Mother Earth News, Grit and other homesteading magazine and periodicals

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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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Do you have a collection of homesteading magazines? Mother Earth News? Grit? I know there are more, but I can't think what they are now.

I used to buy Mother Earth News religiously years ago, but haven't even really seen them much anymore. I have some of the first Mother Earth New magazines.

I could have a subscription, but I haven't subscribed. The magazine is not inexpensive. I really quit buying magazines a couple decades ago because many seem like frivolous waste even though I didn't buy many.

Viking mentioned that he saw an article in Mother Earth News about wood gasifiers. I need to go through my homesteading magazines and look at them now to see what articles I need to review and to see if I can find them online now.

What about you?
 
countryside and small stock journal magazine when it was owned by j.d.belinger(SP?) was the most awesome mag around and filled with subscribers stories.
 
the guy that started mother earth news after selling it or going bankrupt whatever the deal was and it was out of his control started a magazine. i forget the name but it was printed on simple paper and wasnt slick. i have several copies of that one. it take deep diggin to find name.
 
I’ve gotten some, but I seldom keep a magazine- not never but seldom. I’ve kept an occasional article that is rare or of particular interest but those are few also. My aunt subscribes me to a magazine each year for Christmas and it’s been Countryside for some time. I glance through them but it’s kinda samo samo. I asked if this year I could switch and should be getting Early American Life. At least it will be a change.
I do like finding old magazines in thrift shops. They actually had quality information in some of them. New magazines seem shallow and promote low quality “stuff.”
 
i am a packrat...when the apocalypse happens i have years worth of magazine in these nice half box container things that sit on book shelf holding about 6 mags per box.

elkhound only needs a room to live in and rest a warehouse....lol
 
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elkhound said:
i am a packrat...when the apocalypse happens i have years worth of magazine in these nice half box container things that sit on book shelf holding about 6 mags per box.

elkhound only needs a room to live in and rest a warehouse....lol
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I like having resources to help me know how to do things. I have a set of encyclopedias that I got somewhere for free that are about all kinds of crafting and making stuff. They are on a bottom shelf with a desk in front of it, so I don't have easy access. I need a building for my making tools (loom, spinning wheels, wood working tools, sewing, crafting, genealogy, paper crafting...) and another one for my library!
 
Mother earth news in the 70's ......I even built a dome home.
I collect the magazines that have real info in them like the backwoods home and the other one they publish out in oregon. Some I don't even read thouroly but the nuggets of info could really help if/when the internet goes down.. I also grab the odd popular mechanics magazines from the late 40's early 50's when I can find them......back when peope didn't have a lot of money to spend and considered it a source of pride to make usable things.
 
It seems Mother Earth News at a point started recycling articles.. I know people who wrote and had articles published by them only to see them published again.. Like said, I think things changed hands and MEN changed drastically....

Back Wood Home people retired, sold, what ever and it changed names and went to a quarterly publication.. Not near as good as I recall..

The one I miss is a DIY type of farm inventions, product reviews and the like publication... Spacing the name of it..
 
My family bought a life subscription to Mother Earth when it first came out and it was great for the whole family. Organic Gardening was good too. Backwoods Home was good, but with the next generation taking over, it seems to just rehash old articles and comes out half as often. I asked the library to order it, then after a year told them to save the money and not renew. But, I follow Jackie Clay’s blog online from that.
 
Weedygarden said:
Backwoods Home! I have seen some great articles in this magazine, but I think it isn't in business anymore.
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It's still around , they started back up a couple years ago. as a quarterly Mag.

Others I read free from library
 
Magus said:
Lookie here...
https://archive.org/details/americansurvivalguide
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There is a separate index that a person can buy. If there was someone, and I'm sure there is someone out there who has every issue of Mother Earth News, an index would be incredibly helpful for the hard copies.

I have a friend who knits, makes quilts and all kind of things from fibers. She has a degree in fiber arts and has a closet full of quilts that she has made. She had a subscription to a fiber art magazine. She kept an index box of cards for all the projects that came out in each issue. At one point in time she submitted it to the company to be published. I don't know how successful that was for her.

Another alternative would be for the various homesteading magazines to take the articles about each type of project and to publish them into one book, such as gardening, chickens, alternative energy, building, etc.
 
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I have Mother Earth News, some of the old ones & been to the Arce test farm, before it was sold to a company n New York City.
I have some Grit & get their email articles, some Organic Garden magazine from the 1960's.
Four or five different woodworking magazines, one year of Vegetarian Times from the 1980's.
Had a few High times & Easyrider too, but they disappeared after I got married.
Also a lot of books, more than I can carry at one time.
 
We subscribed to Backwoods Home for several decades. When Dave Duffy gave control to his kids, and they made a bunch of changes including firing some of the good old timers and going digital only we quit.
When they re-started the print edition as a quarterly, I tried one subscription but then just let it lapse.
I took about 25 years worth to the dump.

One mag that I think would appeal to homesteaders is the Backwoodsman. It is written by its readers, there's no fluff pieces, no BS. It was bi-monthly, but in order not to compromise its integrity and "sell out" it is now quarterly.
It is for lovers of the old time ways of our grand parents and great grand parents.
I've been a subscriber since 1991 and have kept all the back issues.
Here's a teaser from the website
https://backwoodsmanmag.com
 
rice paddy daddy said:
We subscribed to Backwoods Home for several decades. When Dave Duffy gave control to his kids, and they made a bunch of changes including firing some of the good old timers and going digital only we quit.
When they re-started the print edition as a quarterly, I tried one subscription but then just let it lapse.
I took about 25 years worth to the dump.

One mag that I think would appeal to homesteaders is the Backwoodsman. It is written by its readers, there's no fluff pieces, no BS. It was bi-monthly, but in order not to compromise its integrity and "sell out" it is now quarterly.
It is for lovers of the old time ways of our grand parents and great grand parents.
I've been a subscriber since 1991 and have kept all the back issues.
Here's a teaser from the website
https://backwoodsmanmag.com
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RPD, you threw away some money besides throwing away good stuff. I recently sold my old ones (after I couldn’t give them away) and got $30 for each year. I copied what I awaited or thought might come in handy. There are still others who can use those great old sources.
eBay. It’s worth the time.
 
Tootsie said:
RPD, you threw away some money besides throwing away good stuff. I recently sold my old ones (after I couldn’t give them away) and got $30 for each year. I copied what I awaited or thought might come in handy. There are still others who can use those great old sources.
eBay. It’s worth the time.
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Yes, I believe a person could sell them on Ebay or maybe Etsy or Craigslist. At certain points in time, I wished I had the complete collection of Mother Earth News. I have thought about selling the ones I have. As I am going through my stuff and cleaning and purging, I will pull out the boxes of them and see what I have and try to decide what to do with them.
 
Weedygarden said:
Yes, I believe a person could sell them on Ebay or maybe Etsy or Craigslist. At certain points in time, I wished I had the complete collection of Mother Earth News. I have thought about selling the ones I have. As I am going through my stuff and cleaning and purging, I will pull out the boxes of them and see what I have and try to decide what to do with them.
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Two reasons, I guess.
1. Then I would have to deal with strangers
2. I have actually looked at Graigslist, but have no idea what the others are. And don’t really need to know.

I also got rid of six or eight copy paper boxes (the double size) full of Hot Rod, Car Craft, Super Chevy, Street Rod, and the like.
Plus all gun magazines except American Handgunner and Guns.

Probably thousands of dollars at newsstand prices.
 
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