"katy" wrote in message
...
Nice little story, Vito. You're making your life story the basis for
everyone? My grandfather farmed with Percheron teams. On;y tractor
they ever owned was a Gravely hand tractor for the vegetable garden.
And BTW, it wasn't only farm wives and farm children dying back
before the turn of the century, it was everybody. Farming had
nothing to do with it, the lack of medical knowledge, antiseptic
processes, and disease was responsible. And I do know family farmers
in Michigan. They are not a lost breed.

Glad to hear it ... it's just that I call them hobby farmers. Nothing wrong
with that either.

I can't speak for Michigan but throughout the mid atlantic and the west land is
so valuable that the "farmer" could easily make more income by selling it and
investing the cash. The man I "share cropped" the cattle spread was a good
example. He'd made a bundle in politics during ww2 and bought a farm. He
claimed that the appreciation on the land was more than his half of the profits
on the farming operation, and I have no reason to doubt that. We had 6-800
feeder calves and 120 cows on pasture plus 80-120 steers in a feed lot at any
given time. I'd get there by 5am and feed hay, grain and silage then go to my
job. He'd get up and around about 9am and fiddle around in his garden. When I
got back about 6pm he'd come give me advise while I fed again then ground grain
for next morning, getting to bed around 11. I would have been the life of Riley
if I hadn't had to work too but I made more money on my day job. The old
farmer, and the folks I leased farms from for a few dollars/yr (gave them a big
tax break) all refinanced annually and live on the lands' appreciation. We all
lived on farms but were we farmers?? Now, had I owned enough land to live well
off the appreciation (Several $million worth) , and farmed it as well I could
have done OK.