Perfect little farm

(Refer to the previous post for info about where this is and why it matters.)

Perfect mini-farm on the side of a mountain about 40 miles north of the NC/VA border. Beautiful curvy roads getting up (or down) the mountain to it. No visible access to it from the road. A few cows, a little house/cabin in need of loving restoration, and a couple of outbuildings. I'm in love.

This is what you see when you are heading down the mountains between Tazewell and Marion VA, on Hwy. 16, looking toward Clinch Mountain. There are so many hills and mountains there that without decent topographic maps and an eye for detail, I couldn't tell you exactly what you're seeing in this photo.

But the landscape is lovely. As I told my lady friend (wife Jessica), if she could quit her job, I'd move there in a heartbeat. Just give away the house, take the books, the motorcycle, the baby and a few other essentials, and go build a cabin that would eventually become my coffin. Seriously, I'd live there forever, or die feeling that at least I'd lived in a place I loved with the things and people I loved. If we ever move there, I may or may not learn to play the banjo. Maybe I should master the bass or harmonica first.

Taken on my this Spring trip through my mountains, in psychological preparation for moving to central Texas -- where the landscape looks NOTHING like this.

Impromptu Cemetery

These two crosses, apparently marking graves, stand in the woods behind a burned-out house near Columbia SC. The house itself is hidden from the road by a stand of trees and tall grass. When I found it this spring, it looked like the house had burned within a few months. What I could not tell was whether the graves predated the fire. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Shot with late 1920s Zeiss Ikon 6x9cm folding camera. Ilford Delta 400 film.

Rocking Horse, Central SC

Went for a short ride northwest from Columbia a few weeks ago and saw about eight or ten rocking horses set up in the front yard of a little house, most of them straddling the rail fence. Interesting and a little odd.

Man who lives there came out with his walker. Older dude, big old nose and ears. Name's John, I believe. He just had his leg amputated a couple months earlier, after having an I-beam dropped on it at a work site. It went untreated for too long, got infected, and had to be removed just above the knee. No more construction jobs for him. He was a welder for over 40 years.

The rocking horses are his wife's, he said. She can't help but buy them whenever she sees them, or she finds them on the side of the road.

Contax IIa, Sonnar f/1.5 50mm lens, Ilford Delta 400 film.