Jewitt Road, Franklin County Route 19

I discovered Jewitt Road because it looked like a quick way to get where I was going. But I saw immediately that it was a scenic gem, and I had my camera with me, so:

This old barn was well kept but still retained the old look:

A small but useful barn in great shape:

A collection of barns and outbuildings within a board fence. It looked to me like it could have been set in Wyoming or Eastern Oregon:

A lovely, small barn with fading colors:

The adjacent willow tree helped give color to this barn as it glistened in the sun:

The Lucky 711 Tack Shop (horse supplies) had two elaborate pieces of what I assumed to be chainsaw art - the horse head near the sign, and the man shoeing the horse at the right edge of the photo:

This barn appeared to have steel siding, but even that was beginning to lose its paint:

A large sawmill operation with a complex of buildings:

A family farm with lots of buildings:

Another family farm, a page out of history:

This farm had an orchard in the front yard, each tree meticulously pruned. I felt rather ashamed of my own untrimmed apple trees. The barns in the back, the old silo and the farm house with big front porch all helped to make this one of the prettiest farms I'd ever seen:

I was just about to the end of the road when I photographed this field full of farm equipment. There was a lot of it, all parked on a hay field which appeared to be regularly cut, so I imagine that all of the equipment was in regular use:

Wheeler And Fay Roads, Franklin County NY - Part 2

At some point (it wasn't clear where), Wheeler Road became Fay Road and I passed from the town of Malone into the town of Bangor. The road did narrow suddenly and had less traffic, so that may (or may not) have been the place both changes happened. At any rate, it continued to be rural and scenic, with lots of historic farms. These old barns were amazing to see:

Here's another view of the above old barns:

A traditional farm house with front porch and additions, everything neat and clean and glistening in the sun:

A farm house, garage and barn, all laid out in a row:

A very old barn which looked as if it was still in use:

This operation looked as if someone was fixing it all up, and that led to me wondering about the holes in the concrete silo. Were they part of the silo originally and only exposed when the old barn was demolished or were they cut into the concrete as part of a plan to re-purpose the silo?:

I passed this herd of red cattle which did not look like Red Angus and certainly not like Red Polls. They looked like photos I've seen of Lincoln Red, but they are a rare breed so it was not likely:

The old, exposed wood in this complex of farm buildings gave it the look of an outpost in the old west:

A closer view of the last three buildings in the above photo. That first building in particular looked to me like those I've seen in the old west:

A well kept, traditionally red barn. It even had shutters on the windows. But I had reached the end of Fay Road and had to find a way back to Route 11 so I could drive to the feed store. I put my camera away and concentrated on my driving:

Wheeler And Fay Roads, Franklin County NY - Part 1

It was a beautiful but cold day and I was having trouble getting moving. So I decided to take a driving tour on my way to the feed store, choosing Wheeler Road, which heads north from Route 11 just west of the village of Malone, NY. The road was altogether rural, although this brick house may seem urban in style:

There were lots of farms, almost all of them large and prosperous looking:

This is a better look at the barn in the above photo. It sat up on a hill and was difficult to photograph, but I thought it was a real beauty:

This farm was so gigantic and any livestock was so contained within its multiple barns that I never quite learned what kind of farm it was. Perhaps they raised heifers for dairies or perhaps it was a dairy:

A traditional barn so long that I wondered if they needed a golf cart to get back and forth inside it:

Another long barn not far from the previous one. I guessed these were dairy farms but couldn't be sure because I never saw, heard or smelled cattle:

A particularly picturesque farm house:

An older barn which was becoming weather-beaten, although the owners appeared to have put on a new roof. That new roof, hopefully, will help it last for many more years:

Another picturesque farm house, this one looking like it hadn't changed much in the past century or so except that it too had a new roof:

Another large and prosperous looking farm:

A well kept farm house with a wonderful front porch and a swimming pool out back. But there was still more to see on this road and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Dyke Road In Bangor, New York

I'd just finished a driving tour of two scenic, rural roads in Franklin county, New York (previous two posts) and turned onto state highway 11 to head for home. I passed an interesting looking rural road and thought, "I might as well drive down it and take a look." So it was that I came to take a driving tour of Dyke Road in the town of Bangor, New York:

Dyke Road was indeed rural. This house, barn and garage sat so very far off the road that I had to use my zoom lens to photograph it. Surrounded by hay fields, it seemed to me like "the little house on the prairie." I remember thinking how much snow plowing they must have to do in the winter to keep that long driveway clean:

There were fields filled with long, giant, plastic covered tubes of what must surely have been silage:

And fields covered with farm equipment:

This historic farm house and barn sat up on a small hill:

There were golden woodlands:

And green hills, covered with tall Pines:

This farm pond had a wooden pier built out into it, perfect for children who liked to swim in the summertime:

We were just outside the Adirondack Park border and the sandy soil must have been similar, because this moss, birch and Reindeer Lichen covered hillside sure reminded me of the Adirondacks:

What appeared to be an elegant estate sat up on a hill and behind the trees:

This farm house and outbuilding sat so far off the road that I wondered if it had another entrance off another road somewhere. Again, I used my zoom lens to get a picture:

I ended my driving tour at this historic looking building with a new, metal roof. It had the look of an old school house or grange hall, but I suspect that it's just a storage barn for someone now. I saw no houses near it. My driving tour had come to an end, it was past lunchtime and I was hungry. So I put my camera away and aimed for home:

South Woods Road, From Dickinson NY To Brushton NY

I had just taken a driving tour of Franklin County Route 7, a rural road which took me from the town of Brushton to the town of Dickinson (yesterday's post), but the day was still young so I turned north on the South Woods Road, the next road parallel to Route 7, and continued my tour. I realized I'd been here before when I passed Tower Sugar House. I'd stopped here several years ago when they had an open house:

I stopped and looked at this abandoned building, trying to decide if it had been a barn, garage, home or combination. There were no other buildings adjacent to it. Whatever it had once been, it was now a soon to disappear piece of American history:

I passed by this adorable mailbox and had to stop and back up to get its photo. This is easily the best rural mailbox I've ever seen:

This old barn had been kept up nicely and I took note of the grindstone and milk cans with which it was decorated:

A very large, old farm house:

And an exquisite barn with a wooden silo:

A woodsy type home, set back in the trees:

A large home with a magnificent porch:

And out behind the home in the above photo were these outbuildings and a huge pile of firewood. Notice the Tree Gnome face on the maple trunk:

And here's a closeup of the octagon(?) building in the above photo. It appears to be a sugar house for boiling down maple syrup, and the extensive firewood is more evidence to support that theory:

I drove right by these critters and, once again, had to stop and back up to get a photo. Two ponies and two donkeys in a woodland corral:

I was almost back to Brushton and the end of South Woods Road when I stopped to photograph this old cabin. I marveled at the small and simple homes in which our predecessors lived. I am glad that these old, abandoned homes still exist and wish they could be preserved for posterity. But this marked the end of my driving tour. I put my camera away and concentrated on getting to the feed store. I needed more grain for the cattle: