Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Oregon Trail preparedness: What supplies did the settlers carry?

Elderberries — Hospitality, Health, And Beauty

Just for Kids: Some good clean fun!

Llamas guarding sheep? — Not such a far-fetched idea

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....

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

Grow some winter squash this year

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...

No Worrying About Fire Blight with Orient and Kieffer Pears

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

Eye-catching signs with mirrors

Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence

Build a Trail

Build your own portable forge

Self-Reliance

Jackie’s tips for hardcore homesteading

Preserve the harvest naturally through wild fermentation

By Jereme Zimmerman Issue #154 • July/August, 2015 Little hands are ideal for helping to stuff jars with vegetables. Just be sure to "pay" your help...

Make a Quick and Easy Tipi

By Bob Van Putten Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 The native peoples of North America were a very practical lot. Over the centuries they developed some...

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: Trees

Zombie Apocalypse

Gee-Whiz: Time

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

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

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

The vanishing outhouse

Fly it proudly and properly

Firearms

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

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...

How big a gun do you need?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 We Americans like to do things in a big way. Big houses. Big cars. Big boats. And, yes,...

Canning game meat

By Linda Gabris Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 Attempting to can meat (or any other low acid food, for that matter) without the use of a...

Preparedness

Disaster preparation!

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

Preparing for civil unrest

Bartering for bad times

Use solar landscape lights for emergencies

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...