The Oak in November

On the north edge of our property grows an oak.  A very large, presumably very old oak.  It was one of the compelling reasons that we purchased the house in 2010.  It lost a few limbs in a tornado back in 2014, but this oak tree is still a distinctive feature of the landscape.  Here it is in early November, framing some of the autumn color a couple houses away.

A history of farming

In the back of my wife's grandma's barn, in rural Indiana, hang these implements that tell the story of the farm's past.  I've long worked on getting just the right angle and light inside the barn to illuminate them correctly and capture these items in a way that visually describes their history and their rugged longevity.  I'm no agricultural historian, but I would guess that both the plow and the other implement, which I think is an early rock-hauling sled for removing stones from a farm field, both date back over 100 years.  This portion of the barn probably dates back to the 1930s...wooden pegs were used instead of nails to hold the timbers together. 

The doors of Otterville

This is probably the most unique pair of screen doors I've ever seen.  These were on the front of an old building in downtown Otterville, Missouri.  While I was taking the photo, a man stuck his head out of the second story window above me and told me that this used to be a bank.  I am amazed that the original windows and doors have remained intact.  And I thought a black and white treatment was more fitting here than a color rendition.

November morning, Boone County

An autumn morning back in mid-November.  Not as early as you might be inclined to believe, because I am rarely inclined to be up early on the weekend.

New Boston Garage -N- Weld Shop, Highway 129

I think the sign says it all...this is the New Boston Garage and Weld Shop.  On the venerable Highway 129 in downtown New Boston, Missouri.  During my short visit, I spoke to someone entering the post office, saw someone mowing a lawn on an early model riding lawn mower, and took a couple photos.  If it hadn't been so hot, I might have stayed a little while longer.

Post Dawdling

A summer sunset provides the quintessential backdrop to the start of the evening's festivities as the participants in the 2015 Boone Dawdle bike ride relax and congregate on the hill at Les Bourgeois Winery.

Purdin Mercantile Company

I took a day off work and drove 125 miles to reach this building.  I remember first seeing it during a photography trip in 2010, and I have been enchanted by the prospect of coming back to photograph it ever since then.  The painted signs, advertising groceries, hardware, furnishings, clothing, shoes, and other miscellaneous goods, still stand in strong, easily-legible relief against the brick front of the building, preserved by the fact that the front of the building faces north and is therefore perpetually in shadow.  Purdin, Missouri is north of Linneus, a misspelled attribution to the notable botanist and father of binomial nomenclature Carl Linnaeus.  Linneus is north of Laclede, and Laclede is just north of Highway 36.  And yes, I'd like to go back and photograph this structure again.