This St. Bernard backwoods hero saved old Grandma’s life
By Margaret Wright
Issue #35 • September/October, 1995
When we think of a backwoods dog we generally think of a Pyrenees, German Shepherd, or other breed of working dog. In our case, our family chose the...
Forget the dog, chicken is man’s best friend
By Richard Blunt
Issue #49 • January/February, 1998
The domestic chicken, or Gallus domesticus as the Romans called it, has lived with humans for centuries. It is probably the descendent of a wild asian bird, and...
Brooder in a box
By Sylvia Gist
Issue #80 • March/April, 2003
It's spring and the farm store has a tempting variety of baby chicks begging for you to take them home. Or the breed you've always wanted has been...
Get to know your spiders
By Jerry Hourigan
Issue #109 • January/February, 2008
Every landowner and homeowner creates the perfect environment for spiders. Not intentionally, of course, but spiders seem to like all the little nooks and crannies created from how...
Are aliens stealing our honeybees?
By John Silveira
Issue #106 • July/August, 2007
What would happen if all the honeybees disappeared? According to some pundits we'd see a collapse in much of our food base followed by shortages, turmoil, and, depending...
Llamas guarding sheep? — Not such a far-fetched idea
By Karen McGeorge Sanders
Issue #19 • January/February, 1993
It seems that farmers always need an extra pair of hands, but finding the money to pay the extra help is often impossible. You need the help...
Home Dairying
By Marcella Shaffer
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
There is a big difference between home dairying to produce food for your family and dairying to sell milk or milk byproducts to others. Since milk and dairy...
Broody biddies make sense on the homestead
By James Kash
Issue #139 • January/February, 2013
Broodiness is an avian behavior that is frowned upon in the world of agriculture. All industrial agriculturalists cull broody birds because the behavior inhibits production. But to frugal...
Shearing, carding, spinning, weaving and creating with Margaret Boos
By Annie Duffy
Issue #52 • July/August, 1998
"If you're going to make something that you want to last, why not start with good quality material," says Margaret Boos who raises and spins her own wool....
Animal disease traceability
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
In 2009, small farmers and ranchers breathed a sigh of relief. So did people worried about another curtailment of individual liberty and those whose religious principles oppose microchipping.
They...
