Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

An Introduction to Small-Scale Home Hydroponics

A contrary guide to feeding animals

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

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

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Grow some winter squash this year

Clover — From Livestock Forage to Medicinal Tea, This Humble Plant...

By Eugene Mitchell Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 Whether young or old, lying in the grass and searching for four-leafed clovers is timeless fun. Sometimes they're...

Graft Your Own Designer Fruit Trees

Time to Forget About Snail and Slug Bait

Prevent Foodborne Illness with Safe Gardening Methods

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 an Off-Grid Root Cellar, Garage, and Bunkhouse

Build a portable woodstove for $30

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader, part 2

Build A Hybrid Go-Kart For Kids For $150

Self-Reliance

Cast iron

13 steps to a life of freedom

By Mary Ann Wutzke Issue #76 • July/August, 2002 My husband and I have lived in the desert and mountain back country of Arizona since 1988....

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part I

By Annie Tuttle Issue #145 • January/February, 2014 So here we are. Truth be told, it was a complete accident that we...

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

The coming ice age

Zombie Apocalypse

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

The coming ice age

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 summer of ’35

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

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

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

Firearms

Affordable firearms

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,...

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #101 • September/October, 2006 The year was 1873. Samuel Colt had invented the revolveror at least introduced it to Americain 1836. The...

Understanding the gun debate, part 3

By Massad Ayoob Issue #163 • January/February, 2017 Click Here to read Part 1 Click Here to read Part 2 As noted in the two previous parts of...

Preparedness

Start your food storage on $10 a week

Handy Keychain Mini-Gadgets

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Bugging out in place

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

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...