Snell, Richards, Foster And Brooklyn Roads

This is Part 4 of my wintry driving tour. I'd come to the end of Town Line Road and had to travel several other rural roads to get back to the highway. My first stop was this old, abandoned barn:

And nearby, an abandoned home. It must have been empty for many years, judging by the vines which covered it:

Another old barn, way back behind some brush. It too probably hadn't been used in many years:

A beautiful, classic Amish Farm. It was pretty as a picture, so I turned it into a picture:

Snowy farm fields, bordered with woodlands:

A traditional Amish farm house with laundry, barn and windmill:

A beautiful old barn, outbuildings and silo:

Another old barn which I suspected was no longer used:

A lovely home in a lovely setting:

This intricate home and attached barn was located just as I entered the tiny hamlet of Lawrenceville:

Another home with a front porch, this one with a western look to it:

This large home was the last photo I took before I turned again onto the highway. I noticed that it was for sale, so I looked it up online when I got home. It was a three bedroom, one bath home with two garages for $74,900:

A Snowy Farm - Part 1

It was cold and snowy outside, and I could see through a window that this tree was covered in white. It's a double tree - a wild seeded Golden Delicious apple on the left, and a flowering crab on the right:

So I bundled up and went outside for a closer look at all the wintry beauty. The Golden Delicious in the above photo still had apples clinging to its frozen branches:

I looked across the county road to the northwest and my neighbors' house:

 Then I turned my gaze toward the north field, which was across the gravel town road:

 Due west was my neighbors' barn:

 And to the southwest was the farm field on which alternating crops of soybeans and field corn are grown and harvested:

The cattle and horses were clustered at the bale feeder on the east side of the barn:

 And the trees at the edge of the field to the northeast were beautifully covered in snowy white:

 For a closeup view, I checked out the Rugosa Rose hips, growing right near the farm house back door:

All five dogs were watching me from their fenced yard:

 The Bridalveil Spirea bushes were intricate and lacy, all covered with snow. I continued walking, and will post Part 2 tomorrow:

Maple Ridge Road In Brasher, New York - Part 1

When Upper Ridge Road became Maple Ridge Road (see yesterday's post), I continued on in search of family farms and picturesque rural scenery. At first, however, I saw mostly suburban style homes:

But it didn't take long to enter farm country, beginning with this large field, filled with baleage and haying equipment:

A picturesque farm with a log home, red barns, silo and tractor:

A large barn, filled with hay for the winter:

It was difficult to get a good photo of these outbuildings, but I tried:

The road crossed over a small brook. With grassy fields on both sides of the brook, it was sure pretty:

This pile contained logs big enough and straight enough to possibly be saw logs instead of firewood. There are a lot of farm sawmills in the area:

Forage wagons, used for collecting chopped corn on its way to becoming silage:

Lots of farm equipment, stored along a row of trees:

Well, this wasn't very scenic, but it's the way most farms used to dispose of their trash:

This old homestead was picturesque, and I would have said no one lived there except there was a pickup truck parked in front of it, leading me to wonder:

I came to a field of Holstein calves who watched me with interest. There was still a lot more to see on Maple Ridge Road, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Days Mill Road, Hopkinton NY - Part 2

I was taking a driving tour on Days Mill Road (see also Part 1, posted yesterday) and came to this small shed. It was being used to sell eggs and other items, but I guessed it was originally built as a place for the children to wait for their school bus:

I passed by old dirt lanes into the pine forest and ancient cedar fences, built in the old style:

A sturdy and comfortable country home beside tall pines and decorated for Halloween:

More old cedar rail fencing with a collection of barns:

The old cedar rail fence ran along the road, past farm and forest:

Cedar lasts for a very long time and this fence was in the old style, so it could easily have been a hundred years old:

This pasture stretched back to the forest and was bounded alongside the road with more cedar rail fence:

An old shingled barn in excellent shape, with a wonderful sign out front: "Just Be Kind"

The other side of the barn in the above photo, showing an old silo. The first time I drove this road I saw horses here, but I've never seen them since:

A house with a wonderful front porch:

A wood shingled house:

An old farm field which may have been a hay field. There was still more to see on Days Mill Road and I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

The Beginning Hours Of A March Nor'easter

Another (our third in a row) nor'easter had just begun and it was frosting the woods and fields like white cotton candy. I'd recently taken the tractor driving tour around the north field but decided to hop into my car and start down the gravel road to again see what beauty the snow was creating. I began with this field, backed up by a brushy woodland:

A former gateway into a field which hasn't been used in many years:

A patch of Staghorn Sumac, the red clusters of berries seemingly covered with powdered sugar:

My neighbor's maple sap lines. It was certainly sugaring season, but I hadn't seen him out and about. I worried if something had happened to him:

But then I found him and his uncle stopped along the road, transferring the sap into a giant tank to be boiled down. They are friendly and some of my favorite people. I'm always glad to stop and chat:

I continued on my way and began looking for places where beech trees added a bit of color to what otherwise might make the photos look like they were in black and white:

A beech tree and pine tree among the aspens, with an old barbed wire fence paralleling the road:

An old stone wall where I once released a mouse I'd caught in a live trap:

The snow was sticky and causing an intricate, lacy beauty:

I'd been expecting the Red Pines to be exceptionally lovely, but they seemed to be holding less snow than the hardwood branches. They were still beautiful, though:

More piney woods:

Pines and beech. I stopped at my Amish neighbor's field where he appeared to be digging a well. I asked him if he'd come and trim my horses' feet on Saturday, which is the day he has assigned for such jobs. He said he'd be there in the morning. This was the end of my driving tour, so I headed home to get some work done: