Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Animals

Get to know your spiders

Dorper sheep — Revolutionizing the meat sheep industry

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Khaki Campbell ducks — The other egg layer

Building

Install rafters alone the easy way

By Robert L. Williams Issue #35 • September/October, 1995 Anyone who has ever worked on roof framing knows that nailing up rafters is a two-man job...

Build a homestead Copy Cart

Yurt Magic — Building an Enchanting Instant House

How to maintain a dirt road

Determined woman builds distinctive vertical log studio

Farm and Garden

Build a Heated Germination Bed

By Charles Sanders Issue #92 • March/April, 2005 Many of us who garden have learned the benefits of starting our own vegetable and flower plants. There...

Prevent Foodborne Illness with Safe Gardening Methods

Gardening in the Desert Using Only Rainwater

Hügelkultur for the Homestead

A New Use for Old Tires: A Garden Using Tires

Americana and History

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

By the President of the United States of America: A PROCLAMATIONWhereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the...

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

Remembering what grandma used

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Catfish Biscuits

Food and recipes

Pecan twerps

Fried Foods

Baked Spaghetti

Moroccan mint tea

Self-reliance

The coffee mug knife sharpener

Handy Keychain Mini-Gadgets

Teaching the joy of reading

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

Energy

Solar power trailer Part 1

Water: a safe supply when you’re off the grid

7 Solar Water Heating System Designs

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

Guns and Hunting

Reload your own brass

By Dale Petry Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 Not long ago a friend called to say he had seen an unusual rifle at the local gun...

Teaching a 10-year-old to shoot

Firearms — Tools of rural living

Firearms and cold weather considerations

Use the right ammunition!

Science

Gee-Whiz: Ice Ages, Past and Future

By O. E. MacDougal January/February 2016, Backwoods Home Most people don’t know that we’re currently in an ice age and have been for the last 2.58...

The ‘risks’ with Swine Flu

Gee-Whiz: Coffee

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

The coming ice age

Politics and Commentary

Why I Hated Santa Claus

We don’t need no steenking 2nd Amendment

Turn the poor into capitalists

Lessons for My Children, Chapter 2: Statistics, history, and the rise of the Underground Economy

Animals

Beekeeping basics

Issue #88 • July/August, 2004 Bees have been managed for their honey production for about 5000 years or so. Especially for the...

Raising rabbits for profit

By Carrie Peterson Issue #106 • July/August, 2007 Whether or not you are fond of rabbit stew, raising rabbits for meat can be a great experience...

Llamas guarding sheep? — Not such a far-fetched idea

Slaughtering and Butchering

How to buy your first sheep without getting shorn

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

Self-Reliance

For health & comfort, try wild herbal teas

The art of living in small spaces

Swedish log candle

Lessons learned from an ice storm

Farm and Garden

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 of those flimsy, store bought cotton things for us. Our...

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Build Your Own Hoop House

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #171 • May/June, 2018 I’ve had my own garden for more than half a century, and I have learned a few things after all these years. One of the most valuable things...

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