Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

10 ways to make money on your land

Build a cold smoker so you can make delicious squaw candy

Easy-to-make reusable coffee filters

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

The ‘Chocolate Tree’ Isn’t Just for Kids

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 My grandson Tommy was probably 50 feet up off the ground when he hollered, "Catch this one,...

Graft Your Own Designer Fruit Trees

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

Here’s how to make a musical bamboo flute

Build a portable woodstove for $30

Building Eric’s house

Rural Building

Self-Reliance

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

How to make money from storage building auctions

By Bill Wilson Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 Buying and selling is a time honored way of making a living. However, like any profession, success in...

Build a holz hausen to dry firewood

By Doug Fluckiger Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 My secret passion is tall, dark, and handsome. I may find her lying luxuriantly among a dark grove...

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

Gee-Whiz: Insects

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

The ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

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

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

Catfish Biscuits

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and one may have been a murderess

Firearms

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 The person new to guns is like the person new to timepieces. "How many of these things are...

Of guns and snakes

By Massad Ayoob Issue #151 • January/February, 2015 Mas safely kills a rattlesnake in a populated area. (Note angle of gun and trajectory.) Pistol is a...

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

Survival storeroom

Dollar Store to the Rescue

Avoiding heat illness

Disaster preparation!

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Circle of friends

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...