Free article Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Good-bye old friend

By Lucy Shober Issue #27 • May/June, 1994 Big Poney died today. He was 34 years old and had been going down pretty rapidly over this hot, dry summer. His bones seemed to poke out at...

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

By John Silveira Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 My engineer father was not fond of wasting time or energy. He was always searching for a better, more efficient way to perform chores, especially chores that reoccurred...

Start a post-construction cleaning business

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #76 • July/August, 2002 Wherever construction is going on, there will be a big mess left in its wake that somebody has to clean up. That somebody can be you, and you...

Fake lawsuits, stacked juries, and LAWYERS!

By John Silveira Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 Mac, that's O.E. MacDougal, our poker playing friend from Southern California, is back. He blew into town yesterday with the good weather and brought his fishing rods, his...

Layered Casserole & Pea Salad

Recipe of the Week Layered Casserole & Pea Salad Courtesy of Nathele Graham Ingredients 1 cup uncooked rice 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce Enough water to combine with tomato sauce to equal 2 cups 1 can corn, drained 1 can green beans,...

Whole grain breads baked at home

By Richard Blunt Issue #112 • July/August, 2008 Bread baking is an ancient craft that some food historians believe reaches back over 15,000 years to the time when the last Ice Age was losing its grip...

Easy-to-make farmer’s cheese

By Leah Leach Issue #152 • March/April, 2015 Ingredients Making cheese is one of the easiest and most satisfying tasks that you can accomplish in the homestead kitchen. While there are many wonderful cheeses out there to...

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...

Cool dishes for formal summer dining

By Linda Gabris Issue #94 • July/August, 2005 If you're an upland hunter who enjoys showing off your birds in gourmet fashion, here is a supreme main course creation that will earn the highest praise. There...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

By John Moody Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 In my youth, I remember my dad dragging my brother and me out of bed in the middle of the night, tossing our tired bodies in the back...

Theories of the universe

By Dave Duffy Issue #66 • November/December, 2000 In a relatively short span of time, mankind has travelled from profound ignorance of our planet and the world in which we live to a rather detailed picture...

Against a rapist

By Massad Ayoob Issue #65 • September/October, 2000 Can you use lethal force in self-defense against a rapist? The answer, of course, is yes. Deadly force is permissible only in a situation of "immediate, otherwise unavoidable...

Where our farm animals come from

Issue #105 • May/June, 2007 We don't know how far back the domestication of animals goes. But we do know it is a process, rather than a single...

The Newtown atrocity and “gun control”

By Massad Ayoob Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 In mid-December of 2012, a mentally disturbed twenty-year-old whose escalating aberrant behavior had gone untreated and unchecked murdered his own mother, stole her guns, and entered the Sandy...

History of Backwoods Home Magazine

The second generation takes over By Dave Duffy Originally published in issue 200 of BHM, the April/May/June 2025 issue This is the second time I’ve written the history of Backwoods Home Magazine (BHM). The first was 16...

Preparing for civil unrest

By Claire Wolfe Issue #118 • July/August, 2009 The most remarkable thing about civil unrest is that there hasn't been more of it. Politicians are making a hash of this country and much of the rest of...