Water pumping windmills

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 Standing tall like a giant sunflower in a sea of undulating prairie grasses, or in any rural setting, a windmill is a thing of beauty. Not only are...

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...

Old-fashioned applesauce cake

Recipe of the Week  Old-fashioned applesauce cake  Courtesy of Muriel Sutherland   You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here Ingredients 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. soda 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. cloves 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 1/2...

The threat of electromagnetic pulse!

By John Silveira Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 I like "doomsday" scenarios — even ridiculous ones, such as the supposed Mayan calendar prophecy for 2012 or what had been Y2K doom-and-gloom leading up to the year...

You can safely and easily can your own meat

By Jackie Clay Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 Of all the foods I can every year, the most useful is the wide variety of meats. While we aren't huge meat eaters, these rows and rows of...

Planning the lives of generations to come

By John Silveira March 8, 2006 I was reading the March 2006 issue of Discover Magazine and read Asteroid Watcher Worries, an interview with Clark R. Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute at...

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 In parts one and two (Issues #138 and #139), we covered basics and homemade convenience foods. Now that you've become so proficient at making delicious, nutritious, and economical...

Solar Power 101 — Solar arrays

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 This article is the fourth and final part of our beginner's course in solar electricity. Simultaneously we have instituted a Home Energy Information (www.homeenergy.info) section on...

The Coming American Dictatorship Part XI — The Tenth Amendement Movement

By John Silveira Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 O.E. MacDougal, Dave Duffy's poker-playing buddy from Southern California, had come to town to fish the Rogue, a river that runs 215 miles from the heels of Crater...

Garden Spaces for Small Places

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #116 • March/April, 2009 When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden. — Minnie Aumonier Yes, and if your budget is lean and you want something green, there's...

Installing a propane heater

By Watt Jones Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Even with a 12,000 BTU Mini Split System installed in our cabin, my wife and I have experienced some spotty outages with our local electric cooperative and numerous power...

Sight and sound enhancement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 Enhancing vision and hearing can make you a safer, more effective shooter, and sometimes can save human lives. Captain Ayoob prepares to trigger his MP5 with SureFire light unit...

Aunt Mildred’s honey cake

Recipe of the Week  Aunt Mildred’s honey cake  Courtesy of Katherine Myers   You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here Ingredients 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup honey 4 eggs 1 cup strong black coffee (cold) 1/2 cup chopped...

Red flannel hash

Recipe of the Week  Red flannel hash  Courtesy of Rodney Merrill   You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here Ingredients 2 cups chopped turkey, corned beef, or ham 2 cups diced leftover baked potatoes 1 cup diced...

The chances of global disaster

By John Silveira Issue #57 • May/June, 1999 We were preparing the current issue and the office hummed as it always does during deadline. Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine, explained to our new...

Canning 101 — Pickles, fruits, jams, jellies, etc.

By Jackie Clay Issue #53 • September/October, 1998 For some reason, (definitely unknown to me) canning, as a method of very long term food storage, fell into disuse. Maybe it's the hurry/rush syndrome many folks have...