the water – but I am curious if there are other people who are taking to the water rather than the land.

I’d love to see some articles for the occasional boat dweller that would suit the theme of your publication.

Anyway, thanks again for such a great site and look for my money order in the not too distant future.

Dovid Smith
Oregon City, OR

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I just wanted to say nice website.

I was drawn to come over and look at Backwoods Home Magazine in honor of William Cooper.

Thanks

Rock

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We have been looking for the Sept/Oct Issue and we cannot find it in any of our stores. Are the books still being delivered to the Gwinnett / Barrow County area in Georgia?

We would like to subscribe to the magazine but our postal service is terrible. When we get books and magazines they are most always damaged.

If that is the only option we will probably subscribe because we like to read the magazine.

Thanks,

Janet Jeanes
Auburn, GA

We send magazines to subscribers in a plastic sleeve, so they are seldom damaged.

Dave, Publisher, BHM

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Dave,

I think your magazine is very nearly perfect.

We will store our print copies forever!  An online version would make poor toilet paper in a disaster situation!  So, don’t waste your time and effort on an online version!

And this comment is from a “buy nearly everything off of the Internet” high tech geek guy with a degree in electronics!

Oh, as an aside, some of us are vegetarians and are NOT left wing whacko’s!   So an occasional vegetarian recipe is always welcome at our house .

Thanks for such a great magazine!  This will be the last subscription to go as we go softly (or not) into the Greatest Depression….

Another Libertarian abandoned by the R[epublican] party!

Joe Olson

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I read your magazine for the informative, entertaining articles on homesteading and country life in general. If I wanted to have someone force-feed their political views down my throat, I would pay for that in a separate subscription. Leave politics (right, left, middle, all of it) out of your magazine if you would like to keep a wider audience. Of course, it is entirely your right to publish whatever you choose (and I fully support that freedom), but I for one will not be renewing my subscription. I suspect I am not entirely alone in this decision.

I will check back on-line occasionally to see if things have changed.

Sincerely,

Scott Norris

Thanks for supporting my freedom.

Dave

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Hello Dave,

I am writing to ask you if there is a reason why I haven’t been able to find BackwoodsHome in the stores around here. I live outside of Buffalo, NY and none of the stores that usually carry your magazine have had it. I even checked in PA.

Thank you,

John Dean

One of the distributors for larger bookstores, such as Borders, went bankrupt a few months ago. Although they have reorganized and come out of bankruptcy, we have canceled our contract with them so that impacts some stores.

All these stores should have a computer database of what magazines they carry; ask them to see if they carry us.

Dave

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First let me thank you so much for your articles and archives online. My wife and I are on a limited income and online and your special edition on “Gearing up for an Economic Squeeze” have been our guidelines and encouragement!!! THANKS! My how Jackie has helped, too!!!!!

We started, way back when, your plan on starting our emergency food pantry on $10.00/week and man, has it worked good. Big Lots and other stores that have canned goods, sometimes for as low as $ .25 a can, toilet paper overstocks, toothbrushes at 2 for a buck, etc., have now expanded out pantry to near a years supply. We watch expiration dates religiously and rotate things weekly!

We have also paid off every credit card except one, and paid off all other bills. Our one remaining card has a balance of $150. Our only bills are a car, our home, and insurance premiums.

Thanks for the encouragement, advice, and articles to guide us!!!!!!!!

Now a quick question. We have a basement in our house in northern Ohio. We have a small natural gas heater in the basement and a fireplace gas log in the fireplace upstairs. But, if we loose power or are in a real bad emergency situation where gas would not be affordable or available, I want to put in a wood fired cook stove in the basement. It SHOULD provide some heat as well as cooking ability. Do they require the same vent/flu as a wood fired heating stove? Do they give off as much heat as I think? (I am also putting in a (down spout fed) water holding tank in the basement, a Bison hand pump on our well, and working on a pumping system to keep water in a tank in the attic where it can gravity feed our bathroom and a sink in the basement.)

Thanks for your advice!

Richard & Marlene Lodwick

Yes, they do. Wood-fired stoves, whether for heat or heat/cooking, come in a variety of sizes and shapes. You’ll have to shop around. Venting, both for air intake if you have a fairly closed up space, and for smoke exhaust, is essential for safety. A damper will allow you to control the amount of heat they give. Search our website for helpful articles, and go onto our website’s Forum to discuss your needs with others.

Editor, BHM

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Mr. Duffy,

This message is long overdue, but I felt I had to write just to tell you how much I enjoy Backwoods Home Magazine. I read the paper version for years (still do), and now enjoy the [online newsletter].

BHM has taught both myself and my family much about independant living, and making use of the land. We have increased our organic gardening output, for one. We are hoping to begin selling both produce and other products at our local farm market late this season or early next. Even my two teenage daughters are excited about the possibility to both sell our own products and also explain to others how to get back to nature.

Your fine publication was very useful to us back in Michigan (where both my wife and I were born and raised), and also now, since our relocation to North Carolina about two years ago. I have been able to share BHM with several of our new southern friends, who are all enjoying it as much as we do. They smile, call us “Damn Yankees” with a grin, and then copy the way we build our raised planter beds.

Due to our nation’s suffering economy, both my wife and I have found ourselves among the ranks of the unemployed. We are utilizing all of the advice on simple living and “putting by” of food and necessities that BHM has taught us to help us weather the storm until we find suitable employment again.

So again, Thank You for the wonderful Backwoods Home Magazine. We truly appreciate it!

Sincerely,

Randy and Kathy Stone and Family
Shelby, North Carolina

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Back in the ’70′s, I was an avid Mother Earth News reader and subscriber. Somewhere through the years, Mother Earth lost her way and forgot about loyal readers and sold-out to commercialism. But, wherever it was that Mother Earth lost the trail, Backwoods Home surely found it – I only wish I had discovered you earlier!

I was leafing through issue #117 and when I came upon the syrup making of Roger Clark, I nearly fell out of my chair. My best (and oldest) friend, Gary Layman, is the nephew of Larry and Mildred Terry who are the parents of Roger’s wife. I have visited that little farm near Obrien, FL several times over the years and have stood in that very “cook house.” Not only is it a small world for a publisher in Oregon to know about a small town syrup legacy in rural Florida, but the article was keenly accurate.

I only wish the author had mentioned more of Mildred Terry as well. She was an incredible woman and was the quiet breeze beneath all their wings. And, if that weren’t enough, there was another article a few pages over about Roger’s son making knives (which I didn’t know). You had me hooked with all your wonderful bread-baking articles, but when you started writing about people and places that I know personally, well … I was back home!

Thank you.

Randy Harris
Conyers, GA

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Reading each issue of BHM gives me a little more hope in knowing that there are others who share the ideas I consider just good common sense.  As our government leaders make only more and more damaging decisions that will affect our country, particularly economically, it is such a help to not only feel less isolated, but to also read some practical advice in how to respond and take care of ourselves, our friends, and families.

We have been blessed that my husband has been able to earn enough to supply us with a nice home and amenities.  (I’m thrilled with my double oven and air conditioning.)  But reading your magazine helps me feel better prepared to face the inevitable worsening down-turn in our economy.  We have already seen a huge decrease in salary, but thanks to having some skills learned in years past- some from your magazine- I have not had to worry that we can still have enough to eat and a way to heat our home.  I’ve never felt it wise to think that we will always be able to buy what we want when we want it, and even though we didn’t learn many of these skills because we truly had to, I’m so glad God did somehow give us the interest in learning.  Things like gardening, canning and preserving, raising livestock, sewing, orcharding,  wine- and beer-making, etc. are almost second nature and don’t seem like a hardship at all.  In fact, I can taste the quality of the results of our labor every day.  My husband would put our Gewurztraminer wine and our peach salsa up against any commercial brand any time! My family prefers homemade ginger ale and “plain” home cooking over most restaurants and commercially prepared food.  Folks who used to tease me about my shelves of home-canned foods, big gardens, bulk supplies of flour and other things, aren’t laughing now.

How invaluable is your magazine in giving so much practical advice and information in all of these skills!  Though some readers have been doing some of these tasks for years, there is no way to ever know it all, and we can always learn more from one another.  The humility with which you share your knowledge is also very refreshing.  Even the features addressing the more ideological side of issues are not delivered with the typical arrogance I find in many other columns from other sources.

To change the subject completely, I thought I’d add a suggestion to Linda Gabris’ “Homemade premixed foods” feature in the May/June, 2009 issue.  I found that adding about 1 teaspoon of salt to the oatmeal mix really improved the flavor, and I’d highly recommend it as long as one is not on a reduced sodium diet. Adding a few drops of maple extract when cooking the oatmeal works nicely, too. I used regular rolled oats, which I processed in the food processor for about 45 seconds, instead of the instant oats, since we can buy the regular oats in bulk more economically than instant or quick oats.  I tried and loved the basic biscuit mix! Though I could technically have reduced the baking powder slightly since using buttermilk, keeping the amount as listed gave us the fluffiest biscuits I’ve ever made. Thanks!

In the “Ask Jackie” column, I wondered if the reader asking about carbonated beverages was asking how to make homemade soda with the intensity of seltzer water, rather than just carbonated water.  Though homemade sodas are slightly fermented to create the carbonation, the alcohol by-product is truly negligible.  Though sanitation is important, making homemade sodas is rather easy, particularly using commercial extracts and the correct yeast.  The soda can be ready in as little as 2-3 days, and the results are worth the little effort.

Thank you for a job so very well done!  Each of your contributors does a terrific job of offering practical and timely advice and instruction.

Sincerely,
Erin Dumont,
Sam’s Valley, Oregon

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Dear BWH,

Tonight I entered a forum called “KountryLife” that I frequent mostly. There someone mentioned your magazine so I just had to call up your website. Your website is AWESOME. I fell head over heels with your magazine so I just had to have a 3-year  subscription.

I can’t wait till I get my first issue. I’m not much into ordering magazine subs but I was so pleased with reading all your website I know I will have many hours of enjoyable evenings reading your magazine.

Thanks to all of you.

Billy D. Logan
Hitchcock, Texas

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I was reading the letters in the current issue of Backwoods Home (116), and just had to share.

In the letter about sausage, Susan and Austin were looking for recipes for sausage seasonings.  I would like to share my source for sausage seasoning, and I recommend them highly: North Central Food Processing supply.

I butchered a 3-year-old sheep recently, and it was with trepidation as all my life I had heard “mutton” was awful stuff.  It was great!  We ground almost all of it into sausage, and half of it was mixed with North Central Food Processing’s pineapple bratwurst seasoning.  Absolutely delicious.  The other half was made into Southern Style Pork Sausage Seasoning. No MSG. Another great success!  The backstraps and loins made a very nice curry, and I will be butchering again soon before the weather warms up.

I love the magazine, and subscribe to it when I can.  It is a perennial on my Christmas wish list.  I think Jackie is a kindred spirit, and although I am often asked about the things she covers in her column, I have turned to her in back issues for the things that stump me.  Keep up the very excellent work.

With sincere respect,

Nora McCoy
Lismore, MN

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Good morning.

Recently I stopped by my library to look over the past few issues I’ve been missing. And for the most part I was disappointed. There is treasure in every single issue, no question, but several articles simply didn’t seem up to standard while others seemed badly misinformed or based too much on the writers opinions and not experience or fact.

And then after poring over each and every page for the 2nd or 3rd time I came to my conclusion: It didn’t matter. I decided it didn’t matter how I felt about the state of a couple issues because you and your staff and everyone who contributes is still working hard on one the best things I’ve ever seen.

When I find myself against an article, its only by a degree. Maybe I’m more of an environmentalist on one, or one clashes with personal or religious beliefs; doesn’t change that BHM is about the real heart of problems, and how to fix them before the rest of the world gets around to it at our expense. About how to live the real good life, not the one we’re shown (but somehow, never achieve.) And how to take back pride and honor in being responsible and accountable for the life we lead.

So take heart and thanks to you and yours for a lifetime of needed work and transparency.

Thank you and God bless you.

Sincerely,

Calvin Martin Stevens
Napoleon, Ohio

p.s. At this time I am unemployed, and while a part of me doesn’t like being tied into the state unemployment/welfare system, thanks to BHM and others insteado f panicing and dramaticaly reducing my familes way of living we ae able to continue our simple pleasant homey lifestyle. Next time I find myself unemployed I hope to find myself in the position to tell the state “No thanks, I’m doing fine.”

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A wonderful publication and site – have been a reader for years. Keep up  the excellent work.

As I was re-packing a kit. I realized that I had never really seen mention of one of my favorite useful bits of survival/camping gear – spring-loaded wooden clothespins.

Aside from the obvious uses (hanging notes, glue-clamps, maybe even drying laundry), they have a million uses, and, generally, cost about a buck-a-hundred. Some things I have used them for, over the years include makeshift shims and wedges, emergency-replacement springs, a workable catfish-hook and dry kindling in wet weather.

They are small, weigh almost nothing and while they may not save your life in the outdoors, they can make it easier.

CapnHarlock

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Just found your site and I must say Thank You!

Wow, I was beginning to think I was the only one out here in the hills with a serious lack of patience for being surrounded by supremely self-absorbed, consumerism driven lifestyles and their perpetuators. What a breath of fresh air you, your contributors and members are.

I value the backwoods self-sufficient lifestyle and am looking for like-minded souls to share tips and trials with, which I believe I have finally located.

My mountain man was killed in a car crash almost 2 years ago and he was my soul mate and partner; he slaughtered, I processed. We made a good team. We milled our own wood, raised or hunted our meat and had some good times. I didn’t realize how much I relied on his expertise at butchering and hunting until he was gone. I now raise our son alone and am trying to pick up his skill set that I can pass down to our son as his pa would have if he was still around.

I thank you for the opportunity to get back to where we were and become self-reliant again and through this knowledge pass on what will be needed to survive in this world and not lose the art of being a man in this mamby pamby culture of men’s manicures, soft hands, and white collars.

Trying to honor the heritage of our forefathers and pioneers who would not recognize this land or its inhabitants or fathom how we survived!!! It’s a wonder, just look at the panic when the power goes out and the deaths, people have no concept of how to survive without modern luxuries… pathetic.

Blessings and kudos,

Kara Cunningham

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I love reading your articles, all of them, not just the Home Survival stuff. You have really given me such great advice that I just had to let you know.

I am not able to have a garden, or can a whole lot of stuff, but I do have a freezer and fill it every chance I get. I get most of my produce from the local farmers market, in the summer months, and put up whatever I possibly can. I love pulling those blueberries out of the freezer in January and making pancakes. It’s just amazing what you can do with just a little room and a deep freezer. This is the first time I ever made Apple Butter and I shared it at work. My friends really enjoyed it. Now my daughter told me I have to enter it into the county fair this coming year. (haha)

As for meat. I’m afraid to can meat. So my husband’s friend got a deer this year and well it’s in the freezer too. Most of the things I freeze I use the vacuum sealer on.

Anyway I could go on and on, So please accept my thank you for being here for me. May God Bless You !

Michele Cawthorne

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