Building Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Build an Off-Grid Root Cellar, Garage, and Bunkhouse

By Robert Van Putten Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 My wife and I built our homestead by hand. I’m not a professional builder, so once in a while I make mistakes -- the garage we built...

Tools and hardware for the backwoods home

By James Ballou Issue #74 • March/April, 2002 A certain degree of self reliance is obtainable by those who have the knowledge and skills, resourcefulness, courage, common sense, and tools to perform most of the tasks...

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

By R.E. Rawlinson Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 The homesteading lifestyle can require a number of tools to cultivate the garden, maintain the home, repair the tractor, and build various pens and coops. We use them...

A salvaged oak floor for $5

By Robert L. Williams Issue #59 • September/October, 1999 Several months ago we decided we did not want to install a traditional bedroom floor of plywood and carpet. We had several reasons, but the major ones...

How to build a good fence for your homestead

By Charles Sanders Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 One of the basic fixtures on a homestead is fencing. Fences are used to keep animals in, or...

Five building tricks for super strong framing

By Don Fallick Issue #49 • January/February, 1998 I was standing on the edge of the roof overhang, holding two bundles of asphalt shingles, when my boss's son drove up. He looked at me, then took...

Build Your Own Car Wash

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #133 • January/February, 2012 Completed car wash in operation If someone told me a year ago that I would have a commercial car wash behind my garage, I would have laughed....

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

By Rick Brannan Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 There are few things more frustrating and dangerous than working with a dull knife. In my quest for a sharp knife, I have purchased many different styles of...

Build your own log home in the woods

By Jackie Clay (Photos by Bill Spaulding and Jackie Clay) Issue #72 • November/December, 2001 This is the third part of a three-part series. The first two parts appeared in issues 70 and 71. In the last two issues...

Build a Concrete Root Cellar

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #168 • November/December, 2017 I should have been a mole — it feels so safe and cool and quiet to be underground. So when my house burned down 20 years ago and...

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

By John Silveira Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 My engineer father was not fond of wasting time or energy. He was always searching for a better, more efficient way to perform chores, especially chores that reoccurred...

Gabion walls for form and function

By Joe Mooney Issue #153 • May/June, 2015 I think there has to be something ingrained in the human brain that loves things built of stone. Maybe it's our desire for strength and safety or the...

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. Later on I acquired a collection of salvaged tools like...

Parge the ugly out of your concrete wall

By Bill Leonard Issue #57 • May/June, 1999 You can say a great deal in favor of cement block (or, if you prefer, concrete block) building. It's fairly fast, reasonably easy, particularly in small projects, and...

Make a Quick and Easy Tipi

By Bob Van Putten Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 The native peoples of North America were a very practical lot. Over the centuries they developed some very efficient tools. Yet, perhaps because of their appreciation of...

Adventures with a portable sawmill

By Pat Barden Issue #104 • March/April, 2007 I was raised in the suburbs and spent most of my adult life living in apartments and houses in the suburbs. Dad was career civil service and had...