Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Raising cattle on your own place

Build a poultry killing cone

Raising your own beef

Bottle-raise a calf

Building

Build a Top-Bar Bee Hive

By Jereme Zimmerman Issue #175 • January/February/March, 2019 My journey to becoming a beekeeper has been a long one, and I’m still not quite there yet....

Build a log crib

For summertime baking needs, build yourself an outdoor horno

Turning a $10,000 House into a Home — Part 1: Salvaging...

Eye-catching signs with mirrors

Farm and Garden

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...

Grow Your Own Dishrags

Pruning Blueberries

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

Grow Garlic and Reap Health Benefits

Americana and History

Catfish Biscuits

By Danny Fulks Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 Danny Fulks, 71, grew up in southern Ohio where his parents worked the land and milked cows, and...

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Fly it proudly and properly

Biological and chemical weapons through history

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

Food and recipes

Successful cold storage

Hoppin’ John with fresh asparagus beans

Chicken Saltimbocca with Escarole

Mint julep non-alcoholic

Self-reliance

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Making apple pectin

Homeschooling your dylsexic kid

This country job really rocks

Energy

Is steam power in your future?

Solar charge controllers — myths, hype, and facts

Solar Power 101: Inverters

Walden Pond — the solar version: Part 2

Guns and Hunting

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 One reader writes to ask if military surplus rifles are still a good idea for hunting, recreational shooting,...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

Thoughts on ammunition

Choose your ammo… police style

Science

Gee-Whiz: Trees

By O. E. Macdougal September/October 2015, Backwoods Home We’re told they include some of the oldest and largest living organisms on the planet. But do...

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

The many benefits of garlic

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest...

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

Politics and Commentary

Personal guns getting to be in style

Terrorist attack! Was this predictable?

Things kids should learn before leaving high school, but don’t

Perspectives on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting

Animals

Switch your family to goat’s milk

By Tanya Kelley Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 If you milk goats, there's no doubt you've heard it"Eww! Goat's milk! Gross!" To be perfectly honest, goat...

Get to know your spiders

By Jerry Hourigan Issue #109 • January/February, 2008 Every landowner and homeowner creates the perfect environment for spiders. Not intentionally, of course, but spiders seem to...

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Bottle-raise a calf

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Self-Reliance

The fire wick fire starter

The return of home emergency shelters takes on a dual-purpose approach

Preparing for winter

The poor man’s ultra-light dual-fuel backpacking stove

Farm and Garden

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

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 It's been well over a decade now since I first heard my friend Pete voice his amazement at my practice of spreading animal manure as a fertilizer....

Mid-season planting

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson As the saying goes “Life happens…” Maybe events have kept you from getting your garden planted early in the spring. When we moved to New Mexico, it was in late June and...