Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Caring for your chickens in winter

Tools and hardware for the backwoods home

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...

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Start a Self-Sufficiency Garden Even in a Cramped Apartment

By Nancy Wolcott Issue #61 • January/February, 2000 You are sitting there in your recliner chair in your small city apartment desperately longing for the day...

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 inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding

Build a cistern out of corrugated road culvert

The Mini-Skyline — A homemade yarder to bring firewood up a draw

Self-Reliance

Winter in the High Desert — Understanding the music

For safety’s sake, homestead fuel storage must be handled properly

By Emory Warner Issue #43 • January/February, 1997 Home storage of fuel is a necessity for homesteaders. Even if you are still on the grid, your...

Paring down for off-grid living

By Steven Gregersen Issue #93 • May/June, 2005 My first exposure to a home power system came when I visited the remote homestead of a retired...

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

Zombie Apocalypse

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest have to fear

Testing Soil

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

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

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

Fly it proudly and properly

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

Firearms

The light at the end of the gun

The Appleseed Project

By Massad Ayoob Issue #123 • May/June, 2010 There is nothing else in the shooting world quite like the Appleseed Project, which combines American Revolutionary War...

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

By Massad Ayoob Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 There are so many makes and models of firearms in existence that no one has ever counted them...

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 treatment for fire-related injuries

Your survival depends on water

Stashing Junk Silver for Bad Times

10 day survival pack for your vehicle for just $25

Caring for wounds in the field

Solar-powered water purifiers

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...