Kentucky

Tomorrow I leave for home.  I will be leaving the State where my father was born and the rest of my siblings and mother still live.  It's difficult to be someone who doesn't understand the local accent or the style of living.  Our family roots are deep in Western Kentucky, so maybe that is why something draws me to the land and the beauty of the old buildings.  I wonder what stories those buildings could tell.

Last night I sketched the ancient house of a local family and then started a sketch of the nearby original barn.  The barn is about 22 ft long and the calves are sequestered in the fenced yard.  The barn itself is almost all metal now.  Every time a wall started to fall apart a sheet of metal was nailed to keep it together.  The metal rusts, so the wall is now steel colored (blue) and dark orange.  It creates a patchwork quilt and if the sun is shining on the sides it glimmers.  I know how cold it would be in the winter.

 I remember a calf being born during the winter, in Owensboro, on my fathers small farm.  The cow was older and couldn't birth the calf. The vet had to be called to pull it out with a hoist and swing the calf to get it breathing.  My children and I were standing in the corner of the barn in the freezing cold watching baby Noel being born!

Old log house with very old siding and metal repair on walls.

This was the original barn with the log house!

Grannies old barn

We thought this was Eli's Uncles barn-not?

Button Farm on Saloma Rd.

The falling down garage perpendicular to the barn.  Storm coming!