Edgemont Farm….

…is where I grew up. Until I was about 14 we lived in a small house tucked into this complex of barns and oaks. Within I could play, learn to drive a mule and just hang out in private fantasies. We believe these structures date at least as far back as the 1920’s although the house itself goes back even farther.

As the later teenage years arrived my father built a house across the road, on what was called the Odom Farm, and continued to farm these and other properties along with my brother until 2016. Just as it looked like retirement might be forced on them, the railroad offered to purchase much of the Edgemont Farm to site a shipping depot. At the time of this writing - New Year’s of 2020 - demolition of this agricultural campus is imminent.

These were all made on film and scanned, unless noted otherwise.

The Yard, about 1973

Everything is fully operational. Our first house is barely visible through the trees at about the center of the photo. I took this at a time when I was first introduced to photography. The negative has disappeared, but a remaining print afforded a scan.

The Yard, 2018

Everything to the right of the left-most building will be pushed away. Shelters protect only shadows. Openings are gateless. Weeds prosper in the inattention, but attention has not helped the cotton. Several of the oaks that anchored the center in the 1973 photo have succumbed to storms.

Mule Barn

A concrete pier inside has “1929” inscribed, although the appendage in the foreground was added later - probably when my cousin retired her show horse with us. To the right was the mule pen, or corral, built with huge boards that added to a sense of everything there being huge, especially the mules; especially when the mules escaped and ran loose. The big soon-to-be thunderhead beyond in the east is a bit odd as weather almost always came from the west, although perhaps that adds touts impressiveness.

The Ladder to the Hayloft......

…in the mule barn is mostly those two boards nailed to the big post here at the end of the slanted boards of the hay feeder. Hay - usually from peanut vines - was tossed into it for the mules to eat. Just below that was a big shallow trough where ear corn could be thrown for food as well. (Digital camera)

The Yard, South Side

Left to right are the mule barn, wagon shelter and packhouse. Just out of the frame and among the oaks is the house my grandfather built around 1950.

Packhouse

Cured tobacco was brought here to be graded by hand and packed for market. Out of season, the big center room passed as an indoor basketball court - as long as you could shoot the ball over the wind beam and dribble a cold (very hard) ball. My brother and I would get off the school bus and walk along the path there in front to the house beyond and the the right.

Cow Barn

It was of a smaller scale as compared to the mule barn. One could jump out of the hay loft to the ground with just a little courage, whereas most of us only did that once from the mule loft. The hay here as usually wheat straw, and much friendlier for building caves and forts.

Co-Generation Plant

Built north of the farm about 1991, this coal-fired power plant won’t last as long; it’s slated for decommissioning in late 2020. Although its environmental impact will be reduced, its presence in the landscape won’t be. (Digital camera)

Split Rail Fence

The play of the curves in the fence and its shadows invited some study. At first this one seemed to express the form, but then it looked like I had actually emphasized the wrong things. The more I studied it, though, the more I saw biographical metaphors. It makes one wonder just what or who was working the camera. (Digital camera)

Caden

My grandson in a dormant field. Much more enchanted with the soil and its possibilities than I ever learned to be.