Building Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

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 Hybrid Go-Kart For Kids For $150

By Dorothy Ainsworth Website Exclusive • May, 2010 Grandma Clara used to delight in telling us the story of our Dad's first complete sentence at age 2 when he received a toy car for Christmas: "It's...

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 a Concrete Root Cellar

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #168 • November/December, 2017 I should have been a mole — it feels so safe and cool and quiet to be underground. So when my house burned down 20 years ago and...

Eye-catching signs with mirrors

By David Lee Issue #144 • November/December, 2013 The reflected image in the mirrored letters give a "see-through" illusion to the sign and the tree. Stained glass nuggets add flashes of color. Need a sign? Do you want...

Making a wooden kitchen countertop

By Patrice Lewis One of the advantages of living a homesteading lifestyle is participants can kick aside the ever-changing concepts of what constitutes “classy” home interior design. Those model-perfect suburban abodes often hold no appeal...

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...

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...

Here’s how to make a musical bamboo flute

By Robert E. Kramer Issue #42 • November/December, 1996 Materials 1 propane or butane torch or campfire to heat up metal rod. 1 steel rod at least 1/2" diameter 1 oven mitt or heavy cloth 1...

A house a tornado helped build

By Robert L. Williams Issue #16 • July/August, 1992 On May 5, 1989, tornadoes ripped through parts of three western North Carolina counties, including ours, and left piles of debris where houses, also including ours, once...

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...

Build a lean-to greenhouse

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #154 • July/August, 2015 Just thinking about a greenhouse can stimulate the senses. In our minds' eyes, we can see the filtered light shimmering down on rows of greenery, feel the moist...

Build a poultry killing cone

By Allen Easterly Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 You've worked hard and spent many hours raising your pretty flock of meat chickens from eggs or chicks to nice fat fryers, roasters, or stewing birds. They've provided...

Build a wood-fired stock tank heater

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 Keeping fresh water in front of our livestock in the winter has always been somewhat of a problem. A long time ago, when we lived on a homestead...

Shake update

By David Lee Website Exclusive • January, 2005 Since my shake article was published in Backwoods Home Magazine, Issue #88, I have learned that some of the more ambitious and better-looking readers have gone out and...

A cabin for one

By Lee Greiman Issue #109 • January/February, 2008 Between 1989 and 1990 I built a 20 by 20-foot log house on the Musselshell River in Montana. The next year I built an addition on it that...