Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the wilderness? Well in 1999, after years of homesteading in Northern Maine, we decided to find out. Our pursuit of a wilderness homesite led us to Northern Saskatchewan where we have established a remote homestead on a lake in the wilds of Canada. Because there are no roads in or out of our location, we are accessible only by float plane and are truly on our own. We fly to town twice a year for supplies. These bi-annual trips to town are our only chance to send and receive mail and see other people. When we are home, we may not see another soul for 6 months at a time.

My husband and I have a small 7 acre farm in Beavercreek, Oregon, where we ride, drive, and farm with our horses. When working horses there can be as many opinions about how to do it correctly as there are people you ask. Here are some of my thoughts about how to apply knowledge of horse dispositions to the driving horse and farming set up based on my experiences working primarily with my three saddle-horse-sized Kiger Mustang mares.

Mounting the main beater on the axle permits building the John Deere Spreader with a box that’s uniformly low from front to rear. This easy loading feature does away with high pitching – the hard part of loading. You can load and spread more loads in a day with less effort. And you don’t have to pitch over the drive wheels in loading the rear of the spreader.

Spring has finally arrived in the northwest. There was one day that the sun came out. The swallows returned and started building nests in the barn. Even the daffodils bloomed. After the coldest spring in memory, we thought that winter had finally receded. But a pall settled down on Small Blessings Farm for our great draft horse, Snip, died.

We have always believed that farming and making art are parallel, even cojoined, human endeavors. What loops around tends to be inclusive. Gazing over Sharon Yates’ cow paintings makes me feel completely at home and at the same time challenged. They come to us as straight as the front shoulder rise of that seated cud-chewing cow. I found out about her and these fine paintings when she wrote me a letter.

An edible tuberous root, much prized in North America, a staple article of food in all the southern states, and also much consumed in the North. The Sweet Potato plant is a trailing vine of the morning-glory family. The branches root at the joints. The edible tubers are borne close together under the crown and unlike the common potato they do not bear definite “eyes.” The varieties differ greatly in length of vine and the “vineless” Sweet Potato has a bushy habit. Good commercial varieties that are well cared for rarely bloom, and even then the flowers may not produce seed. The plant is tender to frost. The species is widely distributed in tropical regions but is supposed to be of American origin.

Logging and forestry activities have always been one of the most dangerous professions. In decades past, when horses were the primary power for logging, they were just as subject to injury and death. There is a reason every logging camp had a butcher shop. It wasn’t just for moose and deer, cattle and pigs. With the return of horses for logging, horses are once again subject to the loss of life and limb due to these activities.

I remember, when I was a boy growing up on the farm, how my younger brother and I looked forward to Christmas Eve, and the arrival of Santa Claus. Each December 24th, after we had done all of our chores out in the barn: fed the calves, put out fresh bedding for all of the animals, and given our ponies their Christmas treats, we’d get cleaned up and ready for bed. Of course, like most kids, we always put out a snack for Santa – a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies, or maybe a glass of milk and a piece of pie. But, in addition to Santa’s snack, we always left some nice, fresh hay out in the front yard for the reindeer, too.

Auctions are a great place to meet your next work partner and equine friend. It is also an opportunity for them to find the new homes that they need. I appreciate the trainers who help make horses the helpful partners that they want to be. Above all I am grateful for the gift of the wonderful horses that have been in my life and thank you Waverly for helping us meet some of them.