Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Your Manure Pile — For Fuel, Fertilizer, and Maybe Even Improved Water Quality, You May Need Look No Further

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

Jackie’s Garden Primer

By Jackie Clay Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 The birds are singing. The sunshine makes the day feel soft and warm. The soil is mellow and...

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 this sturdy large-capacity food dehydrator

Never underestimate a woman

Build a wood crib with free materials

A river rock shower

Self-Reliance

Preparedness for travelers

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...

10 ways to make money on your land

By Anita Evangelista Issue #106 • July/August, 2006 There's something very visceral about having your own piece of land, whether it's a little scrap of green...

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

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

The coming ice age

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

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

Catfish Biscuits

The vanishing outhouse

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

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

Firearms

Moderate power 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,...

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

By Massad Ayoob Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 If you've read American firearms history at all, you know the lore of the .45 automatic. How during...

Sight and sound enhancement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 Enhancing vision and hearing can make you a safer, more effective shooter, and sometimes can save human lives. Captain...

Preparedness

Emergency treatment for fire-related injuries

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

Power Up

Start a fire in any weather

Bugging out in place

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

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...