Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Raising quail — A home grown delicacy

Kinder goats — A small breed for milk and meat

Are aliens stealing our honeybees?

Simplify life in your backwoods home by using these easy mountain...

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #54 • November/December, 1998 Backwoods folk, or in my case, mountain folk, are typically very resourceful, utilizing whatever is on hand...

Adventures with a portable sawmill

From triumph to tragedy to triumph again. Dorothy Ainsworth makes her...

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

By John Silveira Issue #44 • March/April, 1997 My engineer father was not fond of wasting time or energy. He was always searching for a better,...

A Child’s Garden — More than Child’s Play

Presidents’ wives of the past Part 3

By John Silveira Issue #34 • July/August, 1995 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) Do I...

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

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

An easier way to cut firewood By Larry LaVan

Solar Power 101 — Solar arrays

Add solar power to your truck camper

Solar system codes — Build it right!

Firearms and cold weather considerations

By Massad Ayoob Issue #79 • January/February, 2003 Many of our readers have established their abodes in places which, during the winter months, do not exactly...

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

By O.E. MacDougal January/February 2015, Backwoods Home Fish were the very first vertebrates. That is, they were the first animals with backbones, the purpose of which...

The gee-whiz! page — Cats: Why they rule our world

Dr. Laura tells her listeners she’s decided to pack a gun

Getting rich through generosity

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

Bottle-raise a calf

By Jackie Clay Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 If you think milk and beef are expensive in the grocery store, then you should think about raising...

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

By Jayn Steidl Thibodeau Issue #36 • November/December, 1995 Have you ever had this happen to you? You've opened the refrigerator door for a cold, refreshing...

Finding the best dog for the country life

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Raising cattle on your own place

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

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

A view of self-reliance from a more timid perspective — A woman’s opinion

Plant Once Harvest for Years

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 Year after year we start seeds, till the ground, plant, weed, harvest, then tear it all out at the end of the season. It's a lot of work,...

By Wren Everett The beans came to me as an accident. In the early spring of 2023, I was scouring The Exchange (exchange.seedsavers.org/home) — an online seed-savers trading post of sorts — looking for squash seeds....