On my way to Iowa a couple of years ago, just outside the city of Maryville, MO, I was tooling along when I noticed this maze of beams and electrical wires that looked really cool. As it turned out, the sun was just to the point of completely disappearing and I thought I might be able to get a cool pic if I could just get back there in time and line the two up.

So, I slammed on my brakes, pulled over to the side of the road and practically ran back to a road that went into some business property. The sun was about gone and I knew I had to hurry. However, I was able to get off several pictures but this one was the only one that turned out decently. Nevertheless, I love it. It’s one of my favorite pictures. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment.

Link back to Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid

You’re welcome to visit my Barns! Barns! Barns! photostream in flickr where you can register for free and upload your own photos of old barns, farm houses and other related items. There are currently 255 members and 1,506 photographs. If you like barns, you’ll love this!

Downtown Altamont, MO is almost a ghost town, although the village itself sports a population of (I think) 209. Yet, the only business it has is a towing service, which has an old tired/retired gas pump out front. The village also has a post office that was almost retired by the USPS, but instead, it was relegated to a part-time service. It also has a fire department.

Altamont had a tire repair/sales business run out of someone’s home, but that has recently retired. If there are any other business goings-on, I am not aware of it.

These old doors were once part of (presumably) two thriving businesses located next to each other, kitty corner from the towing service. One was a grocery store. I am not sure what business the other door belonged to. If I remember correctly, DOOR #2 was the grocery stoer.

Link back to Weekly Photo Challenge: Door

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.

What’s behind door #1

What’s behind door #2

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

Mittleider garden at the old Kidder school in NW MO
©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Mittleider garden at the old Kidder school in NW MO
©2014 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

This fine-looking garden has resulted from the implamentation of the Dr. Jacob Mittleider method of gardening. Seeds started in grow boxes, fed with a special MIttleider mineral mix, soon developed into seedlings, which were then transplanted into specially created and treated thirty-foot rows. For more information, you can visit Jim Kennard’s non-profit The Food for Everyone Foundation.

Jim worked closely with Dr. Mittleider for many years before the good doctor turned over everything to him. Dr. Mittleider has since passed on.

Jim travels all over the world teaching this important gardening method and promises and is in the process of creating a gardening school in Kidder.

For an overview of the Mittleider gardening method, visit What is the Mittleider Method?

Don’t you wish everyone’s garden looked like this?

Comments are welcome.

Link back to Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer Lovin’

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.

I pass by this old neglected farmhouse quite often. I can only imagine what it looked like in its heyday. It must have been a beautiful home with lots of room.

It pains me to see such ruination, but I still see the once-good in it. So I photograph it.

It may be that this will be the last photograph that is taken of it before it collapses, torn down or is razed. But I and the world will still know of it.

Please enjoy it. Comments are welcome. So are likes. Heehee.

©2013 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

©2013 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Old farmhouse near Gallatin MO by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Old farmhouse window by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

It’s amazing what one little old button can do to a photograph. Wild, but I kind of like it.

©2012 Cris Coleman

Distorted Farm Pond by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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.

If you’ve never seen a horse sunset, well, here’s one for you—my neighbor’s horse, who happens to be my daughter—the neighbor, not the horse. 🙂

©2013 Cris Coleman All Rights Reserved

Sunset on Horse by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

©2011 Cris Coleman

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

I live on top of one of a multitude of hills in NW Missouri. Looking north, this is how it often looks after a warm, nightly rainfall. Sometimes the fog even appears during a rainfall. It’s interesting to drive in, especially at night.

©2011 Cris Coleman

Rural Sunrise by Cris Coleman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

What greater hope can you have than a beautiful sunrise after a dark, cold night?