Cherokee County, Northwest Iowa | After harvest, a neighbor dropped off a beautiful aerial picture of farmstead, taken from a different angle and different time of day, than other pictures which my parents had purchased over the years. He is into drones, which I didn't know.
In the process of cleaning out my parent's home now that they have both passed, I find 3 nice pictures hanging in different rooms of house. I already had a 4th one in our house, found it in Mom's park model in Mesa when I cleaned that out 3 years ago.
Then I see on NAT that there is a company which has been taking aerial pictures for decades, and that you can access their archives. I look it up, find 2 different pictures from the 1980's. I get to looking, and figure out that one of the archival pictures very nicely fills a void between the existing pictures. I tell my wife, "Good news, dear, I am going to order my Christmas gift from you to me now.", which was fine by her.
Finally got around to hanging all 6 pictures, spanning 35 years from 1981 to present, on walls of our computer room. Viewing them in order, it documents the changes which has occuried on our family farm, so similar to what we have seen around the rest of Northwest Iowa-going from 2 cattle yards, 2 silos and a corn crib, to present day with the yard fences gone (I tore the last one out 2 years ago, and at that time thought about it being the end of an era),crops planted in old cattle yards, 2 silos and corn crib long gone, and grain bins taking their place.
Still at the stage where just about every time I study one of the pictures, I see something that I hadn't noticed yet. Just now, looked up and saw a couple of concrete well curbs sitting on the lawn, obviously belonging to local rural water district, preparing to lay pipe to Dad's house in 1981. |
Aerial Farmstead Pictures
