Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Garden Seeds — A Great Winter Pastime

Kick the credit card habit and learn to stash cash

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Grow some winter squash this year

Here’s a Mighty Creative Way to Protect Your Plants from Animals

By Joy Lamb Issue #39 • May/June, 1996 A huge brown beast stared at me as I drove through our apple orchard toward the house. I...

For Extra Production, Try Mound Gardening

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

Follow Jackie Clay-Atkinson and her husband, Will, as they homestead a 120-acre piece of northern Minnesotan woods entirely off-grid. Sharing their homestead are horses, beef cattle, a milk cow, dairy goats, chickens and turkeys.

Massad Ayoob on Guns

This blog, from a retired police captain and self-defense instructor, covers the use of different firearms, political musings, and self-defense tactics.

Building

How to Install a Steel Roof

Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans

Build a portable woodstove for $30

Building and using wattle fences

Self-Reliance

Making a great rug from the rag bag

Funerals don’t have to be expensive

By Kelly McCarthy Issue #95 • September/October, 2005 Being of Celtic extraction, I am naturally disposed to dwelling on the blacker side of life. I started...

Pysanki — You can make those biddies pay!

By Amy E. Peare Issue #86 • March/April, 2004 There are usually two problems with raising chickens. a) You have too many eggs, or b) you...

Animals

The homestead cat

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson We have had at least one cat in our home ever since I was a young child. So it’s no wonder we...

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Raising your own beef

Fermenting Chicken Feed

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Science and Education

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

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

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

Energy

Solar power for farm and ranch

By Jeffrey R. Yago, P.E. It may be surprising to learn that there are now all kinds of do-it-yourself solar powered devices specifically designed to...

Power-up bag

Amateur Ham Radio – The Ultimate Tool for Survival Communications

Keep the Ice On

Power Up

Americana and History

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

Fried chicken for breakfast

The summer of ’35

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

Firearms

Firearms handling refresher Part II: Shotguns

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 Everything's getting more expensive. Food. Gasoline. Guns and ammunition. Not everyone who appreciates the rural lifestyle was "born...

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

By Claire Wolfe Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 My friend Jack pulled the car into a grassy clearing. We donned rubber boots, fetched a metal detector...

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

By Massad Ayoob Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 If you've read American firearms history at all, you know the lore of the .45 automatic. How during...

Preparedness

No dentist? Oh, no!

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

Start a fire in any weather

Building and stocking your pantry

Use solar landscape lights for emergencies

Articles By Dave Duffy

My View: Call Me Miracle Man!

By Dave Duffy Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes...