Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Grow some winter squash this year

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

Tips and handy hints for 4X4 living

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening

By Jackie Clay Issue #56 In the past I've grown hybrid vegetables, mostly the varieties that have been developed to produce early yields. Because of this,...

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 a Trail

Shake update

Build a stone wall

Build a Trapper’s Tilt

Self-Reliance

Used bookstores can be sucessful in the hinterlands

Jim Van Camp: Coffee roaster, painter

By Jim Van Camp Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 The only thing we knew for certain when my wife and I moved to Gold Beach from...

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part III

By Annie Tuttle Issue #147 • May/June, 2014 Previous in Series Me with Brownie, Cupcake, Red Velvet, and Flan (mostly hidden). These were...

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

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

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

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

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

Biological and chemical weapons through history

The time-travel ad

George Washington Carver — He wrote the book on self-reliance

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung colonial heroine?

Firearms

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

The light at the end of the gun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 Dave writes, "A few weeks ago I had to shoot a skunk in the chicken house, but the...

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 Everything's getting more expensive. Food. Gasoline. Guns and ammunition. Not everyone who appreciates the rural lifestyle was "born...

Hunting, processing, and serving black bear

By Linda Gabris Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 Bear was a popular meat in our house when I was growing up in the rural woods. Black...

Preparedness

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

What to do when there’s no doctor

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

Buying the right emergency radio

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...