A ride down memory lane

3

37 chief

Well-known Member

• Jan 7, 2023

• #1

I go by the home place a few times a week. Today I drove in, almost the same road we used to enter Dad's farm. It's a hosing developing now. The lay of the land hasn't changed, just a bunch of houses. I could still see the hills my brothers, and I played on as kids. I was there from 1942 until 1960. Dad bought an old farm a 1/2 mile away and built a house, and continued farming. Everyone else is gone now. I have what is left of that now, and is where I keep my tractors, and shop. Time marches on. Stan

 

H

herk

Member

• Jan 7, 2023

• #2

They call it progress, when I was a kid the milk truck and school bus stopped at almost every farm in the township, when we got close to town (school) the little kids had to start to sit on the big kids laps ( 54 or 56 capacity bus), now the mini bus has maybe 12 kids on it and the route is bigger. sad to see things going this way. Bryan

 

Stroby

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #3

Indeed, it is sad.

 

S

sms

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #4

I try not to drive past our old family farms, too depressing, used to be so beautiful. Picture when I lived on the farm. Barn is gone. All houses now. In NY the taxes are too high for the common man to own large parcels of land.

 

J

jaoneill

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #5

My farm is in Northern NY and I can certainly confirm your comment. In spite of selling off all of the adjoining parcels that we had acquired over the years, the taxes on the "home" farm have increased fivefold in the last 15 years. I have what would be considered a comfortable retirement income but at 75 I continue to work to be able to keep my home (the farm) of 48 years.

 

S

sms

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #6

We left NY so I could retire. If we had
stayed and kept everything our land and
school taxes would have been about
$20,000.00 per year.

 

E

E.B. Haymakin'

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #7

I probably shouldn't say you are having problems accepting how things have changed, but I'll darn sure say I am. I've been in my community my whole life, and it was better rural. It's definitely suburban, and from the looks of it will start rapidly urbanizing shortly. It's terrible, and the caliber of people...the coyotes are better neighbors

 

J

jaoneill

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #8

Sms, we were specifically targeted. Roughly 15 years ago, with a 2% tax cap having been enacted, NY was bumping up against a limit as to what the traffic would bear for a tax load. The only constituency without a major lobbying arm were "landowners", those with acreage and no ag exemption. So the State moved to centralize and control the assessment process then they went about boosting the assessments of us landowners. Over a period of 5 years they almost doubled land and school tax receipts without ever significantly "raising taxes" on the average taxpayer. It was a back door approach that few recognized; as I would bet yours was, my land is now assessed for roughly six times its agricultural value and what I have is only 1/4 tillable.

Jim

 

flembo

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #9

2 years ago I visited the Lake where I grew up. Our house has been added onto and changed so much that I can hardly recognize it. Directly across the lake from our house is the Connecticut State Prison Farm, no longer a farm, the fields are still there where they grew corn and hay and the old Shaker barns are still there and kept up. ( It was a Shaker village in the 1700s) I remember watching the Trusties working the farm and wondering what they did to get them there. Also near the lake was woods and Tobbaco fields, I hunted Pheasant, Grouse Woodcock and Rabbits in the woods and fields. Now the area is a housing development.

 

big tee

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #10

Have a tractor buddy from central Tenn.--Asked me what is the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee-- I said-don't know--He said a Yankee comes to Tenn. looks around and leaves--A Damn Yankee comes to Temm. and stays!!1--Ya got to love it---Tee

 

Tgrasher

Well-known Member

Location

South Southern illinois

• Jan 8, 2023

• #11

Same here in Illinois, I want to leave but
can't. Like you, we are ruled by one big
city which elects the majority of the
ruling class.

 

D

Davidj

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #12

Sounds like Ontario.... Raise the assessment, the taxes will follow....

 

S

sms

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #13

We had a field 3-4 acres and about an
acre around the house cleared, the rest
woods with rocks and ledges, 43 acres
total. And my mom's place about 14 acres
with a 5-6 acre field about 4 miles from
home.

 

J

jaoneill

Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #14

I have a brother that only had a house and 20 acres left of his farm down in Dutchess County, he baled out of NY when his L & S taxes hit 45K a year.
I am in St Lawrence County so it's not quite as bad but our economy is also an exercise in poverty avoidance.

 

M

MARK ROBKE

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #15

I avoid going past the farm where I grew up. It is now 'developed'-has stores and apartments. Most of the houses across the road have been torn down also. And the path of the 2 main roads that were on both sides of our farm are 'rerouted'. Only my uncles old house remains as it was built on a back corner and not 'in the way'! And part of 2 ponds. Nothing else is recognizable. Mark.

 

S

shaun wallace

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #16

The place kinda grew up at is split up. havent been by in maybe 10 years. The next 4 places the houses have been gone for years and only one was owned , rest were rent or share crop.

 

B

Bill in Colo

Member

Location

Rio Blanco County, Co

• Jan 8, 2023

• #17

Stan I'm somewhat in same boat Dad farmed in Ojai from 1930 to 1951,I have not been able to visit for the last eight years still some orchards are left the rest is houses. We bought the ranch I live on in 1946. We moved here in 1952.

 

S

ss55

Well-known Member

• Jan 8, 2023

• #18

The first thing dad did when he bought the farm in 1953 was to tear down the obsolete buildings and build new ones to meet his needs. I expect the next owner will do the exact same thing.

 

stevieb49829

Well-known Member

Location

Spirit Lake, Idaho

• Jan 8, 2023

• #19

My parents bought an old farmstead in S. Minnesota, when MSU took their place for campus expansion. They called it Rural, Non-farm, but we were surrounded by small farms. My brother bought the place when my Mom went into memory care, and we still get back there to visit once in a while. All the fields, and a lot of the woods where I hunted and trapped now have houses on them. I used to walk for miles and miles along the river bottoms. I don't think you could do that now without trespassing into someone's back yard. It's happening in the west too. steve