Building Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Build a pizza oven

By Mike Lorenzen Issue #143 • September/October, 2013 About a year ago, my wife and I traveled around Italy by car. We had lots of wood-fired pizza. Italians make their pizza very thin with some sauce,...

A river rock shower

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 The finished shower weighs a ton and cost about $800. Cultured stones, made of pumice and portland cement, weigh about half as much as river rocks. Notched-trowel texturing in the mortar...

Make your own lumber with a chainsaw mill

By Jacqueline Tresl Issue #39 • May/June, 1996 Milling a board with a chainsaw lumber-maker. Figure1: The pieces. Beams, joists and walls were made with a chainsaw mill. Figure 2: The frame. Figure 3: The surface to which the chainsaw...

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...

Building a $3,000 Barn

By Robert Van Putten Issue #169 • January/February, 2018 There comes a time when all homesteaders start thinking of livestock, and 14 years ago, we were no exception. But before we could get any livestock, we...

Livestock fencing for the small homesteader, part 2

By Don Lewis In the last issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, we covered Part 1 of livestock fencing for the small homesteader. The article included some of the history, requirements, and methods for siting and...

Build a Top-Bar Bee Hive

By Jereme Zimmerman Issue #175 • January/February/March, 2019 My journey to becoming a beekeeper has been a long one, and I’m still not quite there yet. For the past five years or so, I have read...

Build a chicken house in a day

By Anita Evangelista Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 We built our chicken house for around $200. We could have done it for less if we were dedicated scroungers. Three of us put up the 7x18-foot structure...

Install rafters alone the easy way

By Robert L. Williams Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 Anyone who has ever worked on roof framing knows that nailing up rafters is a two-man job at the very best. At worst, the task requires the...

Build a log crib

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 Baby Zane is probably the only newborn in Hollywood sleeping in a log crib made by his grandmother in Oregon, but it was inevitable. The finished log crib. Dorothy uses...

Build a graceful footbridge

By Harrison Stone Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Tap your heels together three times and repeat after me, "There is no place like homeThere is no place like homeThere is no place like home, especially when...

The Mini-Skyline — A homemade yarder to bring firewood up a draw

By James F. Deaton Website Exclusive • January, 2006 The need to get firewood from a draw below my house to my woodshed started me on what became a fun project. After felling 4- to 8-inch...

Small engine maintenance for women

By Michelle Richards Issue #24 • November/December, 1993 How many small engines do you have on your homestead? I counted mine the other day and came up with eight. These engines help me live a simple...

Never underestimate a woman

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #32 Mar/Apr 1998 (In the May/June issue , we published an article by Dorothy Ainsworth titled "Determined woman builds distinctive vertical log studio," in which Dorothy detailed how she built a beautiful...

Determined woman builds distinctive vertical log studio

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #27 • May/June, 1994 When I graduated from high school in 1960, my father wrote in my autograph book, "When you get married and have twins, don't come to me for safety...

Building and Using Wattle Fences

By Kathryn Wingrove Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Wattle fences are made by weaving material in and out of posts in the ground. They were often used on the small farms of Victorian England. In fact,...