Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Jim Van Camp: Coffee roaster, painter

From triumph to tragedy to triumph again. Dorothy Ainsworth makes her valiant comeback

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....

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Leaf Mold is Another Way to Build Your Soil

By John Fuchs Issue #41 • September/October, 1996 Leaves are an excellent way to add organic matter to the garden. However, using rawor unprocessedleaves has some...

An Introduction to Small-Scale Home Hydroponics

Converting a Gasoline-Powered Rototiller to Electric

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

Building and using wattle fences

Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

A Kid-Friendly Chicken Coop

Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding

Self-Reliance

I heat my house by burning corn

Used bookstores can be sucessful in the hinterlands

By Jennifer Stein Barker Issue #52 • July/August, 1998 If you stand reading at the rack closest to the window, you can look up from your...

Start a fire in any weather

By Charles Sanders Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 Most of us living in the backwoods are comfortable with utilizing fire as a tool. We use fire...

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

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

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

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

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Fried chicken for breakfast

George Washington Carver — He wrote the book on self-reliance

Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?

Firearms

How to shoot a handgun accurately

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

By John Moody Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 In my youth, I remember my dad dragging my brother and me out of bed in the middle...

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

By Massad Ayoob Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 One reader writes to ask if military surplus rifles are still a good idea for hunting, recreational shooting,...

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...

Preparedness

Survival firebuilding skills

Start a fire in any weather

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

Moving on: A small town can be a haven during a depression

No dentist? Oh, no!

Solar-powered water purifiers

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...