BackWood Basics

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From canoes to products for growing your own food, we offer simple, inexpensive designs that promote a sustainable lifestyle.

The first book in our series, "Making a Ripple" details the construction of a simple but attractive planked canoe and trailer for pulling it behind a bicycle. Next int he series is a book showing how to build several products for easily growings much of your own food.

27/02/2026

Back a few months ago my book "Food, Africa, and the Pursuit of Contentedness" was reviewed by Peace Corps Worldwide. I was pleasantly surprised today to receive an email from our Peace Corps friends saying that a review had been posted on the Peace Corps Worldwide Publishing website.
Published in 2021, this book is a series of essays based mainly on my (and Peg's) Peace Corps experiences in the 1980s, and how those experiences affected our lives here in the States. I guess the next step is to await movie offers.

A service that inspired a lifetime of advocacy

10/02/2026

About 4 years ago I created a plywood strip version of my original planked Ripple canoe design. After building it, during a 4am meeting with myself, I discussed the idea that there may be a more straightforward way to apply the strips. To test this idea, I had to build another plywood strip canoe. The result was a canoe I took to calling "Ripple II". So, of course I had to write about how to build it.
The manuscript had been lying dormant in my external hard drive since before we moved from Bemidji to Duluth. Until now, I questioned whether it would ever be finished. Well, for better or worse, it has, and it feels pretty darn good to say that!

Most canoes are built either using cedar strips, meticulously laid over hundreds of hours, or the more straightforward stitch and tape method using plywood panels. One method rewards the builder with a canoe akin to a piece of fine furniture. The other a hard angled craft that is functional but l...

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(218) 556-1594

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http://www.backwoodbasics.com/

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