Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

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Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

By John Silveira While we are waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to subside enough so society can get back to normal, there are powerful and...

Grow some winter squash this year

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Love Those Green Beans

By Alice B. Yeager Issue #68 • March/April, 2001 Anyone with some gardening space, a sunny location, and good loamy soil with pH 6.0-7.5 can grow...

Prevent Foodborne Illness with Safe Gardening Methods

Graft Your Own Designer Fruit Trees

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 homestead Copy Cart

Build a wood crib with free materials

Rural Building

Build this sturdy large-capacity food dehydrator

Self-Reliance

Roger Clark: Cane syrup maker

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part II

By Annie Tuttle (Most photos by Dave Duffy) Issue #146 • March/April, 2014 Previous in Series Most of the old fence around the...

New yarn from old sweaters

By Margaret Mills Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 Years ago, when my grandmother learned that some women purchased new fabric to make quilts, she was shocked....

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: Coffee

Testing Soil

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

How big is the solar system?

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

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?

Firearms

Sight and sound enhancement

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...

Cold weather shooting considerations

By Massad Ayoob Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 Winter will soon be upon us. Cold weather makes a lot of things more difficult. Running. Walking. Navigating...

The time for modern; the time for traditional

By Massad Ayoob Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 Traditional "old skool" guns, or the most modern and efficient ballistic hardware that money can buy? I asked...

Preparedness

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

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Avoiding heat illness

Prepper power! Part 2

Build a community assistance recharging station

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...