Ping: Sheldon

[Gary]

I've always been curious. You live in farm country. Did a
previous owner of your current place ever use all that land
that you mow for crops at one time?

I know that many grow corn in your area.

I was familiar with Galway, NY many years ago. (1980's)
Somewhat near you, isn't it?

[Sheldon Martin]

The last owners had a good sized vegetable garden that at some point
they abandonded and it became very overrun with giant weeds, we
cleaned it up and now use it. They also used a few acres growing
Christmas trees until the market for live trees died... the last of
the trees are still growing but are too large now for Christmas trees
in someones home, more the size for Rockerfella Center. But on most
of the acreage they grew hay and sold it to the race tracks in NYC and
also to the NYC police departmant for their horses. They grew some
kind of special hay that I know nothing about. The last of their hay
was baled and sold just before we moved here, since then we keep
mowing those fields. Buying haying equipment and maintaining it is
very costly plus I know nothing about haying except that after the hay
is cut all that stubble looks ugly... and haying entails a lot of hard
labor. They had a large family who all did haying. We have a very
small family and none are into farming. The man who lived here killed
himself from all that haying, they found him collapsed in a field. He
was still alive but suffered a major coronary. They both had another
house built ten miles south of here on a small piece of land in hopes
he's quit haying. But after they moved in he was gone in six
months... Fred was very compulsive and refused to follow the doctor's
advice, his wife still lives there and we talk on the phone
occasionally and we exchange email. Fred never accepted computers, he
was a very stubborn Norwegian.