Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Build a wood crib with free materials

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

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Grow some winter squash this year

By Lisa Nourse I love summertime — I love the green of the trees, the warm weather, and growing my own food. I especially love...

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Slug Zapper

By Joel Winters Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 I live in a small clearing in a big forest. This is on the rainy side of the...

Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Here’s a Mighty Creative Way to Protect Your Plants from Animals

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

Shake update

A simple backwoods hay baler

Gabion walls for form and function

Build a cistern out of corrugated road culvert

Self-Reliance

7 Mistakes of food storage

The many benefits of garlic

By Joe Knight Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 Garlic, used throughout the world for the taste it adds to foods, is also well known for its...

Teaching the joy of reading

By Amy E. Peare Issue #96 • November/December, 2005 Most parents want to see their children well equipped to succeed in life, and homesteaders are no...

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

Testing Soil

Gee-Whiz: Time

How big is the solar system?

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

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

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

Remembering what grandma used

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

The greatest American who was never President

Firearms

Firearms and cold weather considerations

Thoughts on ammunition

By Massad Ayoob Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 Ammunition is to firearms as gasoline is to automobiles. However, with guns and ammo, the fit isn't quite...

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...

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • January, 2004 Our three part series on firearms handling ends with this installment. In Part I, we covered handguns and...

Preparedness

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

Caring for wounds in the field

Homestead security for women

Emergency treatment for fire-related injuries

Power-up bag

Your survival depends on water

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...