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...

Hügelkultur for the Homestead

By Rose Shelton Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 Last spring, I finally completed a long-planned homestead project of constructing two hügelkultur beds. What is hügelkultur? It’s basically a method of recycling junk wood to make a...

Home canning safety tips

By Liz Case Issue #66 • November/December, 2000 Like many who were born shortly after World War II, I grew up in a family with a solidly "city" lifestyle. My mother saw canning as drudgery. For...

Beef & Wild Mushroom Lasagna

Recipe of the Week  Beef & Wild Mushroom Lasagna  Courtesy of Gail Strong  Ingredients 1 pound lean ground beef 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 pound assorted wild mushrooms (such as shiitake, oyster and cremini), sliced 1/4 teaspoon salt 1...

The attack on Colin Powell prompts questions I’m not supposed to ask

By Dave Duffy Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 What's wrong with black Americans? Provocative question, isn't it, especially when it's being asked by a white guy like me. We white guys aren't supposed to question what blacks...

Renovating old walls

By David Lee Issue #106 • July/August, 2007 Some years ago my wife and I were out searching for a new building lot when we fell into The Trap. We had recently built and sold a...

Installing your own small, remote off-grid solar system

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #116 • March/April, 2008 A typical residential-size solar system installation will involve properly sized and installed AC and DC electrical wiring to reduce the risk of electrical fire, a proper...

Toffee Bars, Maple Kisses, and Chocolate-Nut Cloud Candy

Recipe of the Week  Toffee Bars, Maple Kisses,and Chocolate-Nut Cloud Candy  Courtesy of Mariah Dannato  Toffee Bars Ingredients 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup butter 1 12 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup chopped nuts Saltine Crackers Method Place one layer of crackers on greased...

Tailoring guns to females

By Massad Ayoob Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 So, I'm sitting here in a hotel writing this, less than three hours after getting off the witness stand in a manslaughter case. The defendant was a 5'3",...

The poor man’s ultra-light dual-fuel backpacking stove

By Rick Brannan Issue #124 • July/August, 2010 For as long as I have been venturing into the backcountry, which is a pretty long time, I have been on a quest for the perfect backpacking stove....

Lessons for My Children…Chapter 3: Hiding from the government

By Dave Duffy Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 After opening the discussion in this column last issue about the underground economy, I thought it would be a good idea to explore it more thoroughly since it...

Animal rights loonies save the chickens but ruin the County Fair

By Dave Duffy Issue #84 • November/December, 2003 We had our County Fair between issues. It was a small Fair with just a few thousand in attendance, but no one in our town of 1500 would miss...

Avoiding common canning mistakes

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 Canning has been an important part of my life since I was a young girl helping my mother and grandmother can in our Detroit basement. I loved the...

Black beans and rice

Recipe of the Week  Black beans and rice  Courtesy of Tom Barth   You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here Ingredients 1 lb. black beans, rinsed and sorted 2 Tbsp. margarine 2 onions, coarsely chopped 3-4 bay leaves 3...

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

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 These days a lot of people are concerned, and rightly so, about their family's economic stability and security. Recently I've become aware of the ways in which I,...