Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

How to buy your first sheep without getting shorn

Mountain lions — Attacks are still rare, but just in case…

Build a portable woodstove for $30

By David Scott Matthews Issue #78 • November/December, 2002 I had a problem. Other men love football, baseball, basketball, or golf. I love to hunt. And...

Gabion walls for form and function

Install rafters alone the easy way

Build an attached solar greenhouse

Growing the Eternal Tomato

By Leonard Trebor Issue #57 • May/June, 1999 It's an old story to longtime gardeners (and a new story to novices): each spring you buy some...

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden

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

By Marlene Parkin Issue #22 • July/August, 1993 Many of the quilts of yesterday took a lifetime to make. Perhaps the mystical part of quiltsthe aspect...

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

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

Grouse Hunting — The Ultimate Joy of Autumn

Step onto the ice and catch tonight’s dinner

Self-reliance for women — Surviving a biochemical attack

How to begin taking wildlife photographs

Standby battery charging techniques can ensure engine startups

Solar charge controllers — myths, hype, and facts

Get a piece of history — An M1 Garand rifle

By Mike Blank Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 What follows is my personal quest to acquire an M1 Garand through the Civilian Marks-manship Program (CMP). We've...

Choose your ammo… police style

Gee-Whiz: Sleep

By O.E. MacDougal November/December 2017, Backwoods Home For thousands of years, sleep has been one of life’s great mysteries. As humans, we spend about one-third of...

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

The logic behind term limits and a historical perspective

Perspectives on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting

A contrary guide to feeding animals

By Beth Greenwood Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 The Purinas, Cargills, and Con-Agras of the world would have you believe that they and they alone have...

Fermenting Chicken Feed

By Melissa Souza Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 On our homestead, we eat yogurt, kombucha (fermented tea), sauerkraut, and kimchi to add probiotics to our diet....

Raising quail — A home grown delicacy

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

Llamas guarding sheep? — Not such a far-fetched idea

Teach speed reading to your children even if you can’t speed read yourself

35 country jobs — How folks make a living near my hometown

Sewing and using cloth diapers is easier than you think

Sew a baby quilt in two days… for a lifetime of memories

By Habeeb Salloum Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 Virtually unknown to people in other parts of the world, the inhabitants in the Northern European countries have for hundreds of years grown potatoes above ground in straw...

Hügelkultur for the Homestead

By Rose Shelton Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 Last spring, I finally completed a long-planned homestead project of constructing two hügelkultur beds. What is hügelkultur? It’s basically a method of recycling junk wood to make a...