Raymond Key, Interviewed by Colin Walfield, November 16, 2011
Location of Interview: Fenimore Art Museum Research Library, Cooperstown, New York
Raymond Key was born in Cooperstown, NY in 1935. He moved to Pierstown, New York with his family in 1944 or 1945 and acquired a dairy farm there. He lived with his parents, three brothers, a sister, and a cousin. He has worked the farm for most of his life, but also has a recent career as a state licensed wildlife management practitioner. In this story, Mr. Key is talking about the water supply on his farm.
RK: Well I think something that a lot of people don’t realize that they should start thinking about more is our water supply. A good water supply, we’re losing it. For drinking water. Now my house, my farm is all on spring water. The farm up there, that’s gravity fed, we don’t even have a pump on it. The water runs freely. Three houses, the barn, and the cows. It’s self-flowed, runs right to the barn. Up on my house where I live in Pierstown, that’s all spring. The farm when we had it up there was all spring. I think that with this drilling and spoiling the water with doing things, building houses and stuff, we’re losing a lot of our good water supply and I think that we should be thinking about it.
Click here to listen to the full interview or to read the transcript.
