Solar suitcase
By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
Issue #150 • November/December, 2014
Completed solar suitcase project
From time to time, people call to ask what we have for emergency solar power suitable for a bug-out bag. Naturally, my first...
Redworm farming
By Charles Sanders
Issue #112 • July/August, 2008
If you are looking for a way to earn extra income, a retirement job, or even a new livelihood, then raising earthworms might just be the thing. This...
Get to know your spiders
By Jerry Hourigan
Issue #109 • January/February, 2008
Every landowner and homeowner creates the perfect environment for spiders. Not intentionally, of course, but spiders seem to like all the little nooks and crannies created from how...
Saving money on the homestead
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #148 • July/August, 2014
I come from a "penny-pinching-and-proud-of-it" family background and I learned the importance of saving a buck at an early age. Throughout my journey toward a self-reliant lifestyle, I've...
Old-fashioned hot chocolate
Recipe of the Week
Old-fashioned hot chocolate
Courtesy of
Richard Blunt
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into pieces
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/8 tsp. kosher...
Poor man’s shrimp cocktail on perch
Recipe of the Week
Poor man’s shrimp cocktail on perch
Courtesy of
Pat Ward
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.
Click Here
Ingredients
3/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. horseradish
2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Tabasco to...
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...
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....
For large quantity food dehydration try this homemade gem from the past
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #41 • September/October, 1996
The thing I like the most about Backwoods Home is that, unlike a lot of other magazines, the articles are written by folks who are actually doing...
Once a day milking
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #99 • May/June, 2006
It sounds bucolic, doesn't it? The simple joys of milking your own cow. Fresh milk, fresh cream, homemade cheese, butter, yogurt. What can get better than that?
But when...
The wonderful world of axes
By R.E. Rawlinson
Issue #171 • May/June, 2018
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau began his now-classic experiment in self-reliance at Walden Pond. He soon realized that if he was going to make a go of it...
Making sausage
By Linda Gabris
Issue #95 • September/October, 2005
While most folks in my neck of the woods are busy barbecuing during the last leg of summer, my thoughts are wistfully drifting to autumn and the brand...
Slaughtering and Butchering
By Dynah Geissal
Issue #23 • September/October, 1993
Fall is butchering time, a period of joy in the harvest of the year's work and of sadness that the lives of your beautiful, healthy animals have come...
The current ‘Gun control’ push — A cop’s eye view
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
First, a word of explanation. The reason "gun control" is in quotes in the title and in this sentence is because, for a very long time, the prohibitionists...
Fail-proof white bread
Recipe of the Week
Fail-proof white bread
Courtesy of
Jackie Clay
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. honey
4 cups hot water
3 Tbsp. shortening
1 Tbsp....
