Self-reliance Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Drive your own freshwater well

By Len McDougall Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 The well point's slotted holes permit water to enter, while stainless steel mesh inside keeps out abrasive sand. X marks the spot. How "witching" for water works is a...

Just for Kids: Sun-kabobs and solar sizzle

By Lucy Shober Issue #28 • July/August, 1994 Click on pictures for printable, full-sized versions to color. Picture yourself in this dreamy scenario: It's a hot summer afternoon. The sun is beaming through the shade trees as...

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...

What to do when there’s no doctor

By Gary F. Arnet, D.D.S. Issue #75 • May/June, 2002 We are used to being able to see a doctor at any time for any reason, no matter how small. Will this always be the case?...

Dehydrating eggs at home

By Patrice Lewis Issue #156 • November/December, 2015 Here's a trivia question for you: What do you do when your chickens are laying gangbusters and you have no less than 10 dozen eggs in the fridge,...

Survival firebuilding skills

By Corcceigh Green Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Firebuilding skills are essential for those who may find themselves in survival situations. As a testimony to this idea, Americans in the Gulf Coast States experienced a string...

Seed art — It’s fun to collect the seeds and create these unusual pictures

By Alice B. Yeager Issue #42 • November/December, 1996 Seed art is an old craft going back to long, long ago. Where the art of turning seeds into pictures first began is obscured by time, and...

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...

The joys of making soap

By Grace Brockway Issue #84 • November/December, 2003 My initial enthusiasm for making my own soap was deflating with each book I read on the subject. They all warned of the dangers of lye, one of...

Brood X

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Website Exclusive • March, 2004 Over the past couple of decades Generation X has seen plenty of mention among the different branches of the regular mass media. This year however the really...

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...

Digging a shallow well

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #165 • May/June, 2017 When we first looked at the land which is now our off-grid homestead, the realtor mumbled an apology for an old gravel pit on the property from the...

Woolen winter mittens in minutes

By Anita Evangelista Issue #84 • November/December, 2003 There's nothing so comfy and warm in the snowy dead-of-winter as a pair of thick, soft woolen mittens. Many of us have fond childhood memories of a favorite...

Help your home survive in the path of a wildfire

By Brent Stainer These firefighters fought hard to save this house, but the best way to save your house is to make basic preparations...

Start a post-construction cleaning business

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #76 • July/August, 2002 Wherever construction is going on, there will be a big mess left in its wake that somebody has to clean up. That somebody can be you, and you...

Choosing a chain saw

By Steven Gregersen Issue #119 •September/October, 2009 Winter will be here soon and along with winter comes cold weather and high heating bills. Obviously there's nothing new about any of this but with the current economic...