Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Space

I like the area where I live. It's rural enough with farms around and lots of privacy, yet within a twenty-minute drive I can visit any of three malls.

I totally understand that it's harder and harder for farmers to keep farming. It's hard work and I'm sure not very profitable - especially being in New York State. I still find it sad to see more and more farmland being sold off and it's happening with increasing frequency.

A 50+ acre piece of farmland near me just went on the market. I know that it's going to turn into another housing development. More construction traffic will be in my way going to and from work while the buildings go up and then the extra traffic will still be there from the people who move in. The best I can hope for in that situation is that stupid-driver people won't be moving in.

I like the ruralness of my area and I wish it could stay this way forever... well, at least for as long as I'm here :) I like driving roads free of stop lights and stop signs. I like watching the farms along those roads change every season over the years... What are they planting there this year? So *that's* what soy beans look like! The farmers planted their corn already? That's my cue to get mine into the ground. Watching the wheat fields rolling and waving in the wind as I go by is so calming. Seeing the farmer harvest the corn is such a cool thing to see - I count myself lucky when I catch them doing it. The big rolls of hay in the fields are like postcard pictures. Even when the fields are just plowed and still empty, they are nice to drive by - especially when they are full of geese or wild turkey looking for corn that got missed.

If I wanted to live in the middle of housing developments and people with perfect lawns, I would have chosen to live in Amherst or Cheektowaga - not that there is anything wrong with Amherst or Cheektowaga. I grew up in Cheektowaga. But I choose to live away from that. I hate the idea that I don't have the control to keep my area the way I like it. I wish I had the money to buy up all that property to keep it from becoming wall-to-wall housing. Or worse.

As it is, let me have my open spaces.

2 comments:

Busy Bee Suz said...

I agree with you...but change is always going to happen and things just can't stay the same.
We live in what used to be a fairly small town. Alebiet we are 7 miles from the beach...there used to be many farm stands, produce stops and "pick your own" spots all over town...they are all sold now to housing developers. I have even noticed all the nurseries are going now too....sold to land developers. Yuck....I am stuck getting my produce at a chain grocery store and my plants at home depot. I loathe that kind of change!!!

Busy Bee Suz said...

I mean albeit. geeze. I need spell check ALL the time. :)