July 08, 2004
Old times
This post is mostly for anyone who is familar with the geography of Peacham, or the lay out of our farm.
I found this picture, circa. 1927, on the internet via a link listed on our friend Jessamyn's blog. The link is to a University of Vermont project that documents landscape change in Vermont. It compares old photos of certain landscapes with the present view. It is pretty cool.
Anyway, in the above photo, you can see our farm about a third of the way in from the right, and a third or quarter of the way up from the bottom. You can see the side view of our huge barn, and where it connects to the house. And then you can see the hay field behind the barn extending up the hill to the right. Looks like lots of farming has happened here.
Posted by peter at July 8, 2004 07:37 AMYou can compare it to the current view here: http://www.uvm.edu/perkins/landscape/LS_View.php?FileName=LS00294
A lot more trees, but if you know where to look you can still see the open field hill up to our farm field and our farm field. The land really wants to go back to woods.
It still amazes me to think about all the land being cleared by pioneers -- without the powerful machines we have now. I wish I knew more about how the land was cleared back then. Couldn't have been easy!
Posted by: maryel at July 8, 2004 12:44 PMI share your admiration for our forebears.
One of the great things about your farm is the absemce of glacier rocks and boulders.
I think about the pioneers down in Connecticut, and all the work they did to cut down the trees and haul out the roots. Then, they discovered rocks and boulders, which they needed to haul out and became the stone walls of New England. And, then, each spring they found more boulders that the winter frosts had brought up from below.
Wow!
What a life!
Posted by: Mike, pgg's dad at July 9, 2004 04:59 AMWay cool photo! I love this stuff!
Posted by: jay wilkinson at July 13, 2004 10:42 PM