Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Build a chicken feeder on the cheep cheep cheep

Raising cattle on your own place

Build a barrel stove

By Nick Weston Issue #133 • January/February, 2012 This stove kept me warm and provided an excellent cooking surface for more than six months while I...

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

Making and using a solar cooker

Radiant floor heating — Alternative to forced-air heating is solar-powered, too...

Plant Your Trees in the Spring

By Tom Kovach Issue #61 • January/February, 2000 Winter is a good time to plan your spring tree plantings, deciding what and where you want to...

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

Grow some winter squash this year

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First...

By John Silveira Issue #29 • September/October, 1994 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) It was...

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Pistachios — Historic and healthy nuts

Do you suffer from gout? Here are some recipes that might help

Picking your pressure canner — All American or Presto?

How to organize an outdoor canning party

Tips and handy hints for 4X4 living

Keeping your food cold — Solutions to refrigeration when electricity is scarce

Build a community assistance recharging station

Centennial of the All-American .30-06

By Massad Ayoob Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 In the long love affair between America and the rifle, there has never been an interlude quite as...

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

The light at the end of the gun

How big is the solar system?

By John Silveira Issue #60 • November/December, 1999 In artists' renderings of the solar system we often see the sun represented by a small sphere with...

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

Science and truth. Are they related?

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

Animal rights loonies save the chickens but ruin the County Fair

Getting rich through generosity

Something unsaid about Timothy McVeigh’s execution

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

By Charles Sanders Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat. Hogs are raised throughout our neighboring Amish community for...

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

By James Kash Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Broodiness is an avian behavior that is frowned upon in the world of agriculture. All industrial agriculturalists cull...

Raising cattle on your own place

Shearing, carding, spinning, weaving and creating with Margaret Boos

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Teach your kids math with the banking game

You could furnish an entire homestead at Lehman’s ‘Non-electric’ Hardware Store

In the classroom and at home, this system will help you grow self-reliant kids

Leafy Green Vegetables — The Underrated Heroes of the Garden

By Jackie Clay Issue #104 • March/April, 2007 When you mention "garden," everybody immediately thinks of sweet corn, green beans, and tomatoes, with a few peppers and cucumbers thrown in. But a whole lot of folks,...

Propagating Grapes

By Sylvia Gist Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 As a kid in western South Dakota, I enjoyed picking wild grapes and using the delightful juice they produced, so when I eventually acquired property in Montana, I...