Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Llamas guarding sheep? — Not such a far-fetched idea

Raising your own beef for your family

Solar Building Design

By Steven Heckeroth Issue #63 • May/June, 2000 Solar building design has been used since ancient times. In the more recent past, it has been more...

Building and using wattle fences

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

Three Raised Bed Designs

By Joe Mooney Issue #150 • November/December, 2014 When it comes to gardening, almost anything can be used to create a raised bed. Tires, blocks, rocks,...

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

Starting a Roadside Farm Stand

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and...

By John Silveira Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) Do you...

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

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

Venison — From the Field to the Fork

Sew a baby quilt in two days… for a lifetime of memories

Are hydrogen-fueled cars pie-in-the-sky?

Solar system codes — Build it right!

Generators alone are not enough

Get a piece of history — An M1 Garand rifle

By Mike Blank Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 What follows is my personal quest to acquire an M1 Garand through the Civilian Marks-manship Program (CMP). We've...

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

Bury a gun and ammo for 15 years

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

By John Silveira Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 "What are you doing?" a voice asked. I looked up and saw O.E. MacDougal, Dave's poker-playing friend from Southern...

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

A vast cultural divide exists between environmentalists and gun owners

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

By Jackie Clay Issue #111 • May/June, 2008 It goes without saying that preparedness is not for "radicals" or "weirdos" anymore. I picked up a preparedness...

Bovine basics for beginners

By Patrice Lewis Issue #122 • March/April, 2010 Congratulations. You've escaped the city life and are now the proud owners of your little plot of rural...

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

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

The adventures of a first-time homesteader

Homemade Toys! — Easy to make, fun to play with, and great for gifts!

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

Secure and Economical Livestock Feed

By Sherry Willis Issue #145 • January/February, 2014 The recent droughts in the midwest have meant hard times for many livestock owners. Areas without irrigation saw parched earth without a scrap of green anywhere. Corn withered...

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...