A Farm in Decline: Part 2

Tracing the fall of the barn.

My last post was Part 1of the story of a nearby farm. I liked to take pictures of the barns and other buildings in different seasons, different weather, and different light. In the course of 5 years, it went from a struggling business, to a source of barn siding. Read a little more here. 

As I noticed the buildings falling, I actually thought of people I know who use barn wood for cabinetry and crafts, and wondered if someone would harvest the wood. One day, I noticed the process had started. 

Caution tape warned of work in  progress

Heavy equipment was on site, but you could see that the wood was removed to spare it much damage. 

Work in progress.

Down to the foundation where it had already collapsed. You can tell that the structure had been added to over time, judging

from the construction materials. 

The skeleton remains.

A few weeks later there was very little remaining. 

Silos always seem to be left behind.

Stones and blocks.

Wildflowers taking over.

A nice homey perch.....

High on the side of one of the remaining silos.

Farm house 2016

The barns are gone, but the farm remains. 

A Farm in Decline: Part 1

Tracing a nearby farm over five years.

This is a blog I have been wanting to write for a few months now. Wanting and dreading. Because purely by chance, it chronicles the decline of what was a working farm, years ago when I was a child, to the current situation:  farm house for sale, the barn and outbuilding gone, the greenhouses wire hoops in the back lot, the silos lonely against the sky. 

I started taking pictures of the buildings in 2011, when I got my new camera. I would walk the dog past the farm, and snap a few pics for this blog, or just because I liked the way the silos looked against the sky. At that time, the owners grew and sold plants and shrubs, grown in the greenhouses out back. At various times they sold cut flowers, pumpkins, did the hayride and bounce house thing, sold art, and way back, this was a dairy farm. 

I can't give you the entire history of the place, but I can share with you my appreciation and sadness as the old place has at last settled into being just a country house. It is for sale, and I hope someone buys it and lives there for a few more generations. 

A nice black and white shot of the barn, one of my first.  

People still lived here. You can just see the date 1770 over the door. 

Another older picture of the barn

Another view of the barn. Early 2015.

Love this sign. It was used when the farm was open for business selling plants.

I think it was after the place was put up for sale that the barn really started to cave in. 

You can see the main portion leaning in on the back. 

One of the greenhouses, with only the front plastic remaining.

From the time they had a butterfly themed nursery business. 

Beautiful wood barn siding.

It's been a week since I started this blog post, and I think it wants to be two posts. Part two, here.