Once a Farm

So a short (slightly long) while ago I found and explored a now abandoned farm. I’ve been sitting on them not doing anything for a deplorably long time, but here a few at long last.

One of the cans inside the overgrown motor pool.

This is where I would normally have some sort of establishing shot to give context to the rest of the photos, but unfortunately the sky and light were poor enough that I don’t have any worth sharing. The upside however, is that through a bit of asking around, I was able to find out the history of that plot of land and learn why it sits as it does today!

There were two smashed cars outside the motor pool.

Up until about ten years ago this had been a working buffalo farm. On its last leg, but on a property with a fairly good location, it sold the whole plot to Walmart, who had every intention of building their next super duper store there. This is where I am missing some information. About eight or nine years ago they got as far as starting to get construction equipment there. Apparently they stopped rather quickly as well because the contractors trailer is still there, long since over grown with brambles.

This is against the back of the motor pool. I cropped the sly out because it was a grey mess.

After they ceased, it was all just left to the tides of time. In some places it was clearly an active place to party with beer cans sewn about. In the motor pool an owl now lives, speckling the floor with droppings and pellets.

The farm house itself has been burned down since then, and remains untouched.

A lot of the frame work of the house was still standing, though charred almost beyond recognition. There is still a large section of the second floor and the chimney and things attached to it remain in tack.

Right down to the wood inside the fireplace.

Once you start to move away from the heart of the house, there is less and less left standing.

Seeing straight back outside through most of the basement.

This was laying in some sticker bushes away from the house itself.

And finally, in lost in some deep grass, someone had to suffer from cold feet.

 

Post: I haven’t been very active on here the last few days. I’ve been exploring snowy campgrounds with my roommate, teaching my family how to snowboard, doing some hand illustrating, learning to make animated walk cycles, and starting to work on a large .gif project. So, I might be quiet for a few more days, but I’m still cooking away at projects.

Thanks for getting to the bottom of this!

 

The Abandoned Barn

Finally found motivation and time to edit some of these pictures! So here goes. I had another rainy day off so I went to shoot photos at an old barn that I had made note of a couple weeks ago. There were a lot of neat details laying around, but the whole place was grown over very thick with blackberry stickers.

This was in the center of the barn

Since I shot the photos I’ve been able to ask around and find out why the old barn still stands. Up until about ten years ago it was part of a large buffalo farm. I don’t know if the farm was faltering or if there was just enough money offered, but WallMart bought all of the land with the intention of building a new store there.

And then? Nothing.

Experimenting with adding cool to a weak establishing shot.

No one seemed to know why a WallMart was never built here. But it seemed most everyone was happy it hadn’t been. So now ten years later all that is left is the overgrown farm and the memories it holds.

And clearly some memories have been made and lost here

While by no means covered in beer cans and bottles, many of the larger bushes would show off troves of hoarded glass and tin if you peaked beneath their leafy exteriors.

The skeletons of mattresses rose from sections of ground like coiled plants in places

The small sticker bush tunnel to the barn proper once had a soft floor of mattresses. Now barely remaining are their coils, almost invisible until you step on the rusty springs.

This was a room at one point

You can still see all of the tin roofing on the ground. One of two small rooms off the back of the barn that looked like they had once been canning rooms. The only evidence this being some left over shelves and some broken mason jars. This room still most of three walls even long after a tree broke though the roof on its trek for sunlight.

The garage was dark and dirty. A mix of red cups, tires, dirt, and paint cans.

Near the garage a section of tow chair and an ice scraper found their new home

A long since broken window faced the way I had come from and was heading back too.

I really enjoy these old places. I feel like they often have more life and stories than the places where people still reside.  You just need to look for them. Like a detective, but without the snub nose revolver and the goons on your tail.

I’m already sitting on photos from a couple other houses. I have more marked out to shoot too. I occasionally just drive around looking for places, but more often then not, I hear about them through the grapevine. More soon! Thanks for reading all the hubbub or at least quickly scrolling to the bottom!

Indecisive focus – Cinemagraph

Another one from the other day at the abandoned farm. I’ve been too busy working to edit any other photos yet. Soon though!

I love how odd and slightly unsettling these things are. Plus they’re very fun and fairly quick to make!

The Swing at the old barn

It was raining today, so naturally I sought out an abandoned building to take pictures of. I’ll have the rest up in a day or two, but for now here’s a moving cinegraph of the swing that was in front of the barn. Also, I found what appears to be a full street of abandoned and burned homes near by so expect more in the near future!

The swing was getting blown by the wind the whole time I was there

Bainbridge Island Farm Pumpkin Patch!

Went to the Bainbridge Island Farm pumpkin patch and picked out some very fine pumpkins!

Also, there was some pretty wonderful light too!