Backwoods Home Magazine - Practical Self-Reliance

Elderberries — Hospitality, Health, And Beauty

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

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

Gardening Tips and Tricks

By Charles Sanders Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 Gardeners are an ingenious lot. Trial and error, time, study, observation, and experience all help us to come...

Swiss Chard — The Leaf Vegetable That Keeps on Giving!

Starting a Roadside Farm Stand

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

A cabin for one

Build a lean-to greenhouse

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

Build a 6500-gallon concrete water tank for $1500

Self-Reliance

Advice from second-time homesteaders

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...

Winter in the High Desert — Understanding the music

By Claire Wolfe Issue #121 • January/February, 2010 My old friends from the Pacific Northwest think I don't love them anymore, now that I've moved far...

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

How big is the solar system?

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

Testing Soil

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

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

Catfish Biscuits

the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Firearms

BHM hosts Appleseed marksmanship event

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...

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • July, 2008 Fifty years ago, Savage Arms introduced a new bolt-action sporting rifle. In the gun world, this was news....

Catch your own bait

By Gary Gresh Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 Expensive lures and pricey tackle shop baits can sometimes make fishing an expensive proposition, raising the cost of...

Preparedness

Food security 101: part 2

Why you need to addsolar to your emergencypower backup plans

Storm survivors

Buying the right emergency radio

Prepper power! Part 1

Start your food storage on $10 a week

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...