Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Switch your family to goat’s milk

Brooder in a box

Finding, buying, milking, and living with the family milk cow

Good-bye old friend

Building

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader

By Don Lewis In 1874, a United States patent (#157,124) was issued to Joseph F. Glidden, a long-serving sheriff in DeKalb County, Illinois. His invention...

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

Woodbarrow

Build a pallet fence

Parge the ugly out of your concrete wall

Farm and Garden

Use Plastic to Get a Head Start on Corn in the...

By Mark and Lynn Klammer Issue #41 • September/October, 1996 As spring approaches each year, we can hardly wait for the feel of warm earth between...

Currants and Gooseberries

Build an Old-Fashioned Hotbed and Start Your Seeds in Style

Build a Heated Germination Bed

Raised Bed Gardening — Neat and Productive

Americana and History

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

By John Silveira Issue #32 • March/April, 1995 It was snowing and three of us were up at the office. Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes...

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

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

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Declaration of Independence: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States...

Food and recipes

Venison Chili

Colorado Cowboy Cookies

Ribeye Steak with Chianti Sauce

Chocolate — Food for the Gods

Self-reliance

The coffee mug knife sharpener

Water development for the homestead: Ponds, cisterns, and tanks

I heat my house by burning corn

For safety’s sake, homestead fuel storage must be handled properly

Energy

Battery powered weekend retreat

Solar Power 101 — Batteries: Part 2

Solar suitcase

Solar Food Drying

Guns and Hunting

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #101 • September/October, 2006 The year was 1873. Samuel Colt had invented the revolveror at least introduced it to Americain 1836. The...

Big boomer guns

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

Picking a holster

Science

The gee-whiz! page — Cats: Why they rule our world

By O. E. MacDougal Issue #170 • March/April, 2018 House cats A recent Gallup poll showed that cat ownership is pretty much evenly distributed between men and...