Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Is that a good pig?

Forget the dog, chicken is man’s best friend

Building

Turning a $10,000 House into a Home — Part 1: Salvaging...

By Claire Wolfe Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 December 2012. Welcome to my house as I first saw it. The door opens onto a dirt-floored room. It's...

Build a pallet fence

A salvaged oak floor for $5

Build a portable woodstove for $30

The house that Dorothy built

Farm and Garden

By Hook or Crook: A Billhook is a Handy Homestead Tool

By R.E. Rawlinson Issue #173 • September/October, 2018 When compared to our ancestors, we are very lucky to have readily-available tools. Stores are full of anything...

Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden

Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

The Potato Hole

A Small Space Yields a Big Crop of Garlic

Americana and History

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

By John Silveira Issue #32 • March/April, 1995 It was snowing and three of us were up at the office. Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes...

Habeeb Salloum — Poet, Traveler, Recipe Writer

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Former first ladies — Beautiful, brilliant, crazy

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First...

Food and recipes

Picking and preserving the wild plum

Making good jerky

Grilled Chicken with Pineapple-Peach Sauce

Smoked Salmon

Self-reliance

Lessons learned from an ice storm

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

Step onto the ice and catch tonight’s dinner

Intake and exhaust upgrades for better mileage and performance

Energy

Energy class: Part 2 — Understanding your electric bill

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

Walden Pond — the solar version: Part 2

Waterpower for personal use

Guns and Hunting

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

By Claire Wolfe Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 My friend Jack pulled the car into a grassy clearing. We donned rubber boots, fetched a metal detector...

Affordable firearms

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

A used shotgun bargain: The Browning Auto-5

Picking a holster

Science

Gee-Whiz: Dinosaurs

By O.E. MacDougal July/August 2014 Backwoods Home Biologists and paleontologists are now pretty certain that birds are part of the dinosaur lineage. Their extinct relatives include...