Daniel Truckey performs as a solo artist and also in the duo, The Truckey Boys, with his brother Drew.

by Daniel Truckey, Executive Director, Grand Traverse Heritage Center

My youth was split between two very different environments.  The first eleven years of my life were spent in what I like to call a "sub-rural" community on the edge of Flint, Michigan.  Though Flushing was considered a suburb, there were still working farms bordering or adjacent to our subdivision.  In 1978, my parents decided they wanted to return to the Upper Peninsula, and we moved 500 miles to the Western U.P.  We lived in the town of Wakefield, a small backwoods town surrounded by the dense Ottawa National Forest. 

Because I never spent much time as a kid in an agricultural environment, I've always been fascinated by farms and the way of life surrounding them.  In 2004, my family moved to Suttons Bay. Our neighbor was a cherry farmer whose family had owned the same farm in Leelanau County for over 100 years.   He would often invite us out to the farm to pick cherries and tour the orchards.  On several occasions we took him up on his offer, in part because I wanted to learn more about cherry farming, but also because we couldn't turn down free cherries right off the tree.

Being a historian and working for an institution that works to preserve local culture and heritage, I couldn't help but engage my friend in a discussion about the issues regarding development and the preservation of our local agricultural heritage.  To say the least, this issue is one of the most challenging (and divisive) that faces our region.  As a preservationist, it has been my position that we need to preserve the nature of our communities, and I believe that if we don't preserve what is special about the Grand Traverse region, prosperity and growth will kill the proverbial golden goose. 

Reality, however, is a different issue, and my friend gave me another point of view. He commented that there was a great deal of pressure both to sell off his land for development and to keep it just the way it is for posterity. Optimally, he and his family would continue to farm the land for many generations, helping to preserve this way of life.  However, his children have little interest in being farmers.  In truth, he said, it takes a lot of effort to grow cherries, and sometimes it just doesn't pay.  People often aren't aware of how much work goes into the practice.  It isn't just a "keep Leelanau beautiful" issue.  Though he would love to see the land stay just as it is, he can't help but sometimes see the farm as a 100-year family investment that could pay off handsomely. 

It was after I had this conversation with him that I sat down with my guitar and wrote this song.  I don't remember if I wrote the words or melody first, but it really just rolled out of me, like all good songs do.  The song isn't meant to posit one point of view or agenda.  I just tried to show that the issue isn't as black and white as some would hope and to capture the emotional power of life as a farmer in such trying times.

Listen to the Farmer's Lament (MP3)

First it was the sweets,

next will be the sours.

You can't count on the rain

though you pray for hours and hours.

These trees don't water themselves

and there's no artificial sun

that can warm up these hills

and bring cherries by the ton.

They say that it's a simple life

with rewards that can't be bought

but there's nothin' simple ‘bout farmin'

and some things just can't be taught.

For the winters will do their damage

and the bugs will get the rest.

You can study it all at MSU

but each Summer is the test.

We've owned these acres

for a century

Now were hopin' for a bumper crop

or this farm is history.

Now it used to be expected

in our father's steps we'd walk

and carry on the family tradition

but nowadays that's just talk.

For this land is worth too much

and there's condos to be built.

or my children will carry that guilt.

Yeah, we've owned these acres

for a century

but everything eventually changes

and becomes history.

Now the sun is in the west

and the clouds are rolling in.

There's a sprinkle on my shoulder

and my face has a grin.

Yeah it seems we just might make it

if there is a God above.

What else would I do anyway

this is the only work I love.

Yeah, we've owned these acres

for a century

and though everything changes

this farm ain't history.

Daniel Truckey began performing as a songwriter in the late 1980s while a college student in Marquette. Dan has recorded his unique blend of folk, rock, pop, and jazz on three CD's, including his latest, New World View.