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Popular articles from our last issue
Solar-powered chicken coop By Jeff Yago
I am sure many of you have raised large flocks of chickens for years as a normal part of rural life. However, many suppliers of baby chicks today have reported their spring sales have doubled every year for the past five years, and the majority of these increased sales are going to urban homeowners who have never raised chickens before.
Distributors of chicken supplies and feeds are also reporting a significant increase in requests for training and educational materials related to raising chickens. Part of this recent interest appears to be associated with the increased demand for natural foods with no pesticides or hormone additives, while others just want to leave the city and live a simpler life.
Build a holz hausen to dry firewood By Doug Fluckiger
I have a confession to make: I'm in love.
My secret passion is tall, dark, and handsome. I may find her lying luxuriantly among a dark grove of firs. She may be standing proudly on a sunny mountainside with flowers at her feet, waiting for me to arrive for a secret rendezvous in the woods just me, a dead tree, and my chain saw.
Yup, I love firewood.
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Popular articles from past issues
Canning 101: pickles, fruits, jams, jellies, etc. By Jackie Clay
For some reason, (definitely unknown to me) canning, as a method of very long term food storage, fell into disuse. Maybe its the hurry/rush syndrome many folks have become addicted to, necessitating instant foods, microwave ovens, and mixes for everything from pancakes to casseroles. But for people of a self-reliant inclinationraising a good portion of their own wholesome, chemical-free food and establishing a storage method that is easy and results in tasty food, even years down the roadhome canning is the way to go.
Build your own solar-powered water pumping station By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
I recently designed a solar-powered pumping system for a local farmer wanting to pump water from a lake up to a watering trough for cattle in a distant fenced field.
These solar applications made economic sense because the location was too remote to run a long power line. A solar-powered water system is one of the easiest solar power systems to install, since you will not need a battery or battery charging equipment. When the sun is shining, the system is pumping, when the sun is not shining, the system is offsimple.
Homemade electric power By Jim Van Sant
Ever wonder how you could live off the grid when the sun isn't shining on your solar panels?
If you are into 12 VDC (volts direct current) for charging your car battery or powering up your off-the-grid alternative energy system you need a 12-volt DC generator.
As a homesteader having no special training, licenses, or badges, I wanted an inexpensive solution for electricity that does not require any special skills or tools
Drive your own freshwater well By Len McDougall
There are several methods of getting a well point down to the water table, but the one most used by people in remote places today is the driving method, in which the point is driven downward like a nail...
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Read Hardyville
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From the BHM Library
Farm/Garden
The $1 garden
By Jonathan Nunan
The dollar garden is simple in concept: buy as many seeds as you can for one dollar and harvest as much food as possible from the plants you grow. You see, sometime last year my mother, Susan, read something somewhere that claimed a tomato cost some incredible amount to grow on your own. Momwhose plan to build a house out of firewood worked out just finemade it her mission to grow as much as she could on as small a budget possible.
Website Exclusive
Build a hybrid go-kart for kids for $150
By Dorothy Ainsworth
When his grandson turned 5 he decided to build him a go-kart in the low-budget Ainsworth tradition. But not just any old go-kart-----a HYBRID Go-Kart! Gene would go Green' just for the challenge of it. He also wanted the project to be a learning experience for the little guy so he could see how an engine works, and how the linkage is hooked up to drive the wheels. He wanted the parts visible (moving or not) to give inquisitive kids something to ask questions about.
Website Exclusive
Savage Model 110 - A proven economical backwoods rifle
By Massad Ayoob
Fifty years ago, Savage Arms introduced a new bolt-action sporting rifle. In the gun world, this was news. Savage was most famous for its sleek lever action Model 99, named for the year of its introduction at the end of the 19th century. The firm had produced a few bolt actions, but they tended to be undistinguished in styling and performance, and were seen as poor mans hunting rifles.
The new rifle, dubbed the Model 110, was different. It was...
Energy
Is steam power in your future?
By Skip Goebel
If youre thinking steam is old-fashioned, consider this: Almost a century ago, steam cars and ships attained speeds and efficiencies which are still difficult to attain, even with todays modern internal combustion engines.
Self Reliance
Buying a used mobile home
By Daniel Motz
One of the quickest, easiest, and cheapest ways to get your country home is to consider a used mobile home. Sometimes you can even find these homes free by looking in a local newspaper. But like anything else, cheaper and easier isnt always better.
Small Town America
Thorne Bay, Alaska
By Jon Stram
Let me just give you an idea of some of the advantages of life on Prince of Wales Island, especially in Thorne Bay. First off, Alaska has no state income tax, no state property tax, and no state sales tax. Thats right. None. Vehicle registration fees will be under $100 per year for the average vehicle. To make the situation even better, Alaska has a unique thing called the Permanent Fund Dividend, where the state actually pays each individual in each family who lives there, just to live there.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling through high school
By Janet Leake
Whether youre experienced or inexperienced, whatever your situation, you already know why you want to homeschool your kids through high school. Now, what about how?
Making/Saving Money
Kick the credit card habit and learn to stash cash
By Claire Wolfe
Im not here to tell you The Secret of a Perfect Life Savings Plan....But I have found ways to make saving small, targeted amounts a pleasure. Ways that can make it sort of a game. Ways that yield enough little rewards to keep me enthusiastically stashing cash away for special needs. Because of that, Ive been able to pay my property taxes without a twice-a-year pinch. When the plumbing broke, I didnt blink. And when I needed a new DVD player I could buy one right now, today, without approaching the borders of credit purgatory.
Food/Recipes
Traditional trail foods transportable calories
By Brad Rohdenburg
If you have a need for trail foodstorable, transportable, convenient, affordable and palatable caloriesmaybe we can learn something from the old ways.
Energy
For a truly independent energy system, your choices are solar, wind, and water
By Larry Elliot
Anyone who is seriously considering a move to the country should become informed about energy and its proper use and production, the same as one would learn about raising livestock, growing a crop, or making a living.
Making/Saving Money
Free pallet wood and birdhouses add up to big country dollars
By Rick Brentlinger
If I could show you how to manufacture a product anywhere in the country and if I offered to find you the raw materials free, would you be interested? If so, here is a business plan that works.
Self Reliance
Tips for finding your affordable home
By Dave Cournoyer
If you haven't yet made the move to the country, here is helpful information about the cost and availability of land in the U.S.
Animals
Tastes Just Like Chicken
By Allen Easterly
So you want to raise some critters that taste just like chicken? Theres no better critter than the chicken itself. Chicken has become the most sought after meat in the marketplace. Raising your own birds can save you a few bucks at the grocery store. Even more satisfying is the great sense of accomplishment that comes with raising your own food from egg to dinner table and providing this healthy meal to your family.
Energy
I heat my house by burning corn
By Judith W. Monroe
In the past ten years, there has been a revival of a heating method so obviously efficient that it is remarkable how few people know of it: using corn for fuel. A corn stove does not burn stalks or left-over cobs. It burns kernels, less than a handful at a time.
Making/Saving Money
Nursing — a perfect backwoods career
By John Mclane, RN
For many of us, a job in the traditional economy is crucial to being able to maintain our chosen lifestyle. Others who are pondering a move out of the cities are hampered by economic concerns. Yet a rural lifestyle should be about practicality, flexibility, and pleasure taken in the work we choose. When approached properly, a nursing career can provide all of this and more.
Commentary
Is peak oil the new end-of-the-world?
By John Silveira
Peak oil is becoming the latest doomsday buzzword. What is it? Its a well-thought-out theory that predicts that the rate at which we find and recover oil is soon going to fall behind the rate at which we consume it. The point at which that happens is the peak. Prior to this peak, prices will have been relatively stable and reasonable, and the economies of the world have grown because the supply of energy outpaced the demand. But there is coming a time, and some say its here now, when the worlds oil fields cannot produce as fast as we consume. Demand will exceed supply, oil prices are going to skyrocket, and the worlds economies are going to begin to fail as the oil fields themselves fail...
...Its all very neat, but that doesnt mean its accurate.
Building/Tools
Stairs: the next level
By Skip Thomsen
A staircase can be so visually inviting that it beckons one to try it outto see where it leads.
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Self-reliance
You can become a hardcore forager
By Larry Cywin
Becoming a hardcore forager is not difficult, but it does take some time to learn the basics. This article will get you started.
Animals
Raising quail
By Allen Easterly
Raising quail is inexpensive, easy, provides very healthy low-fat white meat, and supplies the fertilizer you need for your home garden.
Self-reliance
Getting logs
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Attention: Would-be loggers. There have been changes in policy at the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. You can no longer go into a ranger station and simply get a permit to cut your own logs in a given area. Now you have to go through a "process".
Energy
A small creek provides plenty of power for this off-grid home
By Scott Gentleman
For eight years, Tracey and I lived in a solar powered home and for eight cloudy winters, we ran a small Honda generator every week to recharge our batteries. We understood that the original owner of our home had operated a small hydro system from the property's year round creek but we never investigated this option because the creek ran through dense forest. Besides, we could just tell there wasn't sufficient drop over its course.
We finally decided to use Backwoods Solar's Site Level just to confirm hydro didn't make sense. Much to our surprise...
Food/Recipes
7 Mistakes of food storage
By Vicki Tate
If you are going to store food, make sure that the food you store is adequate for the need you and your family anticipate. This may not be as easy as to achieve as many people think, because the facts are that most people make serious errors when storing fooderrors that will come back to haunt them when the food theyve stored is the only thing that stands between them and their empty, dissatisfied, bellies.
There are seven common mistakes people make when storing food. They are...
Firearms/Hunting/Self Defense
Armed and Female
By Massad Ayoob
I remember one of my first female students. She was in her sixties, an accomplished academician and author with strong roots in what was then called womens liberation. She had considered the gun to be a hideous side effect of testosterone poisoning. Then, she was assaulted by armed criminals and nearly died. It occurred to me, she told me later, that I had neglected one element of my empowerment.
Animals
How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less
By Dr. Roger W. Grim, D.C.
Learn a quick and easy method of butchering that's been passed down for generations.
Building/Tools
Parge the ugly out of your concrete wall
By Bill Leonard
Learn how to cover ugly cement blocks so they will have a more aesthetically pleasing look.
Farm/Garden
You can make your own fertilizers
By Christopher and Dolores Lynn Nyerges
There are many low-cost methods for making your own fertilizer.
Animals
How to buy your first sheep (without getting shorn)
By Anita Evangelista
Sheep are one of the ideal small homestead animals: they can return quality meat and fiber on an annual basis for very little cash input.
Making/Saving Money
Get out of debt stay out of debt
By Darlene Campbell
If you are in debt now, you should be working to clear all indebtedness during the next year. We did it, and you can, too.
Building/Tools
Trusses — low-cost marvels to roof over most large spaces
By Martin Harris
Wood trusses may be the engineering innovation that comes along only once in every few thousand years, but they still have their drawbacks and cautions. Heres a brief review about whats good, and whats not so good, about wood trusses.
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