Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Raising cattle on your own place

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

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Building

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader

By Don Lewis In 1874, a United States patent (#157,124) was issued to Joseph F. Glidden, a long-serving sheriff in DeKalb County, Illinois. His invention...

Building a $3,000 Barn

Build a Trail

Ambidextrous chainsaw filing

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

Farm and Garden

Currants and Gooseberries

By Sylvia Gist Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 Currants and gooseberries all belong to the genus Ribes (pronounced "rye-bees"). There are varieties of currants and gooseberries...

Herb Boxes from Fence Boards

Making Apple Cider with a Homemade Press

Build an Old-Fashioned Hotbed and Start Your Seeds in Style

Grow Your Own Dishrags

Americana and History

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...

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

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

The barnyard scramble

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and...

Food and recipes

A few favorite recipes and books

Turkey the old-fashioned way

Pear honey

Nanny B’s benne bake

Self-reliance

Just for Kids: Life in the forest

Shearing, carding, spinning, weaving and creating with Margaret Boos

Homeschooling through high school

How we found our remote backwoods home

Energy

Generators alone are not enough

Walden Pond — the solar version: Part 2

Water: a safe supply when you’re off the grid

Energy class: Part 3

Guns and Hunting

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

By Massad Ayoob Issue #163 • January/February, 2017 Click Here to read Part 1 Click Here to read Part 2 As noted in the two previous parts of...

Big boomer guns

Inexpensive retired Russian military rifles can be the ideal backwoods meat...

Sight and sound enhancement

The light at the end of the gun

Science

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

By O. E. MacDougal January/February 2016, Backwoods Home Most people don’t know that we’re currently in an ice age and have been for the last 2.58...

A brief history of health and medicine

Zombie Apocalypse

The threat of electromagnetic pulse!

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

Politics and Commentary

The Coming American Dictatorship Part XII — The militarization of America’s police forces

Our energy crisis Part 3 — Alternative energy resources for the nation and for the self-reliant

Turn the poor into capitalists

Why I Hated Santa Claus

Animals

Animal disease traceability

By Patrice Lewis Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 In 2009, small farmers and ranchers breathed a sigh of relief. So did people worried about another curtailment...

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

By Karen McGeorge Sanders Issue #19 • January/February, 1993 It seems that farmers always need an extra pair of hands, but finding the money to pay...

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Get to know your spiders

Beekeeping basics

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

Self-Reliance

Just for Kids: Life in the forest

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

Homestead security for women

Defeating debt

Farm and Garden

Raised Bed Gardening — Neat and Productive

By Alice B. Yeager Issue #74 • March/April, 2002 Are you tired of raising a big row crop gardenone that keeps you busy from dawn until dusk? Do you really need to raise enough vegetables to...

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How to Grow Great Carrots

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #153 • May/June, 2015 Carrots are an old-time homesteader favorite. They can be frozen, canned, dehydrated, or simply stored in a cool location. They are nutritious, too, being a great source of beta...

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