Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Garden Spaces for Small Places

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

By John Silveira While we are waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to subside enough so society can get back to normal, there are powerful and...

Grow some winter squash this year

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Green or Yellow: Grow Your Best Bush Beans Ever

By Lisa LaFreniere Issue #62 • March/April, 2000 Bush Beans, or snap beans as they're sometimes referred to, are a growing favorite among many gardeners, and...

The ‘Chocolate Tree’ Isn’t Just for Kids

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 deluxe barrel stove

Build a holz hausen to dry firewood

Build a Simple, Inexpensive Greenhouse

Build a cold smoker so you can make delicious squaw candy

Self-Reliance

Picking your pressure canner — All American or Presto?

Stashing Junk Silver for Bad Times

By John Silveira Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 This is a pile containing $100 face value of pre-1965 "junk silver" coins, but it could represent 400...

Medical kits for self-reliant families

By Jackie Clay Issue #60 • November/December, 1999 There may be a time, as close as tomorrow, when your loved ones need medication or medical treatment...

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

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

Gee-Whiz: Sleep

Zombie Apocalypse

Gee-Whiz: Insects

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

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

Constitution of the united States of America

Grandpa’s justice

the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools

Firearms

How to shoot a handgun accurately

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 I take the Springfield Armory rifle out of the box, and savor it. I seldom do that with...

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...

Hunting, processing, and serving black bear

By Linda Gabris Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 Bear was a popular meat in our house when I was growing up in the rural woods. Black...

Preparedness

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Building and stocking your pantry

No dentist? Oh, no!

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

With commonsense planning, you can survive hard times

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...