Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Where our farm animals come from

Finding, buying, milking, and living with the family milk cow

Building a Ferro-Cement Shed

By Robert Van Putten Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 For a year and a half, we lived in an 18-foot travel trailer while building a straw...

PVC pipe in the home, garden, farm, and workshop

An Introduction to Small-Scale Home Hydroponics

By Ben Richards Issue #154 • July/August, 2015 As most people are already aware, hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil. This is done...

Leafy Green Vegetables — The Underrated Heroes of the Garden

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Friends and Fellow Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United States, being not...

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

Was the first government gun confiscation attempt foiled by an unsung...

Emancipation Proclamation by Historical Document

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

For a truly independent energy system, your choices are solar, wind, and water

Build a simple solar-powered outdoor light

Design calculations for overshot waterwheels

Build a passive-solar food dehydrator

Firearms handling refresher Part I: Handguns

By Massad Ayoob Website Exclusive • December, 2003 One of our readers e-mailed John Silveira to tell him that taking a handgun afield after a long...

Firearms — Tools of rural living

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

By O.E. MacDougal November/December 2016, Backwoods Home I could spend all day coming up with interesting trivia about the Presidents and those who surround them —...

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

The unheralded roots of America’s freedoms

My View: Three Cheers for Free Enterprise

Can America be Saved from Stupid People?

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

By Charles Sanders Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat. Hogs are raised throughout our neighboring Amish community for...

Keeping homestead animals healthy

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #169 • January/February, 2018 As a veterinary field technician for more than 20 years, I saw firsthand the frustration and heartbreak when...

How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less

Get the most out of your vehicle and your maintenance dollar

Funerals don’t have to be expensive

How to become a backyard beekeeper

By Sheri Jones If you’ve been intrigued by the idea of becoming a beekeeper but think you don’t have the space, resources, or knowledge, you’re about to be pleasantly surprised. Backyard beekeeping is a lot...

Gardening with a Chicken Tractor

By Brianna Stone  Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 This spring, my parents let me enlarge my garlic business and till up three 600-square-foot beds for planting...