Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Raising cattle on your own place

Raising rabbits for profit

Forget the dog, chicken is man’s best friend

Once a day milking

Building

Making Apple Cider with a Homemade Press

By Robert Van Putten Issue #170 • March/April, 2018 Apples are an important food resource for us. Every year we store hundreds of pounds in our...

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader

Build a stone wall

Three Raised Bed Designs

Building a $3,000 Barn

Farm and Garden

Tea for the garden

By Lisa Nourse We have poor soil and do our best to amend it with compost and manure every year. However, we feel our plants...

Hügelkultur for the Homestead

Currants and Gooseberries

Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

Mid-season planting

Americana and History

Catfish Biscuits

By Danny Fulks Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 Danny Fulks, 71, grew up in southern Ohio where his parents worked the land and milked cows, and...

the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools

Biological and chemical weapons through history

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

The greatest American who was never President

Food and recipes

Eggnog

Hummus

Dandelion recipes

Comfort foods of Ireland – hearty recipes from Grandma’s old file box

Self-reliance

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

Preparing for civil unrest

Preserve the harvest naturally through wild fermentation

Bugging out in place

Energy

Solar power for farm and ranch

Install a mobile, solar powered toilet

Dim bulbs in California

Power your bug-out bag

Guns and Hunting

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 One reader writes to ask if military surplus rifles are still a good idea for hunting, recreational shooting,...

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

Moderate power firearms

Catch your own bait

Science

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

By O.E. MacDougal January/February 2015, Backwoods Home Fish were the very first vertebrates. That is, they were the first animals with backbones, the purpose of which...

Science and truth. Are they related?

Gee-Whiz: Trees

Zombie Apocalypse

Three more ways the world can end … and I’m not...

Politics and Commentary

Mousers and cat loonies

Next time you see me, don’t be afraid to say, ‘Hello.’

Just how good of a bet are those lotto tickets?

An American dollar worth two cents

Animals

Raising your own beef

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #175 • January/February/March, 2019 Every time I sit down to enjoy a wonderful beef roast or perfectly grilled steak, I am so...

Once a day milking

By Patrice Lewis Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 It sounds bucolic, doesn't it? The simple joys of milking your own cow. Fresh milk, fresh cream, homemade...

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

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

Home Dairying

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Self-Reliance

Getting out of Dodge — 10 Things I am doing to prepare for the move to the country

No dentist? Oh, no!

How to begin taking wildlife photographs

Space heater safety tips

Farm and Garden

No Worrying About Fire Blight with Orient and Kieffer Pears

By Alice B. Yeager Issue #52 • July/August, 1998 Everyone likes a good success story, and if I were called upon to name the most successful tree in our small orchard I'd have to say it's...

Mid-season planting

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson As the saying goes “Life happens…” Maybe events have kept you from getting your garden planted early in the spring. When we moved to New Mexico, it was in late June and...