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Sight for sore eyes.......

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flightsc

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Beaufort, SC
Something occurd to me the other day while i was driving back from my friends lakehouse in upstate south carolina. I was on state hwy 8 which is nothing more than a two lane road that spans about six counties while going from one sleepy town to the next. By all means its not the best road in the state but one of the most scenic.

Coming around a bend in the road i see an old saw mill sitting on the bank of the Saluda River, its saws long since stopped spinning, leaving only the faintest of echos throughout its crumbleing brick facade.

Just up the next hill, vast and expansive pastures lay on either side, the thunder of cattle no longer present, yet the almost stately farm house still sitting proud on the highest hill.

Down the road crop fields lay dorment and fallow no longer a source of viable income. I pull off on the side of the road and take a picture just as the morning fog is lifting, thinking what has become of this great nation.

Are farmers, ranchers, and industry dead? What ever happened to the satisfaction that one got from working the land, or making something with his bare hands? Sun on your back in the fields or saw dust flying all around you, knowing that when you are done, you will have made something worth keeping, something to be proud of?
 
I'm not sure where one would start to answer that question, but, no, farmers and ranchers are not dead. There is still satisfaction in it for most, too. But it just seems kinda hard to get paid what it's worth for what we do.
 
Flight how long have you been in SC?
I have been in Charlotte NC for 31 years and I remember when the farms were all over till the government started paying the tabacco farmers NOT to grow. Then it went to the government giving NOTHING. I am not one for government paying for anyone. You can not pay a group for years and years then in one year STOP. There were suppose to be "programs" to get the tabacco farmer into another crop. LOL yeah right. With the price of land in the SC & NC area it paid more for them to sell their land. OH and the long dead saw mill was shut down by environomentalist. It got too expensive to keep repairing the damage. They said that we were destroying the "Old Growth Forest" HellOOOOOO this area use to be a grassland or in other words a prairie..NO trees.
Some of what you are seeing on 8 is government land. It is state "forest". There is also a couple hunting clubs.
Sorry if I come across harsh but I have seen the changes and what has been done, it is not right. Yes I am an environmental educator BUT I am not a wacko I am a conservationist. People come first then animals then land. I love or I should say I use to love this area...the land the people but things have gotten so out of wack and out of touch with what is real.
No farming has not gone the way of the dinosaur but in this area yes it has much to the loss of the people who live here.
 

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