Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Build A Hybrid Go-Kart For Kids For $150

Grandma will love this personal ‘Helping Hands’ wall hanging

Woolen winter mittens in minutes

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

Garden Spaces for Small Places

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden. Minnie Aumonier Yes, and if...

Starting a Roadside Farm Stand

Making Apple Cider with a Homemade Press

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

Making and using a solar cooker

Small engine maintenance for women

Build your own portable forge

Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

Self-Reliance

Homestead helpers

Just for Kids: Visit the great prairies

By Lucy Shober Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 Did you ever get an urge to just take off and go someplace exotic? Maybe the North Pole...

Raising kids simply

By Patrice Lewis Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live simply? When asked what constitutes a simple...

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

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

How big is the solar system?

The world is coming to an end… and this time, 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

The Great Depression — A reminiscence

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

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

Firearms

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

Building the coyote rifle

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 Feral dogs, coyotes, and those odd-looking "coy dogs" like to feed on my neighbors' livestock on occasion...

Moderate power firearms

By Massad Ayoob Issue #110 • March/April, 2008 Robert Ruark, the great American writer of the mid-Twentieth Century, was also a big game hunter. One of...

Use the right ammunition!

By Massad Ayoob Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 The purpose of the gun is to fire ammunition. It follows that the ammunition should be the correct...

Preparedness

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

Stashing Junk Silver for Bad Times

Medical kits for self-reliant families

Caring for wounds in the field

The return of home emergency shelters takes on a dual-purpose approach

Preparing for civil unrest

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...