Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Growing Productive Strawberries

In the classroom and at home, this system will help you grow self-reliant kids

Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

Based on years of personal experience, here are 10 good tips for homeschooling your children

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

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

Grow Garlic and Reap Health Benefits

By Alice B. Yeager Photos by James O. Yeager Issue #98 • March/April, 2006 Garlic is one of our oldest herbs on record. Anyone can grow garlic...

You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers

Use Plastic to Get a Head Start on Corn in the...

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

Choosing a chain saw

Build a homestead Copy Cart

Installing a steel roof

Self-Reliance

Homestead water

Seed art — It’s fun to collect the seeds and create these unusual pictures

By Alice B. Yeager Issue #42 • November/December, 1996 Seed art is an old craft going back to long, long ago. Where the art of turning...

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

By Dave Duffy Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 November's Superstorm Sandy on the Northeastern coast of the United States was our most recent grand reminder that...

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

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Gee-Whiz: Time

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

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

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

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Declaration of Independence: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

Firearms

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

Thoughts on ammunition

By Massad Ayoob Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 Ammunition is to firearms as gasoline is to automobiles. However, with guns and ammo, the fit isn't quite...

Consider the 20-gauge shotgun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 A year or more ago in these pages, I made the suggestion that sometimes less is more, and...

Reload your own brass

By Dale Petry Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 Not long ago a friend called to say he had seen an unusual rifle at the local gun...

Preparedness

Avoiding heat illness

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

The Five “P”s: A fire evacuation grab ‘n’ go kit

No dentist? Oh, no!

Start a fire in any weather

The fire wick fire starter

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...