A Saturday Morning In Adams County

I like going to the cemeteries to decorate for Memorial Day. I also like going back two weeks later to dedecorate. That's when I take my time as well as my camera and end up with more than 100 photos! Here are some of those:

Juxtaposition.

The old and the new.

Sunlight spangling on the waters of the East Nodaway River.

Thistles and Chicory along a road in NE Adams County that I'm sure I had never been on before.

I love to see Chicory Blue coloring the roadsides. 

Although I've never tried coffee made from chicory roots, I have friends who ordered chicory coffee from New Orleans because it was a favorite of theirs.

I can't resist stopping at bridges to look upstream and down. The bridge was pretty iffy with one banister bent and leaning, I suppose from some piece of large farm machinery crashing into it.

This little rill was on its way into that East Nodaway River pictured above. There were lots of animal tracks along the muddy bank.

Across that dicey bridge and a bit further down the road, another working windmill and this bucolic pasture scene.

This cared for, preserved, gambrel barn is located on a Century Family Farm. 

With the sun hitting it and the shadows playing across its face, it was yelling, "Stop. Take my picture!" How could I not?

Less than a mile from that shiny speciman was this derelict display - all that remains of a structure once so necessary and important in the daily life of a farm family.

Two barns. Close in proximity, but miles and years apart in distinction.

Can you guess which I find most compelling?

There are very few one-room country schools left standing in Adams County. When you see one, you have to stop and take a picture.

This one, Miller School, Carl # 8 in Carl Township is a different style than the one in Jasper Township I attended for eight years. But I'm sure the students of this school had just as good an early education as did I. 

A different barn style (Dutch, I think), but the same results after years of neglect and disrepair.

I have long been intrigued by those ceramic tile block silos - ever since I saw pictures of one converted into a home. 

I cannot resist a dirt road. This one, Filbert Avenue east and south of Carbon, IA.

I was struck by the grandeur of the trees arching across the roadway.

Not far away is the Old Quincy Trail, little changed from the days when it connected the first county seat of Quincy to the present one at Corning. 

Another stop at one of those small bridges, this one over Walters Creek on Quincy Avenue. (Present name of the old Quincy trail.)

Water lilies on East Lake? West Lake? I'm confused. I thought East Lake was another name for the old reservoir on the NE edge of Corning because it is located on the east side of East Street. But I find it identified as West Lake on an Iowa DNR website. Perhaps because the old reservoir is west of the new reservoir (Lake Binder)?

I guess I'll just call refer to it as The Old Reservoir from now on.

Regardless, the water lilies are beautiful.

There were a number of dragonflies flitting around. 

It took many tries, but one finally stopped long enough for a picture. 

(Bottom middle of photo.)

I picked up a couple souvenirs while there - a rock, of course, and a stem of crown vetch, including the roots. I've planted it at home, hoping to get a small patch of it stared on the north side of the house.

Hardscape, concrete, and softscape, crown vetch.

There used to be a road back along the west side of the reservoir but now it is closed off, leaving just a parking area.

One last stop on a county road bridge. This one I crossed many times on my walk to and from school between 1949 and 1957.

Red Cedar limbs reach across the small 102 River tributary. Arrowhead grows in the stream, reflected in the water. 

It is not the creek of my youth.

One last photo - this one at the old homestead. I note that the tall evergreen is gone and that the windmill has lost some more of its blades. The forground is where my Mom always had her large garden. 

Not long ago a cousin asked me if I regretted selling the farm. I replied that there were times I thought about it, but we weighed the pros and cons and made the best decision based on what we knew at that time. 

It no longer bothers me to go back past the farm and see everything gone. I still have my memories.