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RE: Heavy Skies
There are very few old barns left in this part of the state. More if you go a little further west but around here there are no more small dairy herds and big agribusiness has taken over most everything. Most of these old structures have been torn down, so I always try to get a photo when I find one. The one you posted reminded me that I had this one from last week. It would be great to go in there to take photos!
Ah, yes. Big corporate farming operations have also taken over a lot of land here in corn and soy country. Fortunately, they don't seem interested in the area along the river and a lot of the barns are still standing. The vast majority are in some state of decay and some have toppled completely, but they still make great subjects.
A friend of mine has been involved in the historical societies project the last couple years to do an inventory of all the barns in the next County over from me. They gathered all the data that they could about the structures and did a complete photo inventory, trying to save some of the history before it vanishes.
That sounds like a fun project! Are they having your friend speak with the owners to try and figure out what they know about the barns? The photography would be especially fun.
Well, unless you run into that guy. A fellow photographer here in southern MN got yelled at by grouchy farmer for pulling over and taking a photo of his barn. The thing is, he took the photo from the public road. He wasn't trespassing. Most farmers, at least in my experience, are great to chat with and proud of their operations and history.
My colleague got back in his car, after taking the photo anyway, and called the farmer an "old grouch." He's probably in his 70's, so I wonder if the farmer was any older than he was!
I believe they are using all sorts of resources to document everything that is known about the structures, including speaking with the owners. My friend has published several local history books that include many wonderful old photographs, so I'm pretty sure that they are gathering as many old photos from the families as they can, also. It must be a huge amount of information.
That grouchy old farmer must have really gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. I sure am glad that I don't have to live his life!
I've wanted to do something similar in southern Spain for years, but don't know how to go about getting funding for it. There are literally hundreds of castle ruins in the landscape and few have any sort of historical information available at the site. I would love to get theo photos of sites and either write or work with a writer to compile their histories. Another hurtle is that, with dyslexia and vision issues, reading has become very difficult and most of the information about these structures is likely to be found in church archives and the musty basements of libraries.
I got a good laugh at the elderly photographer calling the farmer an "old grouch." :-)
That would be so interesting to research the old castles in Spain. Are you proficient enough in the language that you could read the old documents?
The language would be the easier part. It's the handwriting that would make it hard! I've actually translated part of a 15th century play and am going to, hopefully, get some time to finish it next semester. It's not unlike reading old English.