Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Build a poultry killing cone

Raising your own beef for your family

Goat birthing and raising kids

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

Building

Easy awnings

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #149 • September/October, 2014 A window without an awning is like a lamp without a shade bare and glaring. In my...

Building your chicken coop

For summertime baking needs, build yourself an outdoor horno

Stairs — The next level

Build your own repeating mouse trap

Farm and Garden

Testing Soil

By Tom Kovach Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 Testing the soil content of a garden is very important and is quite easy to do. Soil tests...

The ‘Chocolate Tree’ Isn’t Just for Kids

You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers

Meat For the Homestead

Growing the Eternal Tomato

Americana and History

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

By O.E. MacDougal November/December 2016, Backwoods Home I could spend all day coming up with interesting trivia about the Presidents and those who surround them —...

Biological and chemical weapons through history

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung...

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

Food and recipes

Apple barbeque sauce

The dandelion is a healthful, great tasting weed you can eat

Elegant desserts for entertaining

How to tell a bad egg

Self-reliance

Pump water for free

Make coiled rugs from scrap material

How to maintain your chimney

Avoiding heat illness

Energy

For a truly independent energy system, your choices are solar, wind, and water

Power Up Light, Water, Communications in Emergencies

A solar primer — How it works, how it’s made, what it costs

Build a passive-solar food dehydrator

Guns and Hunting

Building the coyote rifle

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 Feral dogs, coyotes, and those odd-looking "coy dogs" like to feed on my neighbors' livestock on occasion...

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

The Appleseed Project

Picking a holster

Science

Gee-Whiz: Insects

By O. E. MacDougal November/December 2015, Backwoods Home Some 400 million years ago, in the Devonian Period, insects evolved from crustaceans. Since that time, they have...