Remains

An old corn shelling machine stands guard before the barn.

In late May I made a fast trip from Wellington to a Chicago suburb to pick up the show canopy that I had purchased. This was a little more relaxed than the trip I made to New Mexico. I was able to stop overnight at my sister’s, and then stop for a few hours in Marshalltown to visit a friend I had not seen in about 35 years. I topped that off by having breakfast with another friend that I had not seen in 42 years. Why do I feel old when I type things like this?

While visiting my sister, we took a walk around her neighbors property. This is a former hybrid seed corn operation so there were some interesting old machines and buildings to see. Kind of sad to see something that was a real going operation for a long time, where the owners have passed on and the descendants long since moved away. In the big agribusiness world of today I doubt that this will ever be resurrected.

Sitting in the yard are a couple of old corn shelling machines that have been idle for many years. There are a couple of barns, some brick silos, and various other outbuildings. It is a nice old house that is a shame no one is living in. That is kind of the ways things go in the rural parts of the country anymore. I can even remember when the owners had a three legged dog running around the place.

This is the second of the two machines and this one looked considerably newer.

Looking straight up in the silo. Sure don’t see a lot of brick silos.

The structure between the silos

That big chunk of wood has been sitting there for a long time. It is really big, very heavy, and someone should have decided what to do with it many years ago. Now it kind of represents the entire place. What do you do with it?

For any gear heads out there, these pictures were all taken with a Nikon Z5 and 24-70 f/4 S lens.