Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Just for Kids: Some farinaceous folly

Lessons learned from an ice storm

I heat my house by burning corn

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...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Sweet Potato Greens

By Tim Scullen Issue #168 • November/December, 2017 By now, you’ve no doubt figured out how good chard, spinach, and kale are for you. But did...

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers

Prevent Foodborne Illness with Safe Gardening Methods

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

Woodbarrow

A house a tornado helped build

We built John Silveira’s chicken coop/garden

Yurt Magic — Building an Enchanting Instant House

Self-Reliance

Small Town America: Thermopolis, WY — Horses and hot springs

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., C.E.M. April/May/June, 2019 Battery-powered tool technology is now undergoing some rapid changes in both the power of the tool motors and the...

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

By John Silveira (aka O.E. MacDougal) May/June 2017 Backwoods Home The greatest inventions in history are the ones we now take for granted. Fire and the...

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: Insects

How big is the solar system?

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

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 Great Depression — A reminiscence

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

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools

Firearms

Reload your own brass

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...

Picking a holster

By Massad Ayoob Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 One good thing about being out in the boonies by yourself is that you can carry a gun...

How big a gun do you need?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 We Americans like to do things in a big way. Big houses. Big cars. Big boats. And, yes,...

Preparedness

The fire wick fire starter

What to do when there’s no doctor

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

Avoiding heat illness

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

Bugging out in place

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...