Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Bottle-raise a calf

Fermenting Chicken Feed

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

Building

Parge the ugly out of your concrete wall

By Bill Leonard Issue #57 • May/June, 1999 You can say a great deal in favor of cement block (or, if you prefer, concrete block) building....

Build a cold smoker so you can make delicious squaw candy

Install rafters alone the easy way

A river rock shower

Shake update

Farm and Garden

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

By Joe Mooney Issue #147 • May/June, 2014 I've always found the use of seasonal rains by native peoples very fascinating. From the diversion of floodwaters...

Tracing a bean

The Homestead Greenhouse

Garden Seeds — A Great Winter Pastime

You Can Make Your Own Fertilizers

Americana and History

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

By Marlene Parkin Issue #22 • July/August, 1993 Many of the quilts of yesterday took a lifetime to make. Perhaps the mystical part of quiltsthe aspect...

Fried chicken for breakfast

The vanishing outhouse

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 4 — Cunning, vindictive, and...

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

Food and recipes

Here are some cucumber pickles to make at home

Eggplant salad

Wonderful wilderness wines

Food security 101: part 2 — Convenience mixes make life easier

Self-reliance

Homeschooling through high school

Water development for the homestead: Ponds, cisterns, and tanks

How to make money from storage building auctions

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

Energy

Dim bulbs in California

Prepper power! Part 1

Converting a Gasoline-Powered Rototiller to Electric

A solar primer — How it works, how it’s made, what it costs

Guns and Hunting

Use the right ammunition!

By Massad Ayoob Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 The purpose of the gun is to fire ammunition. It follows that the ammunition should be the correct...

The Appleseed Project

Firearms handling refresher Part I: Handguns

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

The subtleties of safe firearms handling

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...