Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Shake update

By David Lee Website Exclusive • January, 2005 Since my shake article was published in Backwoods Home Magazine, Issue #88, I have learned that some of...

How to Resurrect Old, Rusted Tools

Simplify life in your backwoods home by using these easy mountain...

Propagating Plants

By Jackie Clay Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 We all love the idea of having a big, productive garden, full of all the nutritious, tasty foods...

You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

Gleaning — An Old Tradition Made New

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...

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

George Washington Carver — He wrote the book on self-reliance

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

Preserve the harvest naturally through wild fermentation

By Hook or Crook: A Billhook is a Handy Homestead Tool

Used bookstores can be sucessful in the hinterlands

Here’s how to make a musical bamboo flute

Generators alone are not enough

Battery powered weekend retreat

Design calculations for overshot waterwheels

Big boomer guns

By Massad Ayoob Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 For you long time readers, I know what you're thinkin'"Hey, isn't this the guy who within the last...

Testing Soil

By Tom Kovach Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 Testing the soil content of a garden is very important and is quite easy to do. Soil tests...

The threat of electromagnetic pulse!

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

The world is coming to an end… and this time, I’m...

Putting it all on the Amtrak line for Self-Reliance magazine

Turn the poor into capitalists

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

Build a poultry killing cone

By Allen Easterly Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 You've worked hard and spent many hours raising your pretty flock of meat chickens from eggs or chicks...

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

By Jackie Clay Issue #111 • May/June, 2008 It goes without saying that preparedness is not for "radicals" or "weirdos" anymore. I picked up a preparedness...

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

Finding, buying, milking, and living with the family milk cow

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

The raging torrent — Respect it even when you play

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

By Roy Martin Issue #104 • March/April, 2007 A hotbed is a miniature greenhouse that is heated to protect new seedlings from cold. The hotbed differs from a cold frame in that it has an internal...

Secure and Economical Livestock Feed

By Sherry Willis Issue #145 • January/February, 2014 The recent droughts in the midwest have meant hard times for many livestock owners. Areas without irrigation saw parched earth without a scrap of green anywhere. Corn withered...