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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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The year has been dry, very dry, this growing season. Clouds of dust rise and follow the farm machinery across the land as fields are being fitted for winter wheat planting come late September. The corn fields are not as lush as they could be. Acres of soybeans somehow have come to term in fair to good shape despite the dry summer. The swamp in the woods along the little dead end road to the North is completely dry, weed covered and void of the turtles, frogs and the pair of wood ducks often seen there this time of year. Hay is in short supply, first cutting came on well, however; second and third were short and sparse - lots of work for a few bales of winter feed.
Next year it will be bumper crops out here on the land for sure! That is what keeps a farmer alive, keeps him going, the few good years that do come along and the dreams of those to come during other times. Oh, to be able to "live off from the fat of the land” - a fantasy of many who are not so fortunate as to have that choice. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer – November 4, 2002 |
