Marvels of Time

I've spent several weekends and evenings in this barn.  Doing a number of things, most of them involving the transit of hay and straw into the barn during the dog days of summer and the exporting of the same hay and straw during the winter.  

Moving the bales into the barn was the most challenging, the 90-100 degree temperatures outside this barn felt pretty pleasant compared to the 110 degree temperatures and dust on the inside of this barn. 

The winter allowed for a more enjoyable process.  While the barn was filled as quickly as possible during the summer, it was emptied slowly each winter as we took bales off the loft, one wagon-full at a time.  It allowed for a lot of conversation between my family members, which often led to conversation about the barn itself.  A barn that was constructed the same year the Civil War ended and the year Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Originally, the barn stored hay to feed horses, but not on a typical farm of the period.

Above is a 1930s aerial photo of the Bemis farm.  The farm is in the bottom left corner.  The barn, built in 1865, can be seen by the orange oval.  The dots in the fields around this barn were apple trees.  

Here a struggling family picked apples, filled a Model 'A' Ford, and drove around selling them to neighbors and friends to make a living in the Great Depression of the 1930s.  (The apple trees have since been uprooted, now these areas are fields of corn and soybeans).

As a kid, the Bemis farm was pretty fascinating.  Every barn was full of equipment from a time when horses were the main method of transportation.  The Bemis farm looked like a place that was essentially a ghost town.  A thriving farm that had all of a sudden gone silent, leaving everything where it was over 50 years ago.  As the only surviving child in the family, has not sold anything or changed anything since the farm quit operating.  In fact, you can see more of the farm buildings in the background of the photo I took this summer (also notice the vegetation growth from the 1930s to today, nearly bare in the 1930s, overgrown today). 

The inside of this barn is a marvel.  Entire tree trunks were used as supports and wooden pins (instead of nails) help keep the barn together.  What's even more fascinating than the construction, is the thought that this barn is older than any living person.  The barn is nearly 148 years old.  The things this barn has seen in 148 years are unimaginable; the sunrises, the sunsets, the raging thunderstorms, rainbows, floods, droughts, not to mention the beginning of rural Illinois society in the 1860s. 

2013 is the first time this barn has spent a summer empty since its construction.  Not because its structurally weak, but the reality is that farming methods have changed substantially since its construction.  The barn constructed to store a few cows, chickens, small equipment, and harbor hay in a loft is no longer feasible and no longer built.  In fact, as our generation grows older, we'll watch many of these small-family farms and barns wither away, fall down, or be torn down. 

I photograph these barns while I still can.  The Bemis barn, while not that as-ethically pleasing as some, has a lot of nostalgic feelings for those who have made their living here through hard work, sweat, and sacrifice.  The Bemis family and the Greuel family have been neighbors and worked together since the 1930s.

Below are some of my favorite 'marvels of time' from various places in Illinois.

Alexis, Illinois

What's left of a farm in the middle of a now, wooded area near Stewardson, Illinois

San Jose, Illinois

Colfax, Illinois

You'll notice that all of these barns, contain 'corn-cribs' or areas to store corn cobs on the inside walls.  As farmers picked their corn by hand and unloaded it through the open compartments on top of the barns using an elevator (see photo below) and stored the corn in the walls of the barn.  A practice long out-dated, but explains the rooftops of each of these barns and the hollow wooden walls.  Barns are now boxy machine sheds of great size and little aesthetic quality.

The elevator used to transport corn cobs to the top of this barn still sits where a farmer left it over 30 years ago.  Stewardson, Illinois

Yet, Another Weak Illinois Thunderstorm

If you're wonder when it will stop raining, there seems to be no answer in sight.  Another four days of thunderstorms and possibly another 4-5 inches for portions of Illinois.  Nearly the entire state is above average in precipitation for this time of year.  The graphic below shows how many inches above average locations of Illinois are for April-May.

This graphic has left many farmers in central Illinois and western Illinois losing sleep over the planting season.  As yields will begin to decrease drastically if the farmers do not plant by the 1st week of June.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many farmers in the field, rushing to beat this storm, in portions of southern Illinois yesterday.  I snapped this photo just east of Farina, a photo I had imagined would turn out differently.  I had tried this shot before, but my camera seems to not enjoy the slightly green vegetation and often gives it more of a blue hue.  This leads to a lot of color issues, but still turned out 'post-worthy.'

After the shot of this corn field, I immediately turned 180 degrees and snapped this photo of the weak shelf cloud moving east.

 

I then began my race to stay ahead of the storm, to increase photographic opportunities.  It seems these type of storms always out-run me, as I end up on gravel roads, which disallow speeds greater than 35mph.

With no other road options and no cellular data, I realized my time was nearly up, so I decided to snap a few photos over this wheat field; the rain core can be seen in the right side of the photo.

I drove a half-mile more and the gravel road turned south, I was able to capture one last photo between two wheat fields before being overtaken by rain, this turned out to be my favorite photo from the journey.

Golden wheat has a special place in my heart, and I look forward to the small window in June when I'll be able to return to portions of southern Illinois and capture more photographs of wheat fields.

Storm-hunting in Winter Clothes

Several years ago, I loved hitting the road on days when I did not expect much to happen.  Usually, I'd be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  There's no question expectations were low today as a stationary front forced weather in our area.  Allowing for elevated thunderstorms with no available potential energy or favorable wind shear for severe weather.

Today was my first storm hunt of the 2013 season.  Perhaps the latest start to the storm season for me ever.  Though it seems storms have always fired at inopportune times for me this spring. 

I was surprised when I stepped out my door and had to turn around to grab a jacket.  Then, I thought to myself, this may be a very disappointing day, with temperatures in the lower 60s with cloud cover.

I spent the first 30 minutes of the chase watching a rain shaft near Stewardson, Illinois.  Waiting for any sign of life, but not even a rumble of thunder.  I drove around looking for some picture opportunities but found nothing worth grabbing my camera.  I set my course for home.  Then, the storm pulled an act I've often observed from my niece and nephews.  "Don't go, look what I can do!" Three lightning strikes hit, at the same time, the first the storm had produced.  I decided maybe the storm was worth more of my time.  I followed the storm east to Neoga, Illinois.  I stopped west of Neoga to snap a photo of an un-plowed field taken over by wild flowers. A common site in this area.

Moving northeast of Neoga I saw the barn I drove past for an entire summer when I took Calculus I in Mattoon.  I vowed to one day photo this barn, but I had waited for a backdrop, I decided to try it today, with mediocre results.  Perhaps a storm with more structure and more color or even a sunset in the future.

I moved east through the town of Trilla, Illinois.  Decided to take a turn south, and I waited for the storm to approach near Toledo, Illinois.  The storm started to develop structure and frequent cloud-to-ground lightning, which resulted in some photo opportunities.

It wasn't long before rain overspread the area, and I was washed out.  I lacked radar, due to poor data coverage, so I called it a day.  Pleased, yet again, on a day when I expected no weather excitement.