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A Backwoods Home Anthology — The Twelfth Year
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DEPARTMENTS
6  Publisher’s Note

7  Editorial:
Sensible health is based on science

28  Ask Jackie:
Dehydrating lemons, chicken feed, finding a co-op, storing supplies, pomegranate jelly, kerosene lamps, making money, and more

48  Energy Works

56  Irreverent joke page

92   BHM books

76  Letters

88   Advertiser Index

89  The last word:
Chuck meets Bubba

62   Product Review:Vita-mix

84  Classified ads (pdf)

84  Classified ad form

91  Subscription Info

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Cover 68
ABOUT THE COVER
James O. Yeager shot this photo of his wife, Alice, as she harvested bush beans in their Arkansas garden. Her article, Love those green beans, starts on page 8 and is the lead article for this issue. James and Alice have made quite a team for years with her expansive gardening knowledge and his photographic skills. Alice always has words of wisdom for those of us who appreciate learning about the various types of healthy produce to be cultivated in our gardens. This is the first time Backwoods Home has used one of James’ photographs for the cover. This picture sure has a way of making a person dream of springtime planting, working in the garden, and best of all, harvesting the much deserved product of our efforts.

FEATURES

Energy Works

48  Restoring a hydro unit   By Michael Hackleman

Michael Hackleman details alternator rebuilding and simple, practical control circuits for these systems, including homebuilt ones.

Farm and Garden

8  Love those green beans   By Alice Yeager

Alice Yeager tells us how to grow great green beans that will put the beans you buy at the store to shame. She discusses how to overcome the common diseases and bugs you may encounter. Along with this she gives us five delightful recipes that will tease your palate and delight your family.

36  Why garden organically?   By Jackie Clay

Jackie Clay sheds some light on organic gardening and tells us why it’s not only a better way to grow healthful food, but in the long run it is easier, cheaper, and fun.

43  Stealth Gardening   By David Sneed

In the nation’s biggest state, land to garden on is ironically in short supply. David Sneed, who teaches gardening in coastal Alaska, explains how many “landless” folks are now growing crops “out of sight.”

Self-sufficiency

23  Steal your neighbor’s trash for fun and profit   By Tim Pickles

In a short time, Tim Pickles has acquired more than $5,000 worth of mowers, snowblowers, garden tractors, and other useful items simply by picking through his neighbors’ trash, and he tells how you can do it, too.

34  New invention — the Fencerunner   By Dietmar Berg

While in the middle of the tiring job of stringing barbed wire, Dietmar Berg hit upon a device that would make the job both quicker and easier.

Guns

58  Of kids and guns   By Massad Ayoob

Kids with guns have a bad name in this country. Massad Ayoob asks whether this is deserved and cites cases where kids with guns have saved themselves and their families, while kids without guns could not. This is a thought provoking article for those of you who have kids and guns in your homes.

Recipes

14  In search of the perfect cup of coffee   By Richard Blunt

Most Americans have never had a really good cup of coffee, but our food editor, Richard Blunt, has. If you’re a coffee lover, he’ll teach you how you too can make “the perfect cup.”

Americana/Homeschooling

66  The coming American Dictatorship, Part III   By John Silveira

In this, the third installment of his dictatorship series, Silveira discusses how bureaucracies play a part in the destruction of the Constitution and the erosion of our rights.