Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Exotic Plants for the Homestead

Roasting coffee on a wood stove

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

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...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Use Old Newspapers to Make Your Starter Pots

By Darlene Polachic Issue #49 • January/February, 1998 Why spend money buying plant starter packs when you can make all you need from old newspapers? The...

Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening

Leaf Mold is Another Way to Build Your Soil

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

A river rock shower

Build a pallet fence

Getting logs

Build a holz hausen to dry firewood

Self-Reliance

Cleaning a well

Harvest your own firewood

By Pete Earl Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 Harvesting firewood has many rewards: exercise, satisfaction, saving money, and the security of having your own fuel supply...

Get the most out of your vehicle and your maintenance dollar

By Len Torney Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 Let's face itwe all own vehicles. Our rural lifestyle pretty much leaves us dependent on our vehicles for...

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

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest have to fear

Zombie Apocalypse

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

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

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

Constitution of the united States of America

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

Firearms

Affordable firearms

Firearms handling refresher Part II: Shotguns

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • December, 2003 In Part I, we began a series of refreshers on safety and proper handling of firearms. This time,...

Firearms — Tools of rural living

By Massad Ayoob Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 So, editor Dave Duffy and I got to talking about guns. We agreed that for some people they...

The light at the end of the gun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 Dave writes, "A few weeks ago I had to shoot a skunk in the chicken house, but the...

Preparedness

The Five “P”s: A fire evacuation grab ‘n’ go kit

Dollar Store to the Rescue

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

Food security 101: part 2

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...