Old barns are my first love. I always keep running back to them, although it’s getting harder and harder to find new ones in my immediate area. And it’s not like I can just hop over a barbed wire fence to go onto the property to get different views of them. I’ve already had a truck-load of rednecks (no offense to rednecks) chase me down the street because I was perfectly legally taking photos of a barn from the street apparently belonging to them. No shotgun so far, but I’m not going to press the issue.

The first barn below is one I took a couple of years ago, maybe, followed by two that I took earlier this year after a very powerful flat wind came charging through the neighborhood last summer. These are followed by two photos of a rather neglected old barn somewhere south of Blanchard, Iowa, just into Missouri.

Link back to Weekly Photo Challenge: Muse
You’re welcome to come visit my Barns! Barns! Barns! photostream in flickr where you can upload your own photos of old barns, farm houses and other related items.

Pre-flat wind barn

There wasn’t anything at left of the barn after it was visited by a very powerful flat wind, I believe, last year.

Take 2

South side

North side

Coming home from Iowa recently, I passed a whole string of old, abandoned farm implements and buildings. Here are just a few.

Comments are welcome.

You’re welcome to come visit my Barns! Barns! Barns! photostream in flickr where you can upload your own photos of old barns, farm houses and other related items. You can find it by clicking HERE!

Link back to Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Here’s what it really looks like.

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Here’s another view.

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

This is an old what looks to me to be a farm house, although it’s an oddly shaped one—perfectly square. I could, of course, be wrong, not having gone inside it. I don’t tend to climb over barbed wire fences. They’re up there for some reason, and I’m not willing to tangle with them in order to find out why. I’d just as soon not wind up with a load of buckshot in my rear or worse places.

While I’m on the subject of old farm houses, I just remembered that I have a flickr photostream called Barns! Barns! Barns! I haven’t been there since somewhere around last July or August. I had basically forgotten about it.

It’s a site where people can upload their own photographs of old barns and farm houses, as well as anything else old farm-related. At the time I was last there, I think there were two or three members and about six photographs, three of them mine.

I decided it was time I uploaded some more old barns, but when I got there, I was amazed that there are now 16 members and 92 photographs of old barns and farm houses! Only nine of the photographs are mine, including the three I just uploaded.

Anyone who loves old barns and old farm houses are welcome to come over and have a look. There are some nice ones there. I’m definitely going to have to go back there more often.

Here is the link to Barns! Barns! Barns! in flickr. So, here it is:

©2013 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Old house in Daviess Co., MO by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Lonely and forlorn am I,
No longer used I am,
Empty except for mice
And other little critters;
But still I stand proud.

Though somewhat less
Than once I was,
Still reaching skyward,
Ready to receive
The hay in my loft
That will never come;
But still I stand proud.

Left alone and abandoned,
Still I understand
That time goes on
And so do people,
Yet I must stay;
But still I stand proud.

©2013 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Link back to Tuesday’s A to Z challenge: “B”

I’ve started a new photographic blog and you’re all invited to join in for the fun. This blog is about preserving a way of life that is fast becoming extinct: the family farm.

I’ve just posted my first posting and invite you all to participate. You may find my new blog at: https://barnsbarnsbarns.wordpress.com/

I hope to see you there. I’d love this to be a repository for all things old with respect to family farming, not just buildings.

Back on February 4, this year, I posted a weekly challenge, “Ready to Collapse.” You might remember it as follows:

©2012 Cris Coleman

Old Red Barn by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Early in July I was again traveling down this same road and noticed the same old barn but in a different state. I came back on July 9 and took the following photograph:

©2012 Cris Coleman

Collapsed barn by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

You’ll notice the difference in color. The original was taken in the early dawn just at the sweet spot of morning when the colors appear much richer in the red department. Also, it’s due to the fact that what you see here is the roof, or what’s left of it.

I hate to see old things disappear, but sometimes, due to lack of care and upkeep, they, like human beings, just run out of gas. This poor old barn undoubtedly had much better days, but in the end, like all of life left to its own, has gone on to a better place and will soon, likely, be removed, analogous to being buried.

So far (6/9/2013), the roof remains the same.

©2012 Cris Coleman

Regretful Old Barn by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

I’m regretful that I’ve outlived my usefulness.
I’m regretful that rain falls through my roof.
I’m regretful that the wind rattles through my once solid walls.
I’m regretful that field mice have taken the place of little colts on my now musty hay that’s blown up in a heap in one of my corners.
I’m regretful my roof and wall is beginning to cave in.
I’m regretful that no one visits me anymore except the cows who feed outside my walls from time to time.

©2012 Cris Coleman

Waiting to Collapse by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Old barns are among my favorite things to photograph, the more dilapidated, the more I like them. Sometimes my photographs are the last ones taken before the barn either falls down or is taken down. I view them as pieces of history.

I also like to photograph pretty much anything that is old, rundown or not.

This particular barn I caught just at that magical hour as the sun was coming up. You can see how that time of day creates a magical aura of sorts with the reds.

©2010 Cris Coleman

Old Barn by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Occasionally, I like to take up my camera and tripod and get in my car and just drive, usually spring, summer and fall, rarely winter, my least favorite season.

One of the things I like to take photographs of is old barns and other dilapidated buildings. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because I am getting up there in years, even if I’m not feeling it, except in body.

Sometimes my photographs are all that’s left of the old barn or whatever.

This particular old barn was taken on State Highway C in northwest Missouri in the afternoon. Each barn has its own personality. This one has two beady eyes, a long nose and a missing mouth.

Old barns are fun!