Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Swiss Chard — The Leaf Vegetable That Keeps on Giving!

Just for Kids: Take a nite hike!

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

Want More Fruit From Less Space? Espalier Your Trees!

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 After originating in the semi-arid regions of the middle east, espaliering (is-'pal-yer-ing) became a commonly employed fruit...

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

The ‘Chocolate Tree’ Isn’t Just for Kids

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

Gardening with a Chicken Tractor

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

Make your own effective fishing tackle while you save money and recycle scrap

Build a log crib

Claw Hammers

Self-Reliance

Picking your pressure canner — All American or Presto?

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

By Don Lewis Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 The year was 1834, a year that didn’t really stand out as all that particularly important in American...

Food security 101: part 2

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Last issue we talked about some things you can do to stretch your food...

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: Alcohol

The world is coming to an end… and this time, I’m not kidding

The gee-whiz! page — Cats: Why they rule our world

The many benefits of garlic

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

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Declaration of Independence: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Firearms

Reload your own brass

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

By Massad Ayoob Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Jeff Yago, Backwoods Home's energy writer, recently completed a couple of concealed carry handgun courses. The classes apparently...

Choose your ammo… police style

By Massad Ayoob Issue #93 • May/June, 2005 One of our greatest modern gun experts, Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC, Ret., once made the observation that...

Firearms — Tools of rural living

By Massad Ayoob Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 So, editor Dave Duffy and I got to talking about guns. We agreed that for some people they...

Preparedness

Circle of friends

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Building and stocking your pantry

The Five “P”s: A fire evacuation grab ‘n’ go kit

7 Mistakes of food storage

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

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...