Tag Archive: farming

Hazelwood Round Barn – Dana – Indiana

Hazelwood Round Barn - Dana - Indiana

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The Hazelwood round barn was built by O. Earl White, a graduate of Purdue University in 1916. It is said that the wood used in the barn’s construction is treated cypress from Louisiana, that has never been painted.

Round barns are a design intended for efficiency that never really caught on. They were most popular between the 1880’s and 1920’s. Originally 219 polygonal and round barns were constructed throughout Indiana. While hundreds more were built throughout the United States and Canada during that time. As of 2017, there were only 73 remaining in Indiana.

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Mural – Utah

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Mural - Utah

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This was a short-lived mural in the city of West Jordan, Utah. It commemorates the work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, founders of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, both labor leaders fought to improve the lives of farm workers in California, through non-violent protests. Eventually they would merge the NFWA, with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) formed by the Filipino-American labor organizer Larry Dulay Itliong, to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union known today. One of Chavez’s most noted accomplishments was the Delano Grape Strike of 1965-70, which highlighted the treatment of farmworkers by major table grape growers. Through a combination of consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance, the organizations that would become the UFW, were able secure a collective bargaining agreement that benefited more than 10,000 farmworkers.

While Cesar Chavez died in 1993, and lost a lot of support due to controversial actions in his later years, he remains a folk hero among Mexican-Americans. And Dolores Huerta, even at the current age of 90, remains active as a labor leader and civil rights activist.

Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Corn Field Summer Thunderstorm – Salem, Indiana

Indiana corn field thunderstorm - Salem  - Indiana

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This photo comes with an interesting story. So I arrived in Indiana in the spring of 2019, and while I have lived many places including Alaska and Utah, I had never quite experienced thunderstorms like the one about to unleash in this photo. But 2019 will be remembered, particularly in parts of the Midwest, for some other crazy aspects of the weather that growing season. First came the torrential down pours on top of snow in the Upper Midwest, that led to widespread flooding and destruction in places like Iowa, and Wisconsin. I personally drove through the area in the aftermath of that, and saw widespread flooding, towns under water, and giant grain silos split open like a tornado had broken them open. That weather was followed by prolonged drought in Indiana and Kentucky, that was captured in this photo, by the stunted corn seen in this photo. While I wasn’t think about that aspect of the weather at the time, I ended up submitting this particular photo to a joint photo contest by the Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance. While I submitted the photo, for the wild weather it captured, what they saw was the sharp contrast between that storm and the stunted corn that marked the growing season up to that point. And for my efforts I was awarded a thousand dollar prize.

Its definitely a storm I will never forget.