Wednesday, June 6, 2012

From a recent trip to rural S-central Michigan


“There’s just something about these small towns,” exclaimed my traveling companion on a recent trip downstate to pick up our bee nuc. All I could muster by way of response was “Indeed.” Just not much more to add; the visual said it all. With the bees safely tucked into their new home, our hive box, we wandered the back roads and enjoyed the scene.

The landscape was rolling hills with an admixture of neat, thrifty small farms, woodlands, wetlands, and small towns. Apparently the climate, soils, topography and proximity to large population centers create just the right conditions for growing nice villages as well as growing a diversity of crops and animals. I’m not sure how many families live solely off their small farms. My guess is that most have a family member that works in town, but the conditions are right for a small farm to make enough of a contribution to the family finances to make it worth keeping the small family farm going. It’s a nice place to visit and you would want to live there.

No comments:

Post a Comment