When I was very young, running around the desert with my fringed vest, boots, cowgirl hat and Annie Oakley pop-gun, I longed for a horse like a lot of children do {it just seems natural}. My horse would be a beautiful white noble stead with a long flowing golden mane and tail! Well, there were a lot of other things that needed to come first before I would be able to own a horse. Years went by and I would ride and admire other horses owned by friends or neighbors and visit any horse barns I could, enjoying the smells of hay, brushing and saddling the horses and performing other skills that go with horsemanship. More years went by and life was very full with family, my own dear children, homeschooling and learning the skills of homesteading. My daughters were growing and we had moved to an old Amish homestead that had one of the most amazing 150 year old log barns we had ever seen. It was one that Eric Sloan would have drawn and written about and admired! Perfect for a horse {or 2, or 3 or more}! With more pasture land, this big barn and a new country lifestyle, a horse {of course!} was the next logical addition! So we put the word out, we were looking for a good, well trained family work horse.
   Mable was a very kind soul who still lived at home with her family {a few miles away from us} and she served her family and served different folks in the community who might need her help. We were happy to meet her. One day she asked the girls {Cecilia and Hannah- they were about 5 and 6 at that time} if they would like to see her horse, Cascade. And of course the girls were elated to get to see this horse! To them, Cascade was a giant! She was about 15 ½ hands high, a Standard Bred beauty, chestnut in color, in great health and form, and was only about 12-14 years in age. The girls were in awe as they enjoyed rubbing their little hands over this magnificent creature. Mable took good care of her and liked to hitch her up for a buggy ride or to use her for making rounds and doing errands in the community. And Cascade always seemed eager to go and trot down the dirt roads where there were other horses to see. We all noticed what a good horse Cascade was and how well she worked with children. One day Mable asked if we would like to keep Cascade and use her for awhile. Wow, we’re we excited- of course we would love to take care of her and use her!  It was on a beautiful warm sunny day when Mable drove up into our lane with Cascade pulling the little one-seated horse cart. Here at our farm, Cascade would have plenty of pasture, the Old Barn would once again have great purpose in housing Cascade and keeping sweet smelling hay in the great loft and, of course, 3 young children who would just love her and who would take good care of her. I was so grateful, it was a dream come true! Okay, she wasn’t the white noble stead with a long golden flowing mane and tail, but she was still a fine horse {even though I had quite a time getting up on this tall mare} and I did enjoy riding so much! We learned how to harness and hitch her up to the cart and enjoyed using her to get milk and to go visiting in the valley with friends. We also took turns riding her. She was an excellent riding horse, Cecilia and Hannah could both ride her at the same time. They had so much fun cantering around the farm and they even learned how to jump Cascade over old fallen logs which she preformed with graceful skill and agility. Then one day, Mable asked me if I wanted to buy Cascade. She was moving to a different home that wouldn’t have enough pasture for the horse. We didn’t have to consider it long before we knew this must be the horse that God had provided for us. At this time we had been keeping Cascade for about 1 year already and in the year we had gotten to know her quite well. She was gentle and very reliable with children and she was traffic safe, although we kept her to our small country dirt road that consisted mostly of other horse drawn vehicles and some cars. Along with Cascade when we bought her, we got a saddle and bridle, a small one seat, two-wheeled cart and a buggy harness. Cascade was so useful and versatile! When riding her, we found that she had a wonderful saddle gait that was smooth as glass and I loved it! The girls have so many fond memories and stories of riding and playing with Cascade. When friends would come over, they would take turns riding Cascade pretending they were scouts riding for the Confederate army! At one time in her life {before Mable or we owned her}, Cascade had been trained and prepped for a race horse. She could run very fast. When the girls were a lot older they would race her with other horses and even trucks! Cascade was always ready to race and she loved it. She could be so gentle and seemed even thoughtful at times, like if the girls ever fell off of her, she would always stop right away so that she would not step on them. One time Hannah flew right over Cascade’s head, slid down her neck and landed on the ground with a thud. Cascade immediately stopped, and waited until Hannah got up and jumped on her back again and off they rode. This horse was such a blessing to our family. Growing much of our food meant we would need to keep our large garden cultivated from the weeds.     Cascade pulled the walk behind cultivator just fine! Saving us lots of money we would have other wise spent on gas and the cost of a tractor or tiller. Our dear horse also hauled great loads of straw and dirt for our garden in the little cart. We would take out the seat, load ‘er up and Cascade would pull it over to the garden for us. I called her my “garden buddy”. Cascade had very important responsibilities for our family- she carried us for miles for many years! She was healthy as a horse and only got sick 2 or 3 times in all the years that she was with us.
      Over the years as Cascade got older she worked less for us and spent a lot more time in the pasture {with our other riding horses that we had gotten over time}.  We did use her to cultivate in the garden right up to 2 years ago and we were so grateful she took care of our garden for almost 15 years! Even in her older age we could  ride her here and there and she was still rearing to go! 
  She lived a very productive and full happy life till she was up in her thirties, which is a good ’ole age for a horse. The day she died, we all had a hard time. I never thought I would cry about a horse dying, but my tears flowed like Niagra! Then it struck me when thinking of wonderful memories of her and our family, how thankful to God I was for the time she was here with us {17 years} and for giving so much joy to our family in her service that God blessed us with. We will miss Cascade so much and I’m sure there can’t be another horse like her, but our garden will need to be cultivated this summer, there’s an empty buggy needing to be pulled {especially with gas prices soaring} and we could always find time to go riding-
        so we put the word out, we’re looking for another family work horse…

Here are some pictures from a few springs back, Mama in the greenhouse

Hannah driving the team during spring plowing

Chickens are always hungry

A busy farm kitchen at high noon

Picking and grinning with friends under the maple tree

Washing hair in the creek, talk about running water!

Early crop planting- cabbage and brocoli.

We love our good ole' wringer washer!

What better way to end your day than with a farm fresh meal and a family prayer of thanks.

These pictures were taken by John Partipillo, thanks John!

Purple violets, the first sign of "green up"

Bloodroot, a good herb growing right out the back door,

at the base of a maple tree,

on the side of a hill.

Butterflies love our garden this time of year!

Watercress, high in vitamin  C and grows wildly in the creeks and springs.

Watercress sandwiches anyone?

In the recent past we have been frequently asked the question, “how do you actually live without electricity?” In response to those who asked and to any of you who may be also wondering, here is our answer.
  We have been off grid for about 17 years now. For 7 of those years we had our water hand pumped {from a spring} on the back porch {summer kitchen} and had an out house too.  We now, with gravity flow spring water, have a wonderful in-house bathroom! Most of the time we use kerosene lamps for light  and of course the natural sunlight in the day. The nearest power lines are about 4 miles away! Our wood cook stove is for heating {our only source for heating} and of course cooking, heating water and more. We have learned that we don’t really need all the gadgets that we are condition to believe we need. Also, that electric meter {like we used to have} is running {charging you money by the second} whether any appliance is being used or not! Big wheels keep on turning! The bill you pay, pays for more that just the energy you use. Think about it- better yet do research on it! We prefer alternative energy- water, wind, solar etc.,but we don’t have or use allthese sources. We learned at first that a good wood cook stove, gravity flow water, and a few oil lamps will get you going. We do juice a lot and use a vita mix. These do take power- in the last few years we attained 3 small solar panels and a few batteries to run these useful tools. We also have a generator that we use only at certain times if we need to. It’s nice, but we are not dependent on it, good thing with the price of fuel these days! We sew totally on foot powered, treadle sewing machines. We wash our dishes by hand and we have a James Washer to wash clothes that we use in nice weather {you can find these in Lehman’s Catalog}. We do use a wonderful old wringer washer {a Speed Queen} let me tell you, those machines were made to last, folks! We use it when it is very cold, it’s powered by our generator for now, but we are looking forward to adding a few batteries to our little solar system and getting our wringer washer going without using gas! We grind our wheat with a Country Living hand-cranked grain mill. We had a neighbor attach it to an old exercise bike so now we can all take turns peddling our grain mill! It works great and you can get great exercise! Before you know it you have beautiful, fresh ground whole wheat flour ready to bake with! For the few things that we do freeze, we rent a freezer space about 4 miles down the road at a neighbors house {where they have electricity hook up}. But we mostly can and dry our store of food and of course harvest fresh right out of the garden in season. We love to work and make things with our hands and use our heads when we go about using energy. We are for tools of all kinds, and we are learning to be good stewards of what resources we have been blessed with! Hope this had been helpful to y’all!
                                                           Vicki at Homestead Blessings