A salvaged oak floor for $5
By Robert L. Williams
Issue #59 • September/October, 1999
Several months ago we decided we did not want to install a traditional bedroom floor of plywood and carpet. We had several reasons, but the major ones...
Build an all-purpose ladder
By Robert L. Williams
Issue #45 • May/June, 1997
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The story never varies. If I am doing outside work and need a ladder, I spend nearly as much...
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...
A recycled dresser makes a useful bathroom vanity
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #152 • March/April, 2015
Here's the finished vanity with our unfinished dresser
that will store our extra towels and linens.
We've had our log home built for more than eight years now, but until...
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...
Getting logs
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Website Exclusive • March, 2004
Online Exclusive April 2003
Attention: Would-be loggers. There have been changes in policy at the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. I have just found...
Simplify life in your backwoods home by using these easy mountain methods
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #54 • November/December, 1998
Backwoods folk, or in my case, mountain folk, are typically very resourceful, utilizing whatever is on hand to make their lives easier and more pleasant. And hill-women...
Make adobe bricks
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #110 • March/April, 2008
Last winter I got a phone call from an old friend in Arizona. One of his sons had fallen in love, gotten the girl in trouble, and...
Build a Trapper’s Tilt
By Robert Van Putten
Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted a rustic log cabin deep in the forest. I believe there is something unique about this simple,...
Building and stocking your pantry
By Jackie Clay
Issue #125 • September/October, 2010
At the turn of the 19th century, most country homes had a walk-in pantry, as well as a root cellar for keeping vegetables and fruits. This pantry contained...
Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans
By Monika Williams
Issue #155 • September/October, 2015
I am always trying to come up with different ways to utilize the small space I have to store food. Then there is the problem of rotating my...
Build an Off-Grid Root Cellar, Garage, and Bunkhouse
By Robert Van Putten
Issue #166 • July/August, 2017
My wife and I built our homestead by hand. I’m not a professional builder, so once in a while I make mistakes -- the garage we built...
Woodbarrow
By Setanta O’Ceillaigh
When I first abandoned a slum town and fled back to the countryside I gathered and carried firewood with a laundry basket. Later on I acquired a collection of salvaged tools like...
Choosing a chain saw
By Steven Gregersen
Issue #119 •September/October, 2009
Winter will be here soon and along with winter comes cold weather and high heating bills. Obviously there's nothing new about any of this but with the current economic...
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...
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,...
