Editorial, The Draft Horse Journal, Summer 1989
So here is what I think we ought to do…while we are thinking about all these things. I think we should all plant some trees. It will help a little bit. —Maury Telleen
No, I don’t spend hot summer afternoons perusing old issues of The Draft Horse Journal; I had never heard of the magazine until I happened upon this quote from Iowa farmer, homesteader, editor, and “land steward,” Maury Telleen, so named by Virginia writer and farmer Donald McCaig in his 1992 memoir, “An American Homeplace.”
In 1971, McCaig and his wife, Anne, left New York City and moved to rural Highland County in Virginia where they purchased a run-down, 250-year-old sheep farm that lacked running water, indoor plumbing, and central heat. The McCaigs set out to become homesteaders and soon discovered that it was not the life for the fainthearted.
The McCaigs continued to farm, but after a disastrous year in the late 1980s, they considered selling out. McCaig visited sever...