Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Modify an E-Tool to make your own Combi-Tool

A view of self-reliance from a more timid perspective — A woman’s opinion

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

Build your own repeating mouse trap

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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....

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

Okra — Not Just for the South

By Alice B. Yeager Photos by James O. Yeager Issue #58 • July/August, 1999 No one is quite sure about how okra seeds came to this country....

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

Plant Your Trees in the Spring

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

Building a $3,000 Barn

Claw Hammers

Trusses — Low cost marvels to roof over most large spaces

A cabin for one

Self-Reliance

10 country do’s and don’ts

Cut your grocery bill in half

By C. M. Hudman Issue #53 • September/October, 1998 There was a time when I despised grocery shopping. Every time I walked into a grocery store...

Finding wealth you can wear at yard sales

By Thomas M. Buckley Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 When you go to yard sales this year, be sure to look for jewelry. I used to...

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: Bad Fish, Big Fish

Gee-Whiz: Insects

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

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

Catfish Biscuits

Remembering what grandma used

The summer of ’35

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Firearms

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

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...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

By John Moody Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 In my youth, I remember my dad dragging my brother and me out of bed in the middle...

Just because

By Massad Ayoob Issue #144 • November/December, 2013 I generally recommend that people buy guns the way they'd buy power tools, or automobiles, or homes. Assess...

Preparedness

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Storm survivors

Emergency treatment for fire-related injuries

What to do when there’s no doctor

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...