Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

The coffee mug knife sharpener

For summertime baking needs, build yourself an outdoor horno

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

Paring down for off-grid living

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Woodchuck-Proof the Garden

By Setanta O'Ceillaigh  Issue #160 • July/August, 2016 The cycle never ends: As soon as one...

Build a Heated Germination Bed

Swiss Chard — The Leaf Vegetable That Keeps on Giving!

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

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

Three Raised Bed Designs

Getting logs

Build a pallet fence

Build a Trail

Self-Reliance

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

Just for Kids: Some good clean fun!

By Lucy Shober Issue #24 • November/December, 1993 Click on pictures for printable, full-sized versions to color. When a chill hits the air and the first cool...

Keeping tools sharp

By Dana Benner There are some things on the homestead that we take great care of, like firearms, knives and machinery. Then there are those...

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: Time

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

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

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?

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First Ladies were fascinating

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

Remembering what grandma used

Firearms

Savage Model 110 — A proven economical backwoods rifle

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 I take the Springfield Armory rifle out of the box, and savor it. I seldom do that with...

Moderate power firearms

By Massad Ayoob Issue #110 • March/April, 2008 Robert Ruark, the great American writer of the mid-Twentieth Century, was also a big game hunter. One of...

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

By Massad Ayoob Issue #103 • January/February, 2007 There are so many makes and models of firearms in existence that no one has ever counted them...

Preparedness

Survival infection control

Storm survivors

Survival firebuilding skills

Circle of friends

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

Changing the odds in home fire protection

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...