Self-reliance Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

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...

Picking your pressure canner — All American or Presto?

By James Kash Issue #143 • September/October, 2013 The garden is in full swing and you have baskets of vegetables piling up; what do you do? You can them, of course. Your mother's old granite-ware canner...

Clean up your act!

By Nanette Blanchard Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 I used to get a headache just inhaling the chemical fumes while walking through the cleaning product aisle of the store. I started using less toxic products from...

Step onto the ice and catch tonight’s dinner

By Jim Capossela During open water season, the dedicated fisherman dreams of a trophy gamefish to hang in the fishing camp, or, increasingly, to photograph and return to the water. During those three seasons,...

Shopping to beat inflation

By Darlene Campbell Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 Most of us who read BHM agree that self sufficient living can be debt free, but we also worry about inflation. The word inflation is used to describe...

Sewing and using cloth diapers is easier than you think

By Annie Tuttle Issue #113 • September/October, 2008 I'll admit that it was the pastoral vision of a laundry line full of sun-bleached diapers above barefooted, rosy-cheeked, milk-fattened babies that first drew my attention toward cloth...

Building and stocking your pantry

By Jackie Clay Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 At the turn of the 19th century, most country homes had a walk-in pantry, as well as a root cellar for keeping vegetables and fruits. This pantry contained...

City boy, country boy

By Margaret Wright Issue #33 • May/June, 1995 Anyone who has read or heard the story of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse knows the difference between a child from the city and a child...

Avoiding heat illness

By Dr. Gary F. Arnet Drink early and often to avoid dehydration. The body normally needs two to three quarts of water per day, but this can increase to...

Fully Involved

By Diana Morgan Issue #58 • July/August, 1999 A strident tone blasts me from sleep. I catch the words "fully involved" first time around. Where the heck are my glasses? Oh, God, I can't find my...

Disaster preparation!

By Gary F. Arnet, D.D.S. Issue #74 • March/April, 2002 Are you prepared for a disaster that could affect the daily function of your life or the lives of your family members? Or do you even...

Make a Sure-Fire Live Trap

By Charles Sanders Issue #64 • July/August, 2000 Every now and then, wild critters wear out their welcome around the homeplace. Gardens are raided, garbage cans ransacked, pet food filched, and other shenanigans are performed by...

Flea market stories and strategies

By Jim Capossela I’m convinced it’s clean living that’s helped me make it to the age 39 I’ve been for quite some time now. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs and I normally take...

Bartering for bad times

By John Silveira Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 Bartering may not be a part of your life, right now, but if there's a deepening of the recession, or it becomes a depression, or we enter a...

Intake and exhaust upgrades for better mileage and performance

By Len Torney Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 Well, it seems the price of oil and gasoline has peaked and plummeted, much like a lot of the rest of the economy these days. One upside to...

The Trigger Line

By Len McDougall Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 With most of our planet underwater, fish have been a part of the human diet since before recorded history. Almost any permanent body of water can be presumed...