Home - Backwoods Home Magazine

Mosquitoes outnumber us and no one likes them

Build a chicken feeder on the cheep cheep cheep

Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting

Practical Ideas for Self-Reliant Living

Boost your immune system with fast and easy fish dishes

By Linda Gabris When I was growing up in the rural woods, Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing from spring through fall so...

Grow some winter squash this year

Vitamins D and K — way more important than you thought

Jackie’s Garden Primer

By Jackie Clay Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 The birds are singing. The sunshine makes the day feel soft and warm. The soil is mellow and...

Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden

Start a Self-Sufficiency Garden Even in a Cramped Apartment

Follow Jackie Clay-Atkinson and her husband, Will, as they homestead a 120-acre piece of northern Minnesotan woods entirely off-grid. Sharing their homestead are horses, beef cattle, a milk cow, dairy goats, chickens and turkeys.

Massad Ayoob on Guns

This blog, from a retired police captain and self-defense instructor, covers the use of different firearms, political musings, and self-defense tactics.

Building

Save Time and Energy with the Fenced Chicken Coop/Garden

Easy awnings

Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans

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

Self-Reliance

Hypothermia — A real winter danger

Small camp security

By Gary Lewis Issue #148 • July/August, 2014 It might be a sleeping bag in a lean-to with a small warming fire at the entrance. It...

Growing and Using Bamboo on the Homestead

By Jereme Zimmerman  Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 Bamboo: The very word evokes an image of...

Animals

The homestead cat

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson We have had at least one cat in our home ever since I was a young child. So it’s no wonder we...

Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs

Raising your own beef

Fermenting Chicken Feed

Keeping homestead animals healthy

Science and Education

The coming ice age

Gee-Whiz: Sleep

Gee-Whiz: Time

Gee-Whiz: Trees

Energy

Solar power for farm and ranch

By Jeffrey R. Yago, P.E. It may be surprising to learn that there are now all kinds of do-it-yourself solar powered devices specifically designed to...

Power-up bag

Amateur Ham Radio – The Ultimate Tool for Survival Communications

Keep the Ice On

Power Up

Americana and History

Quilts — Masterpieces of the heart and windows into women’s history

Gee-Whiz: Presidents

President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Firearms

Centennial of the All-American .30-06

An economical battery of guns for the backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 Everything's getting more expensive. Food. Gasoline. Guns and ammunition. Not everyone who appreciates the rural lifestyle was "born...

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...

The light at the end of the gun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 Dave writes, "A few weeks ago I had to shoot a skunk in the chicken house, but the...

Preparedness

Frostbite — Don’t flirt with this sneaky danger

What to do when there’s no doctor

Buying the right emergency radio

Build a community assistance recharging station

Wildfires: Before, During, After

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

Articles By Dave Duffy

My View: Call Me Miracle Man!

By Dave Duffy Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes...