Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Preserve the harvest naturally through wild fermentation

Used bookstores can be sucessful in the hinterlands

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

Build Your Own Hoop House

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #171 • May/June, 2018 I’ve had my own garden for more than half a century, and I have learned a few things...

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

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

Composite lumber helps outdoor projects resist water, weather, and sun

Making a wooden kitchen countertop

Making and using a solar cooker

Build an attached solar greenhouse

Self-Reliance

Homestead water

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

By Jereme Zimmerman  Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 Bamboo: The very word evokes an image of...

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

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

The world is ending! … Again?

Testing Soil

The many benefits of garlic

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

The vanishing outhouse

Remembering what grandma used

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

Fly it proudly and properly

Firearms

Hunting, processing, and serving black bear

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

By Massad Ayoob Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Long a supporter of the Appleseed concept, Backwoods Home Magazine hosted one in Gold Beach, Oregon, in second...

A used shotgun bargain: The Browning Auto-5

By Brad Rohdenburg Website Exclusive • September, 2014 A 1958 "Light Twelve" Browning Auto-5, with a 28" Improved Cylinder barrel and 'Speedfeed' loading. It weighs less...

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

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Bartering for bad times

Keep the Ice On

Caring for wounds in the field

The fire wick fire starter

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

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...