Traveling The Backroads

Sometimes on my way home from work, I like to take the scenic route, ie, the backroads. I get off the pavement, and take a slower route home. There’s more to see, like this house.

I like to imagine a family living here, relaxing on that wrap-around porch to catch the evening breeze after a long day of farm work. And I think about how much pride the woman of the house must have taken when she would clean her windows.

No one visits the outhouse now.

No one does any work in the old barn or silo either.

All is quiet.

Up the road and around the corner is another barn.

There would have been a house here too, but it is long gone. I love this barn. It is one of my favorites, although I can’t tell you why.

I look at it from every angle as I pass it by.

We finally had a break in the heatwave yesterday afternoon. We got a quarter inch of rain- not much, but it’s a start. As the sun set, it lit the departing clouds and illuminated the freshly washed earth. And there was a golden light over all.

~~~~~~~~~~~

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Suzanne

Cattle, corn, wheat, beans, mud, snow, ice, and drought. Plenty of fresh air and quiet. Our life is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous, but never boring.

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52 Responses

  1. Kelly says:

    The golden light creates such a nice atmosphere in your photos!

  2. Lee Ann L. says:

    I love traveling the back roads. Sometimes the best scenery is along the country or rarely traveled roads. Cute outhouse.

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Lee Ann,
      And on country back roads, you can stand in the middle of the road to take pics with no fear of being run over. There was absolutely no traffic that evening, not one vehicle.

  3. I love country roads, farms and barns. These pictures are beautiful. I love the coloring with the golden hue from the sky. It makes the photos so peaceful and calm. It looks like you live in such a pretty place with pretty surroundings. Today, while driving to my friend’s house, I had to take a different route because of construction on the road….I passed a nice wooden fence along the side of the road…with all the grass and wildflowers, it was so pretty. I wish I had my camera, but of course I didn’t. I vowed to go back and take a photo!

  4. Glyndalyn says:

    I love old houses and barns and out buildings in the country. We have quit a few around Tiny Village, TN. What a shame to see them disappear.

  5. I picture families living in old farmsteds too.
    I’m always happy to see when someone is keeping a structure sound even if they aren’t using it especially old limestone homes.

  6. Shonneky says:

    These are some really beautiful pictures. Looking at them reminds me of the small town I grew up in. Thanks for posting them.

  7. Shailaja says:

    That house is also a perfect setting for a mystery story… but for the ghoulish mind. No, not me, I am converted by the beautiful golden hues of light in the pics. 🙂

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Shailaja,
      I used to explore old houses when I was a kid, and they were really spooky. But today, I admire them from afar.
      Thank you for stopping by.

  8. Deidra says:

    I love these pictures! I love old houses and barns. I always think about the people that lived in them and what they might have been like. Thanks for sharing!

  9. Doe of Mi. says:

    Love your photos, they remind me of when I was a little kid and moving to our farm.
    No bathroom, yes we had to use the outhouse and watch out for that mean ole’ rooster
    who chased us. Love the memories, lived there ’til I was 19. Well, I guess this has
    dated me!! LOL

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Doe,
      Thank you for sharing your story. I’ve seen houses on our travels where the occupants are still using an outhouse. Hard to imagine in this day.

  10. Jen says:

    Those pictures illustrate the exact reason why I love your blog so much. I too love driving the back roads, looking at old houses, imagining a family residing there. So many tales from those houses will never be told. It’s fascinating.

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Jen,
      You’re right about the houses having stories, and I think about that too. Births, deaths, joy, sadness….all lost to time.

  11. I’m glad to hear you all got some rain… we got a little over night Friday and some AMAZING lightning! I see why you commented on my post with the abandoned house. Your first photo looks almost identical! When I looked closer, it’s obviously not the same house, but WOW they are so much alike!

    ~Tiffany

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Tiffany,
      I just checked out your site. Great pics of lightning! I don’t think we got anything like that Friday night when the storms went thru.

  12. Julie says:

    beautiful sunset pictures of the farm. Very cool.

  13. The lighting and coloring on these are gorgeous. You have inspired me to take a different route home every day this week, just to see what I see. I bet it will be eye opening!

  14. Oh, Suzanne, it is so beautiful there. I love the old houses and barns. We have one barn that I know of near where we live, and I am just mesmerized every time I drive by it.

  15. Vivian says:

    It’s kinda sad to see a house like that and wonder what happened and why it was just deserted. Near where I grew up there was this big barn – the kind of 2-storey barn you think about when you think of barns. Anyway, it was deserted and right in the middle of woods! Full-grown trees all around it. We figured that there had once been a farm there and when the owners left, first brush, then little trees grew up. It was always a surprise to take a walk through the woods and have that barn just pop out of nowhere.

  16. Louise says:

    I love this series of photos. Your light is just so perfect! Makes me want to get out and roam tonight.

  17. Benjamin says:

    Reminds me of my trip to Oklahoma last fall trying to retrace my ancestor’s steps–lots fo old farm buildings, and cellars to trip into. Sad, powerful, moving. As an aside, it hasn’t rained here in Nebraska since July 20. Not a drop.

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Benjamin,
      We got a quarter inch on Friday, and it was the first rain we’d had since July 4. Dry dry dry.

  18. Bethany says:

    Love the photos! There is something about old barns that is just unexplainable, but they draw me to them all the time.

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Bethany,
      Thank you! Old barns and houses speak of a lot of living by someone we will never know. And we can’t help but wonder.

  19. Ashlee says:

    Where was this taken it looks so familiar?? Beautiful photography 🙂

  20. yvonne says:

    gorgeous photos. you need a frame around them. found your site through a comment you left on PW.

  21. stacey says:

    amazing barn photos. I wish I could travel the back roads home from work and see that.

  22. Elaine Snively says:

    When I see some of these old houses, I always look for flowers and flowering bushes still growing. I wonder about the women who lived there and planted them, Iris, Daffodils, Roses,
    and usually Lilac bushes, still there for us to enjoy.

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Elaine,
      I do too. Amazing that they continue to come back year after year with no care, just blooming their little hearts out.

  23. Life is so busy…its great when I can take a moment and look at these peaceful pictures…

    Thanks for the solitude, every now and then…

    kristina

  24. LoriM says:

    Love the barn pictures; I’ve been taking back roads to work recently (due to construction on the freeway) and loving it. I’m more of the melancholy personality and that’s how old barns and abandoned houses make me feel – but I enjoy it. Haha. Also enjoy the thought of fixing one up some day…

  25. Elaine Snively says:

    The house in the first picture is very much like the house we lived in when we were first married. Built between 1870-1880. We worked on it for 20 years, and sold it “as is” . If had remained there, we’d still be working on it.

  26. Euni Moore says:

    I love the picture of the old farm house. It reminds me of my great grandparents home in southeastern Kansas. The lonely road, the old barns along with the house remind me a great deal of that part of the state.

  27. Mary says:

    Suzanne you should publish a book of these great barn and countryside pictures. It’s so relaxing looking at them. I love to do detective work in my head to figure out why they are abandoned.

    Thanks for sharing

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Mary,
      Thank you! I was just thinking it’s been a while since I’ve hit the backroads to take pics. Hmmmm….

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