Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Paring down for off-grid living

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

10 tips for selling your homemade product

Just for Kids: Take a nite hike!

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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

Hügelkultur for the Homestead

By Rose Shelton Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 Last spring, I finally completed a long-planned homestead project of constructing two hügelkultur beds. What is hügelkultur? It’s...

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

Plant Your Irish Potatoes This Fall or Winter

Converting a Gasoline-Powered Rototiller to Electric

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

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader

Build a compost tumbler

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

Make your own lumber with a chainsaw mill

Self-Reliance

Boost your income by adding a processing step to what you sell

Power your bug-out bag

By Jeff Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #160 • July/August, 2016 More and more people are starting to see the advantage of having a bug-out bag for...

Just for Kids: Life in the forest

By Lucy Shober Issue #34 • July/August, 1995 Click on pictures for printable, full-sized versions to color. "It's a jungle out there!" You've probably heard that phrase...

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: Trees

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

Gee-Whiz: Sleep

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

Constitution of the united States of America

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

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung colonial heroine?

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

Firearms

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

Centennial of the All-American .30-06

By Massad Ayoob Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 In the long love affair between America and the rifle, there has never been an interlude quite as...

Catch your own bait

By Gary Gresh Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 Expensive lures and pricey tackle shop baits can sometimes make fishing an expensive proposition, raising the cost of...

Sight and sound enhancement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 Enhancing vision and hearing can make you a safer, more effective shooter, and sometimes can save human lives. Captain...

Preparedness

Building and stocking your pantry

Food security 101: part 2

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

Avoiding heat illness

Dollar Store to the Rescue

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

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...