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Raising cattle on your own place

Turning a $10,000 House into a Home — Part 1: Salvaging the Wreck

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Woodbarrow

By Setanta O’Ceillaigh When I first abandoned a slum town and fled back to the countryside I gathered and carried firewood with a laundry basket....

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Pruning Blueberries

By Kristina Seleshanko When we purchased our mountaintop homestead, I was excited to discover four blueberry bushes that were already established on our property. Not...

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

Start a Self-Sufficiency Garden Even in a Cramped Apartment

Garden Spaces for Small Places

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

Follow Jackie Clay-Atkinson and her husband, Will, as they homestead a 120-acre piece of northern Minnesotan woods entirely off-grid. Sharing their homestead are horses, beef cattle, a milk cow, dairy goats, chickens and turkeys.

Massad Ayoob on Guns

This blog, from a retired police captain and self-defense instructor, covers the use of different firearms, political musings, and self-defense tactics.

Building

Build this sturdy large-capacity food dehydrator

Make a fully functional cold storage pit/mound and enjoy your garden’s production all winter

Build a ski sled

How safe is your electric fence?

Self-Reliance

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

City boy, country boy

By Margaret Wright Issue #33 • May/June, 1995 Anyone who has read or heard the story of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse knows the...

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

By Ilene Duffy Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 During my last year of teaching school, I was pregnant with Jacob. I'll always remember receiving a beautifully...

Animals

The homestead cat

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson We have had at least one cat in our home ever since I was a young child. So it’s no wonder we...

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Raising your own beef

Fermenting Chicken Feed

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Science and Education

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

The coming ice age

Energy

Solar power for farm and ranch

By Jeffrey R. Yago, P.E. It may be surprising to learn that there are now all kinds of do-it-yourself solar powered devices specifically designed to...

Power-up bag

Amateur Ham Radio – The Ultimate Tool for Survival Communications

Keep the Ice On

Power Up

Americana and History

The time-travel ad

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First Ladies were fascinating

Firearms

Firearms — Tools of rural living

Canning game meat

By Linda Gabris Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 Attempting to can meat (or any other low acid food, for that matter) without the use of a...

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

By Massad Ayoob Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Long a supporter of the Appleseed concept, Backwoods Home Magazine hosted one in Gold Beach, Oregon, in second...

Sight and sound enhancement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 Enhancing vision and hearing can make you a safer, more effective shooter, and sometimes can save human lives. Captain...

Preparedness

The Five “P”s: A fire evacuation grab ‘n’ go kit

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

Start a fire in any weather

No dentist? Oh, no!

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

Articles By Dave Duffy

My View: Call Me Miracle Man!

By Dave Duffy Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes...