Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

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

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Clover — From Livestock Forage to Medicinal Tea, This Humble Plant...

By Eugene Mitchell Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 Whether young or old, lying in the grass and searching for four-leafed clovers is timeless fun. Sometimes they're...

Green or Yellow: Grow Your Best Bush Beans Ever

Build an Old-Fashioned Hotbed and Start Your Seeds in Style

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

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

Build a wood-fired stock tank heater

Small engine maintenance for women

Build a poultry killing cone

Self-Reliance

Jackie’s tips for hardcore homesteading

Digging a shallow well

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #165 • May/June, 2017 When we first looked at the land which is now our off-grid homestead, the realtor mumbled an apology...

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 If you saw the movie, "Castaway" starring Tom Hanks, you might remember that his character always...

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: From Paper to Canning

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

A brief history of health and medicine

Gee-Whiz: Time

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

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

The time-travel ad

Firearms

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

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...

Air power superiority

When a well-placed shot is required, when stealth and quiet are called for, an air rifle may be the best option. By Gary Lewis Issue #151 • January/February,...

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,...

Preparedness

Survival storeroom

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

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

Start your food storage on $10 a week

Changing the odds in home fire protection

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

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...