Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Shearing, carding, spinning, weaving and creating with Margaret Boos

Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet

Build this sturdy large-capacity food dehydrator

By Charles Sanders Issue #63 • May/June, 2000 Drying of food as a means of preservation has been around for a long time. Populations in suitably...

Building David’s Cabin, Part One

Composite lumber helps outdoor projects resist water, weather, and sun

Build a wood crib with free materials

Here’s a Mighty Creative Way to Protect Your Plants from Animals

By Joy Lamb Issue #39 • May/June, 1996 A huge brown beast stared at me as I drove through our apple orchard toward the house. I...

Build a Heated Germination Bed

Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

The barnyard scramble

By Michelle Hampton Issue #106 • July/August, 2007 Each year during our local county fair, one of the best-attended events happens when farm animals, donated by...

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

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

Old-fashioned hot dog pepper relish

Phantom solar — The crucial invisible system needed before you install solar

Grid-tied, Grid-connected, Off-grid. What’s the difference?

Install a mobile, solar powered toilet

Answering some well asked questions about personal defense

By Massad Ayoob Issue #97 • January/February, 2006 Jeff Yago, Backwoods Home's energy writer, recently completed a couple of concealed carry handgun courses. The classes apparently...

The light at the end of the gun

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

How to shoot a handgun accurately

Firearms handling refresher Part III: Rifles

Gee-Whiz: Time

By O.E. MacDougal July/August 2016, Backwoods Home Time. We can’t see, feel, hear, smell, or taste it, but we can measure it and we break it...

Subduction zone tsunami — What the residents of the Pacific Northwest...

Can we make a Tyrannosaurus rex from a chicken?

How America can be saved from stupid people

Biological & chemical terrorism

Forget the dog, chicken is man’s best friend

By Richard Blunt Issue #49 • January/February, 1998 The domestic chicken, or Gallus domesticus as the Romans called it, has lived with humans for centuries. It...

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...

Raising your own beef for your family

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Homestead burnout — What it is and how to avoid it

Grandma will love this personal ‘Helping Hands’ wall hanging

The adventures of a first-time homesteader

Your Manure Pile — For Fuel, Fertilizer, and Maybe Even Improved Water Quality, You...

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 It's been well over a decade now since I first heard my friend Pete voice his amazement at my practice of spreading animal manure as a fertilizer....

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #147 • May/June, 2014 A new electric fence attached to older traditional wood fencing More and more people are turning to electric fences as the cost of standard metal and wood...