Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

By Hook or Crook: A Billhook is a Handy Homestead Tool

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...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Vermicomposting — Raise Worms to Consume Waste, Amend Soil, and Earn...

By Rebekah L. Cowell Photos by Amanda Egdorf-Sand Issue #124 • July/August, 2010 Vermicomposting takes composting to another level using Eisenia foetida (commonly known as red wiggler,...

Growing Productive Strawberries

Leaf Mold is Another Way to Build Your Soil

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

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 portable woodstove for $30

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

A cabin for one

Install rafters alone the easy way

Self-Reliance

I heat my house by burning corn

Sewing and using cloth diapers is easier than you think

By Annie Tuttle Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 I'll admit that it was the pastoral vision of a laundry line full of sun-bleached diapers above barefooted,...

Cut your grocery bill in half

By C. M. Hudman Issue #53 • September/October, 1998 There was a time when I despised grocery shopping. Every time I walked into a grocery store...

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

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

A brief history of health and medicine

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

The ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

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

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

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

Biological and chemical weapons through history

Firearms

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

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...

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • January, 2004 Our three part series on firearms handling ends with this installment. In Part I, we covered handguns and...

Canning game meat

By Linda Gabris Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 Attempting to can meat (or any other low acid food, for that matter) without the use of a...

Preparedness

Wildfires: Before, During, After

Circle of friends

Bartering for bad times

Power Up

Survival firebuilding skills

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...