Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

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

What to do when there’s no doctor

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Start a Self-Sufficiency Garden Even in a Cramped Apartment

By Nancy Wolcott Issue #61 • January/February, 2000 You are sitting there in your recliner chair in your small city apartment desperately longing for the day...

Growing Productive Strawberries

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

We built John Silveira’s chicken coop/garden

Build your own log home in the woods

Build a portable woodstove for $30

PVC pipe in the home, garden, farm, and workshop

Self-Reliance

Jim Van Camp: Coffee roaster, painter

I heat my house by burning corn

By Judith W. Monroe Issue #42 • November/December, 1996 As I write this, it is fall in New England. If you burn wood, you are probably...

Buying the right emergency radio

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #98 • March/April, 2006 In our last issue I addressed how to select the best battery-powered lighting for your emergency...

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: Ice Ages, Past and Future

The coming ice age

The many benefits of garlic

Gee-Whiz: Trees

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 summer of ’35

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

Catfish Biscuits

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

Firearms

Use the right ammunition!

Firearms and cold weather considerations

By Massad Ayoob Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 Many of our readers have established their abodes in places which, during the winter months, do not exactly...

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...

Cold weather shooting considerations

By Massad Ayoob Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 Winter will soon be upon us. Cold weather makes a lot of things more difficult. Running. Walking. Navigating...

Preparedness

Moving on: A small town can be a haven during a depression

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Changing the odds in home fire protection

Caring for wounds in the field

Your survival depends on water

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...