Kentucky barns, part 2 -- the last part, for now

            WHY DOES THE PRINT START OUT SO SMALL!  I have to trust that once again it will look normal once I am finished pulling it together.  I love working with my photos for each post, but I sure can get irritated (as much as I ever get irritated --- which, actually, isn't much) over digital idiosyncrasies.

         Four more photos of the old barn which has been part of what I called my home place for 45 years:

 

 

        

            and now some photos of Jean's barn that Jonathan rebuilt!  He lowered the roof a full story.

taking out a floor, I believe, and using the materials to make a newer barn

Jonathan likes horses -- and cattle!

    

 

Bravo, Jonathan!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

the barn in use

 

Then these beautiful sheep - in Vermont and not in Appalachia -- share a barn before one day being dinner....

    This has been fun and I look forward to offering other gathered images. Every two weeks. It feels good to be back at it!!!

    In the meantime, don't forget to vote soon!  Of course I support progressive ideas, so I'll just say it's insulting that men --- who don't get pregnant through no fault of their own -- are sometimes not able to accept the rights of women to decide their own health care needs.  But in any case, let's all vote and support democracy for every person. And try hard to imagine ourselves in the footsteps of other persons. After all, we share a single earth.

Poetry and photo-trie, a connection

              I'm currently doing some thinking about my photos for a talented good friend whose book of poetry will be published within the year.  There might be one image that works for the cover of the book!  She grew on a working farm, so we agreed to start with some of my "hays and fields", which I have because they happen to fascinate me. So I thought I would share some of them on this week's blog, to kind of mimic seeing them in print.  (Summer's early mowing will start before we know it.)

 

 

 

an earlier version

made a few summers later, and at mid day, which doesn't always work this well

         

first of three -- this one has the outhouse and a tractor

This one is the cropped version of the following one.

The graves on the top of the hill show, if you know what they are.

 

Many of these photos have been on this blog before, but I have never before brought them all together. And there are more. It is wonderful for me to have an excuse to look at them, one after the other, most of them fairly near my home.  There's a reason why I never get bored driving to and from anywhere nearby. Enjoy. Be thankful for hard workers. And for poets who can do so much with words and insights. Here's to harvests all around. 

 

barns, barns, barns

post #461
        Can't help it. The barns in my life seem to be mostly personality and not always efficiency.  I haven't made a study of them, but when they appear on my horizon I can rarely resist welcoming them in.  I came up with all of today's dozen or so photos just by looking through what images are in my "library" (which is definitely a digital word steal for a large collections of photos!)  
        With all the current turmoil in our American history, it may be nice to be reminded of these buildings, loyal players trying their best to stand the test of time.

1) my barn, built by previous owners, with five horse stalls, not being currently used.  (It is needing its metal roof repainted! Barns don't thrive on purely artistic considerations.)

 2) This is the barn located on the land where I used to live. The old section in front surrounds a log version from the barn's earliest moments. The back section could have been used to dry tobacco, but it ended up not being strong enough to stand up for that added weight.

a very soggy time, unlike the dryness our area is currently experiencing

I didn't know I had this photo. I love it.

3)  Barns in the neighborhood, broadly speaking:

For years, we watched this barn slowly deteriorate. But this day I just had to stop my drive to town to make this photo. The barn is now completely down and gone, but the shadow of its stalwart self has not yet left me.

 4) barns with stories:

I am including this horse barn even though it is located in Kentucky horse country. It belongs to the son of a longtime friend of mine.  I will include a photo of them here later this week but I first want to get this post out.

This barn is close by to where I live. The goats are living in style!

 One time when I was in nearby Morgan County, I stopped to make some photos of this tobacco barn -- the slats were open to even out the temperature needed to cure the tobacco hanging there.   Not long after that, West Liberty ( the county seat) was hit by an extremely  destructive tornado. This barn was in its path.  I didn't know then that this barn belonged to a fellow photographer, Dean Hill, who then used what materials he and his wife, Karen, could salvage from the building to re-purpose them into the construction of his photo gallery! On this very spot! It's amazing. I was glad I had this photo to show them once I figured it all out. 

These last two photos show Gene Binion's barn nearby. I was doing an actual photo shoot this time, for a booklet the Kentucky Arts Council was compiling featuring the quilt designs that were being painted and then attached to barns in Eastern Kentucky.  This spider quilt design hasn't stood up to the weather very well, but the barn still beckons me. I made these photos at the crack of dawn.  I have more views, but these two are my favorites.


I think these are surely enough barns for now. I will do another post someday with more of them. I am a day late posting this week, but I know I am the only one who may notice that in the long run. I do love doing these posts every week. This week it has been fun to document how what we see every day can look different when we look again. And again. Thanks to all who visit this weekly blog and, essentially, are taking another look at what I take multiple looks at..

Now it's New Year's Eve, and time to think of spring!

post #367
       Have been having a delightful day, despite the COLD outside. I hope everyone has some warm place to be. And I mean everyone.
       Last week's post was in the present, so it's time to have the third look back into 2017. This means spring -- April, May and June. Some of these images are favorites of mine, most of which are repeats. I try to put my best on this blog when I have them, but I seem to be most interested in story and how the photos reach out to each other.
       Growing up in Connecticut, I loved winter the best. Since moving to my beloved Kentucky, I'm all over spring. It charms, it renews the earth, and there is beauty in every crevice and creek.

        Even though I have sort of been going backwards in time during this on-going review, in the following photos I'm mixing up the Aprils, Mays and Junes ....

early garden

Jeremey and Rebecca's first raised beds on their new Kentucky home

my version of a walk around the block

one of my favorite photos of Jonathan's barn renovation, open to the sky

an independent daisy -- for some reason, I really like this image

a spontaneous moment -- T. making like a Minnie Adkins rooster, outside the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, Kentucky

barn with winter grass, and the photo not ruined by plenty of sun

hay on its way

Clyde's apple orchard at redbud time

my gallery (there's only one....)

another T. photo, walking in the woods with Murry, in the early spring

        Here's to beauty, poetry, music, theater, and such in the new year. And community. It has been a solace for me to gather up these photos today to share on this blog. They are all made in eastern Kentucky.  Thanks on this New Year's Eve for the support for my work that many of you have provided. Let's all persist in our dreams this coming year.