Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Growing Productive Strawberries

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

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...

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

Plant Once Harvest for Years

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 Year after year we start seeds, till the ground, plant, weed, harvest, then tear it all out at...

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

Build Your Own Car Wash

Vise Dremel Moto Tool mount

Getting logs

How to build a good fence for your homestead

Self-Reliance

Dehydrating eggs at home

Medical kits for self-reliant families

By Jackie Clay Issue #60 • November/December, 1999 There may be a time, as close as tomorrow, when your loved ones need medication or medical treatment...

Lessons learned from an ice storm

By Anita Evangelista Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 The weather reports indicated ice could be coming in. It was already raining and getting chilly on that...

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

Theories of the universe

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

Testing Soil

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

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

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Fly it proudly and properly

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

The greatest American who was never President

Firearms

Inexpensive retired Russian military rifles can be the ideal backwoods meat guns

Building the coyote rifle

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 Feral dogs, coyotes, and those odd-looking "coy dogs" like to feed on my neighbors' livestock on occasion...

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

By Claire Wolfe Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 My friend Jack pulled the car into a grassy clearing. We donned rubber boots, fetched a metal detector...

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 The person new to guns is like the person new to timepieces. "How many of these things are...

Preparedness

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

Preparedness for travelers

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Buying the right emergency radio

The return of home emergency shelters takes on a dual-purpose approach

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...