Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Vinegar — A splash is all you need for healthful eating, natural healing, and sparkling home

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

Build a Top-Bar Bee Hive

By Jereme Zimmerman Issue #175 • January/February/March, 2019 My journey to becoming a beekeeper has been a long one, and I’m still not quite there yet....

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

Making Apple Cider with a Homemade Press

Growing Productive Strawberries

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

Build a Top-Bar Bee Hive

Build an all-purpose ladder

How to maintain a dirt road

How to build a good fence for your homestead

Self-Reliance

Seed art — It’s fun to collect the seeds and create these unusual pictures

Garden injuries Part 2

By Joseph Alton, M.D. Issue #141 • May/June, 2013 In the last issue of Backwoods Home, we discussed some of the hazards encountered by the homesteading...

Roger Clark: Cane syrup maker

By Massad Ayoob Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 In the syrup house on Roger Clark's farm in Suwannee County, Florida, three generations of his family gather...

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 world is coming to an end… and this time, I’m not kidding

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

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

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

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First Ladies were fascinating

Fly it proudly and properly

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Firearms

Firearms — Tools of rural living

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

By Massad Ayoob Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 There are so many makes and models of firearms in existence that no one has ever counted them...

Tailoring guns to females

By Massad Ayoob Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 So, I'm sitting here in a hotel writing this, less than three hours after getting off the witness...

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,...

Preparedness

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

Wildfires: Before, During, After

Caring for wounds in the field

The 7 core areas of preparedness

Build a community assistance recharging station

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

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...