Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Raising rabbits for profit

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Building

A river rock shower

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 The finished shower weighs a ton and cost about $800. Cultured stones, made of pumice and portland cement, weigh about...

Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

A cabin for one

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

Farm and Garden

Grow Open-Pollinated Tomatoes

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 Nearly all of us homesteaders grow tomatoes in our gardens. Tomatoes are hugely valuable as a homestead crop....

Growing Microgreens

Use Plastic to Get a Head Start on Corn in the...

The $1 Garden

Naughty Peppers

Americana and History

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

By Robert L. Williams Issue #19 • January/February, 1993 Many years ago, before I came to my senses and left public education for good, I was...

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

The vanishing outhouse

The barnyard scramble

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

Food and recipes

Breakfast Cereal

If you can boil water you can make a good stew

Fish — This gourmet food is fun to catch, relatively easy to cook, and healthy to eat

Scallop Crunch Appetizer

Self-reliance

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

How to make money from storage building auctions

Tips for finding your affordable home

Fire resistant property

Energy

Portable solar power

Design calculations for overshot waterwheels

Walden Pond — the solar version: Part 2

Solar power trailer Part 2

Guns and Hunting

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...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

Building the coyote rifle

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

The light at the end of the gun

Science

The ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

By John Silveira Issue #118 • July/August, 2009 Do we have anything to worry about the reemergence of Swine Flu Novel Influenza A (H1N1) ...

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

The gee-whiz! page — Cats: Why they rule our world

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

Politics and Commentary

Remembering a decade of BHM

Something unsaid about Timothy McVeigh’s execution

The Electoral College — How we elect the President

ID cards are an idea whose time should never come

Animals

Where our farm animals come from

Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 We don't know how far back the domestication of animals goes. But we...

Is that a good pig?

By Kim Dieter Issue #129 • May/June, 2011 Lean ham, roasts, chops, savory sausage, and thick slices of bacon are the reason pigs are raised at...

Get to know your spiders

Switch your family to goat’s milk

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

Khaki Campbell ducks — The other egg layer

Self-Reliance

How to maintain your chimney

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Making a great rug from the rag bag

Starting a Roadside Farm Stand

Farm and Garden

The Potato Hole

By Sylvia Gist Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 Carrots go in sand in the green pail and potatoes can be sorted by type into plastic mesh bags. We had talked of putting in a regular root cellar,...

Read more

Use Non-Hybrid Seeds and Save Big Bucks in This Year’s Garden

By Jackie Clay Issue #51 • May/June, 1998 Every person who is striving for self-reliance should, and most do, plant a garden from which to raise a good portion of their own food. But how many...

Read more