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The
Saratogian
February 23, 2002
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| Help!
There's a cow in my pool |
| ANNE
ORGREN, The Saratogian |
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| Joe
Peck knows where his roots are. |
Except
for his college years, the farmer, author and humorist has
always lived on Peckhaven Farm, just outside of Saratoga
Springs. That farm has been in the family for quite a while.
''My grandfather bought the farm from the Wagmans in 1919,''
Joe said.
The Wagmans, who had owned the farm since the early 1800s,
were related to the Pecks by marriage.
In 2000, the New York State Agricultural Society presented
Peckhaven Farm with the Century Farm Award, given to farms
that have been owned by the same family for more than 100
years.
Peckhaven Farm has changed since Joe's childhood.
''My father had 14 acres of apples and 20 cows. It was a
small farm and a small orchard,'' Joe said. ''We had a good
apple trade in Saratoga (Springs). People would ask us to
deliver apples, and my mother would go out three times a
week. In the fall, people would drive out to the farm and
line up to buy the apples. It was an interesting
childhood.''
Joe was always interested in agriculture, but wasn't always
sure that he wanted to be a farmer. Growing up on a farm,
Joe saw that non-farming neighbors had higher income and
standard of living than farmers.
He went to college at Cornell University's College of
Agriculture (now the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences). Joe enjoyed his college years in Ithaca.
''It 's a great place to be when you're young and
adventurous,'' he said. ''It's beautiful.''
Joe majored in animal husbandry and explored his career
options. After trying out extension services and 4-H during
his summers at college, Joe decided to take on the family
farm.
''It's an opportunity that not everyone has,'' Joe said.
A ''good thing to come out of going to college,'' Joe said,
was meeting his wife Pat.
When they met, Pat was a sophomore from Delmar attending
Cornell's College of Home Economics. Joe was finishing his
junior year.
''We dated for my last year at Cornell,'' Joe said, ''and
then I had to travel to Ithaca quite a bit (after moving
back to the farm).''
Joe graduated from Cornell in 1960. Pat graduated in 1962,
and the couple married in August of 1962.
''She's an outstanding, hard-working person,'' Joe said.
''She's a real contribution to the success of the farm. I'm
grateful that I found her.''
Times they are a changin'
The orchard with 20 cows has become a 100-cow dairy farm.
The apple trees have been gone since 1968.
''Times have changed,'' Joe said. Orchards require a lot of
hand labor and expertise, and selling the apples would mean
finding a ''niche market.''
The farm land now grows crops of corn and hay, which feed
the cows. The farm itself is larger, too; Joe has bought and
rented additional acres to enlarge the original farm.
What Joe likes best about farming is this:
''You can be your own boss. You have the opportunity to
succeed or fail and it's up to you. The bad thing is that
you have the opportunity to succeed and it's up to you.''
Continuing the family tradition, the Pecks' son David is now
Joe's partner in running the farm.
''I always say that we have three kids. One is a farmer, and
two of them are normal,'' Joe joked.
The Pecks' daughters, Sharon and Deborah, have pursued
non-farming lives.
David and his wife, a registered nurse, live in ''the
one-room schoolhouse at the bottom of the hill'' where Joe
attended first through eighth grades.
''The school closed in 1959 and the building was put up for
auction,'' Joe said.
The land was on a corner of the Pecks' farm, so Joe's
parents bought the building.
''It's post-and-beam construction,'' Joe said. ''It's been
remodeled into a two-bedroom house, but from the outside it
still looks like a one-room schoolhouse.''
Branching out
With David working on the farm, Joe has been able to spend
time on his public speaking and his writing.
Joe began speaking publicly through his membership on the
board of the local farm credit organization.
When the local group met with other chapters, the groups
hired outside speakers. At the same time, Joe was performing
stand-up comedy as part of a Schuylerville talent showcase.
After Joe spoke at the credit association's annual meeting,
his reputation spread through word of mouth and other local
groups asked him to speak. Joe now regularly gives humorous
talks to farm groups.
''Things have picked up even more since the book came out,''
Joe said, ''because now I'm an author.''
Joe's book, ''A Cow in the Pool & Udder Humorous Farm
Stories,'' was released in November 2001.
''I've always admired the short personal essay,'' Joe said.
''So much of taking care of animals is routine that your
mind wanders. I had ideas and wrote them down.''
Joe's publishes monthly essays, ''Peck's Peckings,'' in the
''American Agriculturist and Extension News,'' published by
the Cornell Cooperative Extension. ''A Cow In The Pool'' is
a collection of more than 100 of these essays.
A farmer's life
A whimsical peek into daily life on a modern dairy farm, ''A
Cow In The Pool'' includes stories about stuck tractors, the
behavior of cows, how to give a cow a pill (this seems even
more difficult than the now-famous ''how to give a cat a
pill''), and, yes, the promised story about a cow in the
pool.
Farmers will enjoy the book for its in-jokes about tractors,
horizontal silage trenches and manure spreaders.
City slickers will get a rare glimpse into the life of the
farmer, liberally sprinkled with good-natured humor.
If you know a farmer, or if you're curious about life on a
local dairy farm; or if you just want to explore the lighter
side of life; check out ''A Cow In The Pool.''
Joe Peck will sign copies of ''A Cow In The Pool &
Udder Humorous Farm Stories'' from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March
3, at Borders Books and Music at 395 Broadway in Saratoga
Springs. |
| ŠThe
Saratogian 2002 |
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