Tips for finding your affordable home
By Dave Cournoyer
Website Exclusive • February, 2008
If you haven't yet made the move to the country, here is helpful information about the cost and availability of land in the U.S.
One factor that is important...
The burglar does far more than steal!
By Dave Duffy
Issue #89 • September/October, 2004
"Never mind about stealing the damn stuff!
This is the wrong place!
We have to leave!"
"That's what they were saying Dad, right outside my window," my 12-year-old son Jake told...
Paring down for off-grid living
By Steven Gregersen
Issue #93 • May/June, 2005
My first exposure to a home power system came when I visited the remote homestead of a retired electrical engineer. What a set-up. Housed in its own little...
An easier way to cut firewood By Larry LaVan
By Larry LaVan
<!--
>!>!>!> Make content-2-col-left = 70% if activating this column
-->
Issue #159 • May/June, 2016
I've heated with firewood for nearly 50 years. In doing so, I knew my aging back would need...
Stashing Junk Silver for Bad Times
By John Silveira
Issue #131 • September/October, 2011
This is a pile containing $100 face value of pre-1965 "junk silver" coins, but it could represent 400 gallons of gasoline or 400 loaves of bread.
When I was...
Hypothermia — A real winter danger
By Tom and Joanne O’Toole
Issue #84 • November/December, 2003
Hypothermia is a deadly enemy. It steals body heat and kills more outdoor enthusiasts every year than anything else.
Hypothermia is the rapid and drastic chilling of...
Install rafters alone the easy way
By Robert L. Williams
Issue #35 • September/October, 1995
Anyone who has ever worked on roof framing knows that nailing up rafters is a two-man job at the very best. At worst, the task requires the...
Bean Salad With Fresh Herbs
Recipe of the Week
Bean Salad With Fresh Herbs
Courtesy of
Alicia Abbott
Ingredients
1/2 pound string beans
2-1/2 cups cooked or canned navy beans
1 medium pickling cucumber, thinly sliced
1 small red bell pepper, finely diced
2 tablespoons...
Glazed spiced mocha brownies
Recipe of the Week
Glazed spiced mocha brownies
Courtesy of
Richard Blunt
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
soft shortening
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
6-1/2 oz. unsalted butter
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. powdered, instant...
Here’s an Easier (and Cheaper) Way to Make Wooden Beams
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #43 • January/February, 1997
I know that there are a lot of really fine products available for turning logs into lumber, from bandsaw sawmills to chainsaw attachments. I've seen a lot...
Corn and nopalito salsa
Recipe of the Week
Corn and nopalito salsa
Courtesy of
Jackie Clay
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked sweet corn
1/2 cup chopped nopalitos
2 Tbsp. chopped sweet red pepper
1/4...
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...
Jerusalem artichokes with brown rice
Recipe of the Week
Jerusalem artichokes with brown rice
Courtesy of
Richard Blunt
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced small
1 small...
Water development for the homestead: Ponds, cisterns, and tanks
By Roy Martin
Issue #102 • November/December, 2006
In most areas, wells or springs are able to provide water sources for the homestead, but there are places where groundwater is either not available or where it...
You could furnish an entire homestead at Lehman’s ‘Non-electric’ Hardware Store
By Don Fallick
Issue #47 • September/October, 1997
Let me state my bias right at the beginning: Lehmans Hardware has been advertising in Backwoods Home Magazine for a long time, but I made my first purchase...
Lamb and Apricot Pilaff
Recipe of the Week
Lamb and Apricot Pilaff
Courtesy of
Ivan Brown
Ingredients
1 pound lean boneless lamb, well trimmed and cut into bite sized cubes
1 cup bulgar (burghul) wheat (cracked cooked wheat)
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup ready-to-eat dried...































