Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

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

Okra — Not Just for the South

By Alice B. Yeager Photos by James O. Yeager Issue #58 • July/August, 1999 No one is quite sure about how okra seeds came to this country....

A New Use for Old Tires: A Garden Using Tires

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 all-purpose ladder

Build A Hybrid Go-Kart For Kids For $150

Woodbarrow

Build a portable woodstove for $30

Self-Reliance

Homestead water

Preparedness for travelers

By Brad Rohdenburg Issue #81 • May/June, 2003 When the subject of preparedness comes up, do you think of having a stock of supplies in your...

Getting out of Dodge — 10 Things I am doing to prepare for the...

By Luke Lee Issue #73 • January/February, 2002 There are three kinds of people who read this magazine: those already living in the country, those actively...

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

Testing Soil

The coming ice age

Gee-Whiz: Insects

Science and truth. Are they related?

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

George Washington Carver — He wrote the book on self-reliance

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

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

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

Firearms

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

The time for modern; the time for traditional

By Massad Ayoob Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 Traditional "old skool" guns, or the most modern and efficient ballistic hardware that money can buy? I asked...

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • July, 2008 Fifty years ago, Savage Arms introduced a new bolt-action sporting rifle. In the gun world, this was news....

Of guns and snakes

By Massad Ayoob Issue #151 • January/February, 2015 Mas safely kills a rattlesnake in a populated area. (Note angle of gun and trajectory.) Pistol is a...

Preparedness

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

Moving on: A small town can be a haven during a depression

Bugging out in place

Circle of friends

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...