Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

35 country jobs — How folks make a living near my hometown

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader

A recycled dresser makes a useful bathroom vanity

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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...

Grow some winter squash this year

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Sweet Potato Greens

By Tim Scullen Issue #168 • November/December, 2017 By now, you’ve no doubt figured out how good chard, spinach, and kale are for you. But did...

Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden

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

Building a Ferro-Cement Shed

Make a Quick and Easy Tipi

Trusses — Low cost marvels to roof over most large spaces

Here’s an Easier (and Cheaper) Way to Make Wooden Beams

Self-Reliance

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

Boost your income by adding a processing step to what you sell

By Harry Styron Issue #36 • November/December, 1995 Three boys spent several raw November days picking up black walnuts. We hoped to get a nice bit...

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

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 In parts one and two (Issues #138 and #139), we covered basics and homemade convenience foods. Now that...

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 gee-whiz! page — Cats: Why they rule our world

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

Theories of the universe

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

The vanishing outhouse

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

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Biological and chemical weapons through history

Firearms

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

Consider the 20-gauge shotgun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 A year or more ago in these pages, I made the suggestion that sometimes less is more, and...

Of guns and snakes

By Massad Ayoob Issue #151 • January/February, 2015 Mas safely kills a rattlesnake in a populated area. (Note angle of gun and trajectory.) Pistol is a...

Building the coyote rifle

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 Feral dogs, coyotes, and those odd-looking "coy dogs" like to feed on my neighbors' livestock on occasion...

Preparedness

Storm survivors

Build a community assistance recharging station

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

What to do when there’s no doctor

Survival storeroom

Emergency treatment for fire-related injuries

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...