A simple backwoods hay baler
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #82 • July/August, 2003
During the winter months, Steve and his wife Tandy feed between 120 and 150 bales of hay to a herd of pretty high-quality dairy goats on their...
Build a cold smoker so you can make delicious squaw candy
By Jane Duquette
Issue #148 • July/August, 2014
For delicious squaw candy, start with the freshest fish.
One fresh July evening at our summer cabin in Soldotna, Alaska, my husband, Tom, and I sat with friends around...
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 of firs. She may be standing proudly on a sunny...
Build a portable woodstove for $30
By David Scott Matthews
Issue #78 • November/December, 2002
I had a problem. Other men love football, baseball, basketball, or golf. I love to hunt. And the animal I love to hunt more than any other...
Ambidextrous chainsaw filing
By Thomas Brewer
Issue #57 • May/June, 1999
I am not ambidextrous. My wife, Judith, uses chopsticks with either hand or even both hands at once. She is ambidextrous. I can barely write with my right...
Make your own effective fishing tackle while you save money and recycle scrap
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #44 • March/April, 1997
My long time friend Hearold Ruby passed away. Death came as sort of a reprieve. He'd been terribly sick and utterly miserable for years and he was...
Making Apple Cider with a Homemade Press
By Robert Van Putten
Issue #170 • March/April, 2018
Apples are an important food resource for us. Every year we store hundreds of pounds in our root cellar where they will keep for up to six...
Build a Heated Germination Bed
By Charles Sanders
Issue #92 • March/April, 2005
Many of us who garden have learned the benefits of starting our own vegetable and flower plants. There are several benefits to having a spot to start your...
For summertime baking needs, build yourself an outdoor horno
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #57 • May/June, 1999
My family has always been big on birthdays and holidaysincluding Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, New Years, and so on. Every holiday is a major...
Vise Dremel Moto Tool mount
By Dana Martin Batory
Issue #84 • November/December, 2003
Sometimes it seems two hands are not enough—three would be nice, four even better. This economical, easy to build jig solves that common workshop problem. Designed to...
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 very efficient tools. Yet, perhaps because of their appreciation of...
Free pallet wood and birdhouses add up to big country dollars
By Rick Brentlinger
Issue #53 • September/October, 1998
If I could show you how to manufacture a product anywhere in the country and if I offered to find you the raw materials free, would you be...
Livestock fencing for the small homesteader
By Don Lewis
In 1874, a United States patent (#157,124) was issued to Joseph F. Glidden, a long-serving sheriff in DeKalb County, Illinois. His invention — possibly one of the simplest ever recorded by the...
Five building tricks for super strong framing
By Don Fallick
Issue #49 • January/February, 1998
I was standing on the edge of the roof overhang, holding two bundles of asphalt shingles, when my boss's son drove up. He looked at me, then took...
Build a 6500-gallon concrete water tank for $1500
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #101 • September/October, 2006
When I bought 10 dry barren "affordable" acres back in 1981 I got what I paid for: No electricity, no septic system, no well, and no water. What...
Shelves and benches
By David Lee
Issue #107 • September/October, 2007
Money doesn't buy happiness but it sure does buy a lot of stuff. If it is nice stuff then you need a place to display it. If it...
