Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

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

Get to know your spiders

Beekeeping basics

Build a chicken feeder on the cheep cheep cheep

Building

How safe is your electric fence?

By Eloise Twining I’ve used solar powered electric fencing on my California ranch for at least 35 years. Over that time electric fencing has proved...

Choosing a chain saw

Stairs — The next level

Build a deluxe barrel stove

Dorothy Ainsworth update: Out of the ashes

Farm and Garden

Vermicomposting — Raise Worms to Consume Waste, Amend Soil, and Earn...

By Rebekah L. Cowell Photos by Amanda Egdorf-Sand Issue #124 • July/August, 2010 Vermicomposting takes composting to another level using Eisenia foetida (commonly known as red wiggler,...

Caring for your chickens in winter

Grow some winter squash this year

Build a Composter

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

Americana and History

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

By Martin Waterman Issue #37 • January/February, 1996 I can remember taking a trip as a child and seeing my first Burma Shave signs. Technically speaking,...

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

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

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

Food and recipes

Gritted bread

Adventures of a 9-pound cabbage

Stuffed sweet peppers

Baked barbeque beans

Self-reliance

Start a post-construction cleaning business

Just for Kids: Knock knock vinegar

Vinegar — A splash is all you need for healthful eating, natural healing, and sparkling home

The coffee mug knife sharpener

Energy

Keep the Ice On

Water pumping windmills

Radiant floor heating — Alternative to forced-air heating is solar-powered, too An interview with Stephen Heckeroth

7 Solar Water Heating System Designs

Guns and Hunting

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

By Massad Ayoob Issue #163 • January/February, 2017 Click Here to read Part 1 Click Here to read Part 2 As noted in the two previous parts of...

Bury a gun and ammo for 15 years

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

Picking a holster

Science

The coming ice age

By John Silveira Issue #86 • March/April, 2004 As little as 30 years ago the talk wasn't about global warming, it was about an imminent ice...

Gee-Whiz: Time

Testing Soil

The ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

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

Politics and Commentary

Working for a dad who works at home

Our energy crisis Part 2 — Nuclear energy is sensible and safe

My View: Grand Theory vs. Stark Reality

A government with not enough to do, but lots of hungry mouths to feed

Animals

Where our farm animals come from

Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 We don't know how far back the domestication of animals goes. But we...

Home Dairying

By Marcella Shaffer Issue #64 • July/August, 2000 There is a big difference between home dairying to produce food for your family and dairying to sell...

A contrary guide to feeding animals

Raising quail — A home grown delicacy

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Bottle-raise a calf

Self-Reliance

Tips for finding your affordable home

Drawing the line on timber trespass

A young couple moves to the country

Cash in on your household junk

Farm and Garden

Exotic Plants for the Homestead

By Corcceigh Green Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 Isn't it funny how even the things we step on while walking on the lawn have value? I learned this first hand last summer as I discovered some...

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Here’s a Mighty Creative Way to Protect Your Plants from Animals

By Joy Lamb Issue #39 • May/June, 1996 A huge brown beast stared at me as I drove through our apple orchard toward the house. I parked, walked quickly into the house, and said to my...

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