Wednesday, December 07, 2005

christmas card



As promised yesterday, I dug into the archives in the computer and found the photo that was used for last years Christmas card.

This was one of my favorite barns and I loved to pass by in all seasons. The fact that the fairly modern ranch house was abandoned and boarded up should have been a clue that the developers were moving in. I didn't however, see any surveyors or blaze orange surveyors tape anywhere in sight.

I pulled up into the driveway one Sunday morning to take some photos. It was very quiet and I imagined the teenagers shooting some hoops on the small basketball court on the west side of the barn, after they finished their chores. The barn was once filled with hay and dairy cows.

I pass this way at least once a week. A couple months after this photo was taken I rounded the curve on my weekly trip and was shocked to see nothing. The barn had been razed or dismanteled, the house demolished and the entire area looked bare and small.

4 comments:

Lori said...

I love your photographs. I lived on a farm when I was a young girl and have so many fond memories of that time. My sister and her husband still farm and ranch. We live in the country, though we are not farmers, but it's still fun to get in on summer harvest and all the beauty of farm life.

srp said...

I'm glad you were able to capture the essence of the barn before it was gone. Barns are torn down, farms go, people leave us, not just in rural areas but everywhere. As I get older it seem all the more important to capture the stories of people, buildings and their ways of life in pictures and stories. Do you ever wish cameras were common in the very first days of America?

Rachel said...

Too bad it went. It is a lovely picture indeed. I agree with srp above.

I wish cameras were common back then! It would be so interesting!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you. This is the closest I have been to my dads old barn in years.