Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

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

Building David’s Cabin, Part One

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

By John Silveira While we are waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to subside enough so society can get back to normal, there are powerful and...

Grow some winter squash this year

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

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...

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

Time to Forget About Snail and Slug Bait

Caring for your chickens in winter

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

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

A house a tornado helped build

Claw Hammers

Build Your Own Car Wash

Build a compost tumbler

Self-Reliance

Jim Van Camp: Coffee roaster, painter

Boost your income by adding a processing step to what you sell

By Harry Styron Issue #36 • November/December, 1995 Three boys spent several raw November days picking up black walnuts. We hoped to get a nice bit...

Space heater safety tips

By Tom Kovach Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 If you are going to try to take the chill out of your home without turning on your...

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: Trees

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

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

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and one may have been a murderess

Fried chicken for breakfast

The greatest American who was never President

Firearms

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

Catch your own bait

By Gary Gresh Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 Expensive lures and pricey tackle shop baits can sometimes make fishing an expensive proposition, raising the cost of...

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...

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...

Preparedness

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

Dollar Store to the Rescue

Storm survivors

Bugging out in place

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

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...