The Rural Settlement Of Brasher Iron Works - Part 1

I arrived at the farm midday on Sunday and had already taken a driving tour of Madrid and Sanfordville (see previous posts). I spent Sunday night in the comfortable farm house and then decided to leave the dogs at home and take the back roads into Massena to buy a few things. On the way I passed through the tiny settlement of Brasher Iron Works:

There was once a bog iron mining operation in this town and a blast furnace produced in one year (1836 - 1837) 250 tons of pig iron and castings. Today, it's just the site of a small settlement of farms and homes such as this one:

There were older homes:

And more modern homes, especially trailers and modular homes:

This home had it all - attached garage, metal roof, two porches,  a flag pole and a windmill whose blades were a giant sunflower:

There were very large homes:

And smaller homes:

And very old homes:

And lots of trailers. Many of the older trees had the sinewy branches you see here and I wondered if they might have been Locusts. Alas, I'll probably never know unless I go back in the summertime and remember to look:

This lovely old farm was one of my favorites, again with the sinewy trees:

Some of the front windows of this very tiny house were covered with plywood and I thought it was abandoned. But when I turned onto the side road, I saw a dog tied out behind the back door and a young woman came out to let him inside:

A well kept, green home and garage marked the midpoint of my driving tour. I'll post part 2 of Brasher Iron Works tomorrow: