Today I got a guided tour (actually, just riding around in a farm truck and looking at stuff) of Hog Wallow and Sim Place from my friend Bill (Tug) Haines III.
We visited what is left of Fred Brown's house. True to description, one of his old cars (a Ford I believe) is still sitting out front, being reclaimed by the weeds. The house is in extremely poor shape - we didn't dare to step inside. Apparently after Fred Brown died, his son lived there for a while. He's in Tuckerton now, I believe. I took some good pictures, but realized that the memory card was not in my camera!!!
Tug and I drove around. We walked through one of the bogs - I didn't know that there was no water in them until harvest time, which is in about 6 weeks.
The bogs at Sim Place are huge compared to the ones at Hog Wallow, but that's because they make them small at Hog Wallow since it's easier to harvest. Tug explained that back in the day - when cranberries were harvested by hand or by scoop - that the bogs were enormous. Now that it's done with a machine, they keep the bogs smaller so they are easier to flood and control. They're in the process of revamping the bogs at Sim Place - a project that they expect will take about 20 years to complete.
We also visited the old packing house at Sim Place. It's full of old junk, old tractors, a piano, about 5 old wagon wheels, and a decrepit wooden canoe.
The packing house at Hog Wallow was much nicer, given the fact that there are no gaping holes in the side like there are at Sim Place. One really cool thing is the Haines's have an old Chatsworth fire engine from the 1930s that they will one day restore.
I have some pictures from after I put the memory card in my camera that I will upload later.
Oh, and I got chiggers.
We visited what is left of Fred Brown's house. True to description, one of his old cars (a Ford I believe) is still sitting out front, being reclaimed by the weeds. The house is in extremely poor shape - we didn't dare to step inside. Apparently after Fred Brown died, his son lived there for a while. He's in Tuckerton now, I believe. I took some good pictures, but realized that the memory card was not in my camera!!!
Tug and I drove around. We walked through one of the bogs - I didn't know that there was no water in them until harvest time, which is in about 6 weeks.
The bogs at Sim Place are huge compared to the ones at Hog Wallow, but that's because they make them small at Hog Wallow since it's easier to harvest. Tug explained that back in the day - when cranberries were harvested by hand or by scoop - that the bogs were enormous. Now that it's done with a machine, they keep the bogs smaller so they are easier to flood and control. They're in the process of revamping the bogs at Sim Place - a project that they expect will take about 20 years to complete.
We also visited the old packing house at Sim Place. It's full of old junk, old tractors, a piano, about 5 old wagon wheels, and a decrepit wooden canoe.
The packing house at Hog Wallow was much nicer, given the fact that there are no gaping holes in the side like there are at Sim Place. One really cool thing is the Haines's have an old Chatsworth fire engine from the 1930s that they will one day restore.
I have some pictures from after I put the memory card in my camera that I will upload later.
Oh, and I got chiggers.
