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...
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...
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 your own repeating mouse trap
By Allen Easterly
Issue #110 • March/April, 2008
Safety note: Because of drowning danger, 5-gallon buckets with any amount of water in them should never be placed where children under the age of 5 will be...
Build a barrel stove
By Nick Weston
Issue #133 • January/February, 2012
This stove kept me warm and provided an excellent cooking surface for more than six months while I lived in my treehouse.
With a bit of nip and tuck...
This coop is for the birds
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #71 • September/October, 2001
You can buy a dozen eggs at the supermarket for 99 cents, or you can go out to the chicken coop you built and fetch a warm egg...
Adventures with a portable sawmill
By Pat Barden
Issue #104 • March/April, 2007
I was raised in the suburbs and spent most of my adult life living in apartments and houses in the suburbs. Dad was career civil service and had...
Make a fully functional cold storage pit/mound and enjoy your garden’s production all winter
By Armand O. Deblois
Issue #47 • September/October, 1997
Cold stored fruits and vegetables are the next best thing to fresh-picked. Flavor and texture change little and nutritional value remains high. They keep for an amazingly...
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...
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...
Build a Simple, Inexpensive Greenhouse
By Jennifer Poindexter
Issue #157 • January/February, 2016
Since my family is homesteading on a budget, the task of building a greenhouse had to be done as inexpensively as possible. Luckily, my husband is extremely crafty;...
Build a ski sled
By Kai Moessle
Issue #138 • November/December, 2012
Since my property is almost half a mile away from the nearest road and I can't keep the dirt road to it plowed all winter (I don't live...
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...
Radiant floor heating — Alternative to forced-air heating is solar-powered, too An interview with...
By Michael Hackleman
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
Hydronic, or radiant floor heating is a method of heating a home, shop, or other building with the heat concentrated in the floor. It works by embedding special...
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 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...
