I lost track of how many Fallen Farm posts I’ve done in my series, so now I’m just going to use the photo number. This is a barn near Baldwin, just a stone’s throw north of Bismarck. My friend Tony was back home from sunny Alaska for a little while to visit family, and he and I took our cameras to go poke around the outskirts of town while our wives had other things to do.

This is a really cool barn, and I couldn’t help but notice some old equipment in the field thereby. It was a perfect shot, a different angle than I’ve had on this spot before. It’s even better when shared with one of my closest friends ever. I’ve got more to post from the day, but that’ll have to wait for another time. I have to go shovel my sidewalks now!

As I ventured around the periphery of Bismarck-Mandan via obscure gravel roads Saturday morning, I noticed a lot of fog in low-lying areas. I noticed this old abandoned farm house poking through the fog in one area and grabbed this quick photo of it. It was a long way from the road, so in compliance with my “not without permission” policy, I simply took the best photo I could put together from the road.

I’m so drawn to buildings like this…not because I’m a National Geographic reporter trying to push an agenda of a dying prairie, but because I find them charming. Someone constructed this farmstead, lived here, and worked here. That’s what I find so alluring. I like to wonder what it looked like when it was new, when there was a family here, and what circumstances caused its inhabitants to move on. It’s really more about the people, now that I consider it.

This is the first stone barn I can remember featuring. It caught my eye from the road and was not on posted land, so I was able to hike in. This is as close as I came to the buildings; I don’t actually try to enter any of the buildings I photograph. First is out of respect for the owners, second is a matter of safety. To capture their spot on the beautiful North Dakota prairie is fulfilling enough.

As my truck crested the hill where the gravel road I’d been following met Highway 1804, I planned to just head north and scoot back to my family. It was early in the morning and I expected little PJ to be waking up soon, so I wanted to be the one to haul him out of his crib. I did, however, spot this on the way home…just north of the aforementioned intersection.

I suppose this could fit into my Fallen Farms series, but instead I just decided to push it around a little bit in Photoshop and leave it at that. Sadly, this is all that’s left of what probably housed a family at some point. What was once home is now gone. I know how that feels; a couple of years I went back to the old homestead in the Montana Rockies and found that my childhood house had been replaced. Bummer. But it sure makes for nice pictures, I suppose.

As a bona fide “dude” I feel a twinge of melancholy whenever I see a tool that has been retired. This particular farm implement sits idle, gathering vegetation, in the middle of a field south of Mandan. It would be nice if it was at least in a visible location where it could serve as a work of art or tribute to days long past, but that’s not the case. Sadly, it sits inconspicuously in an obscure corner, destined to rust away. At least it’ll remain somewhat immortal in pictures.

I’d love to know what happened to the other three sides of this barn… wouldn’t you? I found these buildings standing near the road southwest of Mandan. There’s a lot of neat topography and other scenery down there, in my old stompin’ grounds, and I decided to introduce my wife and little boy to some of them today after work. I didn’t know this “barn” was there, though. What a pleasant surprise!

Oops…the barn tipped over! I spotted this one near Makoti Lake, which is northwest of here by quite a ways. In fact, it’s on the other side of Lake Sakakawea! I love the fact that the fields are all so green, it’s made this whole year a great opportunity for an amateur photographer like myself. It makes an even greater contrast with the faded old wood of these barns.

A couple of weekends ago I journeyed north of Mandan on Highway 1806 on my dirt bike. Along the way I found some new entries for my Fallen Farm series. This particular building sits just off the road and has a few outbuildings behind it. One thing that’s unusual this year is that the area is so green now that we’ve had decent rainfall. The color of the grass and sky really offset the flat, dull brown buildings. The building shown here looked as though it was starting to develop a bit of a lean; if so, I wonder how long until it truly becomes a “fallen farm” forever?

It’s been a while since I posted a photo in this series. I have a soft spot in my heart for old farmsteads, although I grew up a city kid in the mountains, and North Dakota has many for me to photograph. This farmstead sits southeast of Bismarck.

With a new baby and more than enough other irons in the fire, it’s not easy to find subjects for my photography habit. Most of the pictures I post here are taken while out running errands or on the way to or from work. Winter brings its own challenges along, but I had a particularly fruitful trip around the outskirts of town this weekend. This is only one of the sights I captured along my way.

It’s neat to be able to find so many pictures from right around our beloved cities…that’s the reason I founded this blog in the first place! I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that Bismarck and Mandan are boring, or that there’s nothing to do here. I’ve never believed that.

Here’s a note to you teenagers out there: nobody is going to grab you by the ears and shove entertainment into your skull. There’s plenty of cool stuff to see and do around here, you just need to take the initiative and explore it. You’ll learn to love the Bismarck-Mandan area as much as I do.