Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Just for Kids: Knock knock vinegar

The art of living in small spaces

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....

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Tomatoes, the Essential Garden Crop

By Charles Sanders Issue #123 • May/June, 2010 Tomatoes are one of the most favored of all garden crops. They originated in South America, but in...

Garden Seeds — A Great Winter Pastime

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Plant Your Irish Potatoes This Fall or Winter

Grow Garlic and Reap Health Benefits

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

Parge the ugly out of your concrete wall

A cabin for one

Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding

Self-Reliance

What to do when there’s no doctor

Bath herbs

By Cynthia Andal Issue #86 • March/April, 2004 The visceral pleasure to be gained from drinking wild herbal teas that you have harvested yourself pales in...

Pump water for free

By Kai Moessle  Issue #158 • March/April, 2016 I opened the valve on the output side of the pump slowly, like the instructions said, and after...

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

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

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

Constitution of the united States of America

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung colonial heroine?

Grandpa’s justice

Firearms

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 One reader writes to ask if military surplus rifles are still a good idea for hunting, recreational shooting,...

Firearms handling refresher Part II: Shotguns

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • December, 2003 In Part I, we began a series of refreshers on safety and proper handling of firearms. This time,...

Use the right ammunition!

By Massad Ayoob Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 The purpose of the gun is to fire ammunition. It follows that the ammunition should be the correct...

Preparedness

Your survival depends on water

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

Survival infection control

Bartering for bad times

Survival storeroom

Wildfires: Before, During, After

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...