The Barn Series - Day 3 - Bluegrass Scenic Byway

Day 3 and I decided it was high time to switch gears. I know modern day horse barns will not satisfy the vintage barn lovers that follow here. Believe it or not, we are still in the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky with this post where thoroughbreds and horse farms reign supreme.

Kentucky's heritage is famed for many things. The most famous of those are horses, bourbon and tobacco. Half way between Midway and Lexington sits this barn close enough to the road to get a fairly decent photograph. It's Fall and lucky me the tobacco and been put up and the windows were open to allow the air to help cure it. Every trip I made to this region, I would drive down this particular road where this barn sits, specifically to check in to see if anything was going on with it. Some barns just do that to you. They draw you in. This one did that to me.

On this visit I was happy to find the tobacco hanging in the barn and stopped to take several photos. It's nice to know this old barn still had some use. Tobacco is less and less of a money crop on farms throughout Kentucky today as smoking becomes less and less popular. But there's something about seeing tobacco hanging in an old barn that makes me happy. It takes me back to my youth when smoking was the trend.

All around this beautiful old barn stands horse barns and fields where thoroughbreds graze. I'm never quite sure why to this day tobacco is still put up here. I have photographed many, many barns over the years in my travels. Yet, I never really elaborated on the why and where of it with most of the images. I just felt compelled to do so now. Until tomorrow. ENJOY!

Curing Tobacco, Bluegrass Scenic Byway

Several weeks ago I made the short drive on my usual route through the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky on SR 1681 near Midway. As the road took me to U. S. 60 near Keeneland, I took a side road back to 1681 past Midway. Along the side road I passed a farm where the tobacco was curing in the barn.

I turned around and went back for a few photos before heading on home. Seeing tobacco curing in this barn took me back to my childhood when my parents and siblings would drive to the country, as we called it, near Springfield, Kentucky to help put up the tobacco on my father's Uncle Mile's farm. Uncle Lee is long gone, as is his children, but his farm still exists and I'm fairly certain one of his grandchildren still runs the farm today. Putting up tobacco was a tedious and arduous process and back breaking work. Luckily, I was too young to help, but I remember well my older siblings toiling in the hot barn in the heat of late summer putting up the tobacco with the sweat covering their tshirts and their moans and groans as hour after hour crept by.

My childhood memories of the many trips to the country to Uncle Lee's farm still linger in my mind. I conjure up memories of taking a bath down in the creek near the road, of creeping out to the outhouse in the dark of night scared to death of every noise, sitting at the large kitchen table in the farmhouse kitchen eating fresh vegetables brought in from the garden. These are only a few of the many memories that seem to go on endlessly in the back of my mind. I wished I could go back there to any one of those trips with my parents and siblings and relatives present, if only for ten minutes, just to soak up a few more memories. ENJOY!

Kentucky Farm

Such is the scene in and around the Midwest with beautiful barns such as this one situated away from the road. The farmer's corn, tobacco and hay in the foreground. It appears the tobacco is weathering well, but not so the corn. The corn should be three times the height you see it here. Fortunately, this farmer didn't plant a major crop of corn. Hopefully, his tobacco yield will sustain him into next year's growing season. ENJOY!

Bluegrass Scenic Byway, Lexington, Kentucky

As I was rummaging through my photos on my desktop tonight, I happened upon this image I took a couple of years ago at just about this time of the year. I thought perhaps my blog friends might like it. In Kentucky tobacco curing in the barn is a common site this time of year. This photo was taken in the Bluegrass Region just northwest of Lexington, Kentucky on the Bluegrass Scenic Byway. This drive, should you ever find yourself in Kentucky, is a beautiful one any time of year but especially so in Fall.

I will be traveling again this weekend to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park south of Knoxville, Tennessee. Such a beautiful, beautiful place. I plan on shooting a lot of photos and posting them in the next few weeks. And the good news is after a large dose of WD40 spray on my Pentax release knob, it's miraculously working again. So along with my digital, I'll take my 20 year old camera to the forest and see if it will shoot some of the leftover slide rolls I have in my camera bag. Wish me luck.

I hope you enjoy the photo! If you read this post, I would love for you to comment. I'm still new at this and I need your input.