Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

I heat my house by burning corn

Homestead burnout — What it is and how to avoid it

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

The Best City Garden

By Anita Evangelista Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 City gardens and country gardens are differentnot only in the amount of space...

Tomatoes, the Essential Garden Crop

Plant Your Irish Potatoes This Fall or Winter

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

For large quantity food dehydration try this homemade gem from the past

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader, part 2

Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans

A simple backwoods hay baler

Self-Reliance

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Annie on Everfree Farm, Part II

By Annie Tuttle (Most photos by Dave Duffy) Issue #146 • March/April, 2014 Previous in Series Most of the old fence around the...

Drawing the line on timber trespass

By Paul Lamble Issue #78 • November/December, 2002 Over the 4th of July weekend, my wife and I learned an important lesson the hard way. 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

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

Three more ways the world can end … and I’m not kidding

The threat of electromagnetic pulse!

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

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

Fly it proudly and properly

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

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

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

Firearms

Choose your ammo… police style

Picking a holster

By Massad Ayoob Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 One good thing about being out in the boonies by yourself is that you can carry a gun...

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 I take the Springfield Armory rifle out of the box, and savor it. I seldom do that with...

Firearms handling refresher Part I: Handguns

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • December, 2003 One of our readers e-mailed John Silveira to tell him that taking a handgun afield after a long...

Preparedness

No dentist? Oh, no!

Power-up bag

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

The fire wick fire starter

Preparing for civil unrest

Food security 101

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...