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. 

Focus on: A Knock on the Door!

What's behind door number 1? 

Sally Russick from The Studio Sublime has been giving us prompts for a couple of months now, to help us explore our photography skills and sensitivity. This week's prompt is "Knock, Knock."

Here's what Sally writes: 

 Let's open some doors to see what awaits us on the other side.

Is it a door that holds opportunity?

A door that holds a story?

Is it a door you have been hesitating to open?

Is a gate to a new life?

A door to a new adventure?

Is it a door that holds a memory?

Is it the perfect door for a simple picture?

You have arrived at the door for a reason, open it up and step in

Well, see, here's the thing. I included several shots of doors in last week's post. I still have some that I didn't use. Should I use them? Part of my personal approach to this project is to make new pictures for each week's prompt. Hmm, I combined a little of each, and came up with this. 

Are we going in? Nope, you are going to have to use your imagination here......

I will, however show you the same door, and the rest of the building on a sunny day. It's an old cold cellar on our property, and my grandmother used to store produce and canned goods there years ago. And it's always been a little spooky to me!

 You can follow the action on Sally's blog.