Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Gabion walls for form and function

Learning to love the high desert

Grow some winter squash this year

By Lisa Nourse I love summertime — I love the green of the trees, the warm weather, and growing my own food. I especially love...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Elderberries — Hospitality, Health, And Beauty

By Gail Butler Issue #124 • July/August, 2010 When friends stop by for a visit I like to offer them a hospitable and healthful libation of...

Garden Spaces for Small Places

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

Dorothy Ainsworth update: Out of the ashes

Make a fully functional cold storage pit/mound and enjoy your garden’s production all winter

Build an Old-Fashioned Hotbed and Start Your Seeds in Style

Radiant floor heating — Alternative to forced-air heating is solar-powered, too An interview with Stephen Heckeroth

Self-Reliance

Caring for wounds in the field

Cleaning a well

By Pat Barden Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 We have a good well with sweet water. It was already in place when we bought our property...

Here’s how to make a musical bamboo flute

By Robert E. Kramer Issue #42 • November/December, 1996 Materials 1 propane or butane torch or campfire to heat up metal rod. 1 steel rod at...

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: Bad Fish, Big Fish

Gee-Whiz: Trees

Gee-Whiz: Insects

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

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

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?

The summer of ’35

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and one may have been a murderess

Firearms

Bury a gun and ammo for 15 years

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

By Massad Ayoob Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Long a supporter of the Appleseed concept, Backwoods Home Magazine hosted one in Gold Beach, Oregon, in second...

Inexpensive retired Russian military rifles can be the ideal backwoods meat guns

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #47 • September/October, 1997 Like many another rural person, I've often found a firearm to be my most important tool. No,...

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 The person new to guns is like the person new to timepieces. "How many of these things are...

Preparedness

Preparedness for travelers

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Storm survivors

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

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...