Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Americana and History

Declaration of Independence: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States...

Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776 When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political...

James Polk — A model for modern presidents

The barnyard scramble

Farm baseball … with ghost runners!

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

Animals

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

Get to know your spiders

Brooder in a box

A contrary guide to feeding animals

Building

Build a pallet fence

By Clay Sawyer Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 If you have access to various sizes of free pallets, consider this idea for your next fence. Now...

Building and using wattle fences

How to build a good fence for your homestead

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

For large quantity food dehydration try this homemade gem from the...

Energy

Water pumping windmills

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

Make your own biodiesel for 80¢ per gallon

Use solar landscape lights for emergencies

Food and recipes

Canning game meat

The wonderful world of lavender

Crispy onion rings

Wonderful wilderness wines

Politics and Commentary

Getting the state out of marriage

Planning the lives of generations to come

10 traits for better living

What kind of Americans sit on our juries?

Farm and Garden

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...

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

For Extra Production, Try Mound Gardening

Garden Spaces for Small Places

Gardening Tips and Tricks

Guns and Hunting

Thoughts on ammunition

By Massad Ayoob Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 Ammunition is to firearms as gasoline is to automobiles. However, with guns and ammo, the fit isn't quite...

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

Of guns and snakes

The Appleseed Project

Science

How big is the solar system?

By John Silveira Issue #60 • November/December, 1999 In artists' renderings of the solar system we often see the sun represented by a small sphere with...

Gee-Whiz: Alcohol

Gee-Whiz: Bad Fish, Big Fish

The threat of electromagnetic pulse!

Gee-Whiz: Trees

Self-reliance

Preparing for winter

The joys of making soap

Sew a baby quilt in two days… for a lifetime of memories

Couponing, refunding, and stockpiling will make your money stretch

Animals

Switch your family to goat’s milk

By Tanya Kelley Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 If you milk goats, there's no doubt you've heard it"Eww! Goat's milk! Gross!" To be perfectly honest, goat...

A contrary guide to feeding animals

By Beth Greenwood Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 The Purinas, Cargills, and Con-Agras of the world would have you believe that they and they alone have...

This St. Bernard backwoods hero saved old Grandma’s life

Slaughtering and Butchering

Mountain lions — Attacks are still rare, but just in case…

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

Self-Reliance

Homestead helpers

Handy Keychain Mini-Gadgets

Fully Involved

Emergency planning beyond the bug-out bag

Farm and Garden

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, more efficient way to perform chores, especially chores that reoccurred...

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Hügelkultur for the Homestead

By Rose Shelton Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019 Last spring, I finally completed a long-planned homestead project of constructing two hügelkultur beds. What is hügelkultur? It’s basically a method of recycling junk wood to make a...

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