Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Dorper sheep — Revolutionizing the meat sheep industry

The raging torrent — Respect it even when you play

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

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

By Jackie Clay Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 There are many things parents can give their children, other than plastic toys or a few bucks to...

Green or Yellow: Grow Your Best Bush Beans Ever

Your Manure Pile — For Fuel, Fertilizer, and Maybe Even Improved...

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 an Off-Grid Root Cellar, Garage, and Bunkhouse

Here’s an Easier (and Cheaper) Way to Make Wooden Beams

Build your own portable forge

Dorothy Ainsworth update: Out of the ashes

Self-Reliance

The art of living in small spaces

Fire resistant property

By Jacob Duffy Summertime is fire season. Red-Flag Warnings abound and many property owners surrounded by acres of forest or tall grass often become acutely...

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...

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: Dinosaurs

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

A brief history of health and medicine

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

The summer of ’35

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

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Firearms

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

The Appleseed Project

By Massad Ayoob Issue #123 • May/June, 2010 There is nothing else in the shooting world quite like the Appleseed Project, which combines American Revolutionary War...

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...

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #101 • September/October, 2006 The year was 1873. Samuel Colt had invented the revolveror at least introduced it to Americain 1836. The...

Preparedness

Keep the Ice On

Start a fire in any weather

Build a community assistance recharging station

No dentist? Oh, no!

Moving on: A small town can be a haven during a depression

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...