GONE FISHIN' !!
To all our fishing "friends"; you all know this expression, seen a sign here and there "Gone Fishing".
After much deliberation, we have come to terms that this is our fate, good or bad. We are closing down Farm Pond Harvest. It was a very difficult decision after 41 years and knowing that so many faithful readers have been with us since 1967; but economy and steady postal increases has driven us down this path.
Our Dad, founder of Farm Pond Harvest, was always a fisherman-dreamer and many of you know his life story from past articles so we won't go into details on this except to say he always stressed "Take a kid fishing". He passed this love onto his family and this is one of the reasons we have produced so many numerous family articles.
Having moved from Chicago in 1949 he purchased property with an old farm pond on it - no fish. He proceeded to restore it and became more and more involved in helping other pond-owners and through the years decided the need for pond management information was just to great to Ignore; thus - Farm Pond Harvest.
When Dad passed on in 1987, we took over his love and with Judy in Florida and Joan in Illinois we have had a good excuse to spend more time together "working". Judy the fishing expert and Joan the office-executive have held FPH together these past years. But let us mention here that it has also been with excellent help from past editors, our faithful science editors Al Lopinot and Jay Huner, and contributors. We also could not have existed without the loyalty of readers and advertisers.
So now the sisters will spend more time "playing" as per the cover photo - Judy will fish and Joan will read "by a shady-shady pond".
Thank you one and all it's been a great ride!
Joan
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THE END
Two words with such diverse meanings! You know a movie is over when the screen says "The End". A book always stops at "The End". When you're in school and you have to read a certain number of books you can't wait for "The End", but when you're older and the book is so good you can't put it down, you never want it to end.
Life is like that. Everything and every person that has a beginning will have an end. Sometimes, it's wonderful and sometimes it's sad.
When Farm Pond Harvest Magazine started in 1967, I had a two year old son. Forty some odd years later he's a successful adult educator at Motor Cycle Mechanics Institute and I'm collecting social security.
The magazine was Dad's inspiration. It derived from his frustration of going to small bodies of water, mostly farm ponds, and finding stunted fish, too many or not enough weeds and no generalized information on how to improve the fishing conditions.
In his own way, Leo (with a 6th grade education) was an educator. In his lifetime, he taught thousands of people to fly cast (with his original fly casting machine) to his years of publishing Farm Pond Harvest Magazine. While he was alive, Dad personally did all the re-search that went into this magazine. When he died, it was "The End" of the personal family input to the advancement of pond management. My sister Joan and I were busy raising a family. Although she continued to produce the magazine and I contributed with pictures and articles, it was never the same after Dad was gone.
With today's fast moving world and all the next generation scattered across the country, it's too difficult to pass on the legacy of publishing a magazine. I'm proud to say that Dad has inspired the love of fishing all the way down to five generations in his family, and that 5th generation just happens to be girls!
It's always hard to say good-bye, and this is a bitter sweet "end".
I'm looking forward to Joan and I having more time to en-joy life and smell the flowers.
Good Bye & Good Fishing!
Judy |