Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Raising quail — A home grown delicacy

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

Build a holz hausen to dry firewood

By Doug Fluckiger Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 My secret passion is tall, dark, and handsome. I may find her lying luxuriantly among a dark grove...

How safe is your electric fence?

Grow Your Own Dishrags

By Alice B. Yeager Photos by James O. Yeager Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 Some of us are thrifty beyond measure, even growing our own dishrags. None...

Use Plastic to Get a Head Start on Corn in the...

Grandpa’s justice

By Tom Kovach Issue #65 • September/October, 2000 Having the best vegetable garden in the village might put food on the table and make some money...

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

You can safely and easily can your own meat

Can she bake an apple pie, Billy Boy?

10 tips for selling your homemade product

Emergency solar power for $950

Solar charge controllers — myths, hype, and facts

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • January, 2004 Our three part series on firearms handling ends with this installment. In Part I, we covered handguns and...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

A used shotgun bargain: The Browning Auto-5

Three more ways the world can end … and I’m not...

By John Silveira Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 "What are you doing?" a voice asked. I looked up and saw O.E. MacDougal, Dave's poker-playing friend from Southern...

Avian Flu — How afraid of this

A doomsday scenario to sleep on

The black man’s worst enemy is not racism

Putting it all on the Amtrak line for Self-Reliance magazine

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

By James Kash Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 Broodiness is an avian behavior that is frowned upon in the world of agriculture. All industrial agriculturalists cull...

Bovine basics for beginners

By Patrice Lewis Issue #122 • March/April, 2010 Congratulations. You've escaped the city life and are now the proud owners of your little plot of rural...

Forget the dog, chicken is man’s best friend

Build a chicken feeder on the cheep cheep cheep

Preserve the harvest naturally through wild fermentation

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....

Fermenting Chicken Feed

By Melissa Souza Issue #174 • November/December, 2018 On our homestead, we eat yogurt, kombucha (fermented tea), sauerkraut, and kimchi to add probiotics to our diet. These beneficial bacteria promote good digestive health, strengthen the immune...