Self-reliance Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Easy-to-make reusable coffee filters

By Angeline Hawkes Issue #153 • May/June, 2015 With two professional fiction writers in my household, we drink a lot of coffee. Keeping it hot and ready meant going through a lot of paper filters. In...

Cast iron

By Jackie Clay Issue #118 • July/August, 2009 My very favorite cookware is old. Some of it very old. It's nonstick, is equally at home in the kitchen or wilderness camp, is the ultimate slow-cooker, and...

Garden injuries Part 2

By Joseph Alton, M.D. Issue #141 • May/June, 2013 In the last issue of Backwoods Home, we discussed some of the hazards encountered by the homesteading gardener. Burns, cuts, abrasions, allergic reactions, and certain insect stings...

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

By Tom and Joanne O’Toole Issue #96 • November/December, 2005 Frostbite can be defined, in its most severe stage, as when your fingers and toes freeze and have to be cut off because of gangrene. Wow,...

Space heater safety tips

By Tom Kovach Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 If you are going to try to take the chill out of your home without turning on your main sources of heat, or if you want to add...

A determined Rose Bley escaped the city

By Gene Sheley Issue #51 • May/June, 1998 Rosie Bley's self-reliance and confidence has served her well all her life, permitting her to live in one of the most remote areas of California and to meet...

Nursing: A perfect backwoods career

By John McLane, RN Issue #88 • July/August, 2004 For many of us, a job in the traditional economy is crucial to being able to maintain our chosen lifestyle. Others who are pondering a move out...

Just for Kids: Some good clean fun!

By Lucy Shober Issue #24 • November/December, 1993 Click on pictures for printable, full-sized versions to color. When a chill hits the air and the first cool winds of winter begin blowing, there's no better place to...

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....

How to begin taking wildlife photographs

By H. Bumper Bauer Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 If you want to get into wildlife photography, your timing could not be better. Many serious amateur and professional photographers are upgrading their 35mm film cameras to...

Vinegar — A splash is all you need for healthful eating, natural healing, and...

By Linda Gabris Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Call me a sourpuss, if you will, but I love vinegar and can't imagine a day going by without calling upon one type or another for cooking, curing,...

The saga of Benjamin, the backwoods, homeschool boy who wanted to get a job

By Margaret Wright Issue #37 • January/February, 1996 Raised in the woods of Northern Idaho, home schooled by loving, protective parents, he was a happy, carefree child for the first sixteen years of life. The sixteenth...

Life-saving snowshoes

By Len McDougall Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 If you live in or drive through places where winter generally means having snow on the ground from autumn till spring, you should have a functional pair of...

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...

Roger Clark: Cane syrup maker

By Massad Ayoob Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 In the syrup house on Roger Clark's farm in Suwannee County, Florida, three generations of his family gather around a vat big enough to make a good size...

Make a quilt out of Levis

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #77 • September/October, 2002 Back in the 80s I worked as a waitress in a busy little café where our mandatory uniform was a pair of Levis and a T-shirt. The only...