Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Build a wood crib with free materials

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

Growing Strawberries

By Patrice Lewis Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 As you read this, the wind may well be howling and the snow piling deep, and you're likely...

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

A Child’s Garden — More than Child’s Play

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

The Mini-Skyline — A homemade yarder to bring firewood up a draw

Building and stocking your pantry

Shelves and benches

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

Self-Reliance

Grandma will love this personal ‘Helping Hands’ wall hanging

7 Mistakes of food storage

By Vicki Tate Issue #55 • January/February, 1999 If you are going to store food, make sure that the food you store is adequate for the...

Dehydrating eggs at home

By Patrice Lewis Issue #156 • November/December, 2015 Here's a trivia question for you: What do you do when your chickens are laying gangbusters and you...

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

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

Gee-Whiz: Time

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest have to fear

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

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

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

The barnyard scramble

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

Firearms

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

A used shotgun bargain: The Browning Auto-5

By Brad Rohdenburg Website Exclusive • September, 2014 A 1958 "Light Twelve" Browning Auto-5, with a 28" Improved Cylinder barrel and 'Speedfeed' loading. It weighs less...

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • July, 2008 Fifty years ago, Savage Arms introduced a new bolt-action sporting rifle. In the gun world, this was news....

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

By Massad Ayoob Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 There are so many makes and models of firearms in existence that no one has ever counted them...

Preparedness

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

Power-up bag

Storm survivors

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Start your food storage on $10 a week

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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...