Friday 2June23

[allen levine]

I know my great grandparents owned the last deeded farm in nyc which is now a large housing development called starret city in Brooklyn ny
I have some 8 mm black and white film converted to cd when we did the conversion
I can't get someone to verify anything since they sold it around the time I was born
They didn't farm it was just a large piece of land covered with weeds and from what I was told there was a pack of wild dogs that
Attacked some local kids playing on the land and after a few times the insurance company refused to accept them so they sold the property
I believe a few years later the city took the property back

 

[allen levine]

It's possible it want the last deeded farm maybe the last one in Brooklyn but I have the film of relatives I've never met or remember

 

[Peter Rideout]

Ive learned alot of stuff since joining this board....one thing for sure, , once you own a farm, or livestock, you dont retire, ilts not a career, its a way of life.....there is never a down day. I read jons posts and it seems like there is always work to do with livestock....seems you work until the day you can no longer walk. I worked behind a counter for 33 years at one business, and drove a delivery van before that since I was 14. before that I delivered on foot, or subway, or bus......but I always knew at one point Id retire.....seems not so if you own farm or ranch.....Im guessing it keeps you young. or just hurts alot. regardless, it’s impressive to me.

Good observations on farm life, Allen, particularly when taken from your off-farm perspective.
In almost all cases, farms are family businesses and the family lives and breathes the business. What do you do for fun and recreation on a farm? In a lot of cases, as we see from Jon’s posts, you help your kids enjoy their passion for farm-related things, like training up those calves.

I grew up on a farm and have worked in agriculture all my life. One of the biggest challenges is family succession of that business. Most of those successions are not smooth and some are absolute disasters. But, it does happen and the next generation does take over.

I don’t know too many farmers who actually retire off the farm. More often, Mom and Dad stay nearby, maybe there’s a second home on the farm and stay involved in some supporting role. It does keep you fit, but you have to be careful too and not get a life-changing injury. I have a friend who is 89 and lives in his own house on the farm now operated by his son. He does the mowing, tends his garden and works in the vineyard to keep active. I told him recently that he is my model for successful aging!

 

[allen levine]

my daughter went to school in fredonia NY. state university. part of her education training was teaching elementary school in a local district. where she taught, it was all farmland. and she told me alot of parents seemed less interested or less invovled in the kids schooling as they intended the kids to be working on the farms their entire lives. she told me most kids that were school aged already knew how to drive since they operated certain farm machinery, and taking off from school if they were needed on the land was priority to them. farm first, school second.
Im not saying every farmer is like this, but thats what she took away from that experience.
hard work never killed anyone.