Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Build an Off-Grid Root Cellar, Garage, and Bunkhouse

Pysanki — You can make those biddies pay!

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Woodbarrow

By Setanta O’Ceillaigh When I first abandoned a slum town and fled back to the countryside I gathered and carried firewood with a laundry basket....

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Meat For the Homestead

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #137 • September/October, 2012 Meat is often the most expensive portion of our grocery bill, and it is getting more and more...

Grow some winter squash this year

Growing Productive Strawberries

No Worrying About Fire Blight with Orient and Kieffer Pears

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

Determined woman builds distinctive vertical log studio

A salvaged oak floor for $5

Build a barrel stove

Here’s an Easier (and Cheaper) Way to Make Wooden Beams

Self-Reliance

Advice from second-time homesteaders

Woodstove cooking

By Cindi Myers Issue #127 • January/February, 2011 If you have a woodstove for heat, take advantage of the fire to cook your dinner for no...

You could furnish an entire homestead at Lehman’s ‘Non-electric’ Hardware Store

By Don Fallick Issue #47 • September/October, 1997 Let me state my bias right at the beginning: Lehmans Hardware has been advertising in Backwoods Home Magazine...

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: Presidents

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

Gee-Whiz: Sleep

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

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

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

Grandpa’s justice

Firearms

Building the coyote rifle

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 Everything's getting more expensive. Food. Gasoline. Guns and ammunition. Not everyone who appreciates the rural lifestyle was "born...

Air power superiority

When a well-placed shot is required, when stealth and quiet are called for, an air rifle may be the best option. By Gary Lewis Issue #151 • January/February,...

Tailoring guns to females

By Massad Ayoob Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 So, I'm sitting here in a hotel writing this, less than three hours after getting off the witness...

Preparedness

Medical kits for self-reliant families

Commonsense preparedness just makes sense

7 Mistakes of food storage

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

Survival storeroom

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...