Homemade pest traps
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By Patrice Lewis
Issue #164 • March/April, 2017
Last summer, my little compost bucket near the kitchen sink became home to a zillion fruit flies. Once they’re established, it’s devilishly hard to get rid of these...
Make elderberry syrup for flu season
By Karen M. House
Issue #169 • January/February, 2018
Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) has been a traditional influenza remedy for hundreds of years. I first learned about using elderberry syrup as a flu treatment a few years...
Clover — From Livestock Forage to Medicinal Tea, This Humble Plant is One of...
By Eugene Mitchell
Issue #130 • July/August, 2011
Whether young or old, lying in the grass and searching for four-leafed clovers is timeless fun. Sometimes they're so elusive, like the leprechaun, it seems they don't exist....
Annie on Everfree Farm, Part II
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Annie on Everfree Farm, Part II
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By Annie Tuttle
(Most photos by Dave Duffy)
Issue #146 • March/April, 2014
Previous in Series
Most of the old fence around the garden was pretty well thrashed. Some was torn out to...
How we found our remote backwoods home
By Jackie Clay
Issue #65 • September/October, 2000
Right now I'm sitting in a south-facing huge, sunny window, looking through our own private valley to a larger mountain valley below and the pine covered mountains beyond....
Caveman walking stick
By Jim Van Sant
Issue #108 • November/December, 2007
The lake near our rural home has a long hiking trail that winds around its shore. We walk on this path in the morning through the oak...
The return of home emergency shelters takes on a dual-purpose approach
By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
Issue #74 • March/April, 2002
After September 11, 2001, all of us became much more concerned with protecting our families from biological, nuclear, and terrorist attacks. However, if you followed up...
Dealing with heat stress
By Joseph Alton, M.D.
Issue #154 • July/August, 2015
In the wilderness, there may not be shelter to protect you from the elements. Even on a working homestead, physical exertion in hot weather can easily lead...
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...
Avoiding heat illness
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Avoiding heat illness
By Gary F. Arnet, D.D.S.
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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...
Learning to love the high desert
By Claire Wolfe
Issue #120 • November/December, 2009
Earlier this year, the dogs and I got taxed out of Cabin Sweet Cabin. With a little help from our friends, we packed a small trailer with our...
Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning
By John Silveira (aka O.E. MacDougal)
May/June 2017 Backwoods Home
The greatest inventions in history are the ones we now take for granted. Fire and the wheel-axle combination are among them. If we weren’t taught in...
Foraging for wild berries
By Kristina Seleshanko
Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019
I had just posted a photo online of some wild berries I was going to preserve, when suddenly I was inundated with messages: “Are those really safe to...
Simplifying simplicity
By Claire Wolfe
Issue #117 • May/June, 2009
In the bustling 19th century, Henry David Thoreau urged us to "simplify, simplify, simplify."
In the even more hectic 20th and 21st centuries, writer, philosopher, and frugalista Wendy McElroy...
Making maple syrup
By Marcella Shaffer
Issue #59 • September/October, 1999
The art of making maple syrup is generally attributed to the Native Americans. Early settlers arriving in America learned the skill from them. They then went on to...
Just for Kids: Killing some time (Create an afternoon time warp)
By Lucy Shober
Issue #26 • March/April, 1994
Click on picture for printable, full-sized version to color.
There is a book that describes a time warp as being a kind of bubble, a place in time that...































