Around the Yard

 Dianthus Superbus Fantasy

Hairy Woodpecker 

Northern Yarrow

 American Robin in the rain

 Ornamental Onion

Daisy

 Common Redpoll

 Geranium

Arnica Seed Heads

Early Morning

Fairbanks, 1:00 a.m. June 26, 2012  

New Paint at Creamers

One of the most photographed buildings in Fairbanks is the old Creamers Dairy barns.  I've taken a good many photos of the barns myself and shared some of them with you.  For a quick timeline, sometime around 1915 the first log barn was built on the site and then the two Iowa-type barns were built in 1938 and 1950.  The creamery was built in the early 1940s.  The creamery is the building in the front with the words "Creamers Dairy" on the roof.

Old photos from that time indicate the words were probably painted on the roof at the time it was built.  The letters are 7 feet tall and the word "CREAMERS" is 67 feet long and "DAIRY" is 35 feet long. 

The letters had become faded since their last paint job in 2001, as you can see in the photo below that was taken on April 15th. 

Last week the letters were repainted.  The work took a professional painter three days to complete.

The creamery building is easy to overlook as it is overshadowed by the large barns and their distinctive cupolas. In the photo below you see the creamery in the front, with the 1938 barn peeking above the roof of the creamery and the 1950 barn to the right.  The old log barn is to the far right and the farmhouse is to the left.  Operation of the dairy closed in 1966. 

The barns are located in what is now Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, and the farm buildings were placed on the historic records in 1977.  There are several signs placed near the barns showing some of their history.  The sign below shows the placement of the various farm buildings in the 1950s.  There were more buildings standing at that time, including another farmhouse and houses for the workers.  If you click on the photo you'll get a better view of the layout.

Operating a dairy in our subarctic climate was not easy.  Woodstoves were installed in the delivery trucks to keep the milk from freezing in the winter, with the stovepipes vented out the back window.  Hay was cut and shocked to be stored in the old barn, but often the rains came before it could be dried and it couldn't be put away wet.  When that happened the shocks were left in the field to freeze dry in the winter and then put up dry in the winter or early spring.  Reading about the history of the early dairy operations certainly makes me appreciate the convenience of buying milk from the dairy cases at the supermarket!

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm.

The Evening Garden

This evening I took photos of the same flowers that were featured in the midnight garden in the last post.  These were taken between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m.  Again, these are straight out of the camera.   The light at this time of day can create some spectacular effects.  

 

The Midnight Garden

It is the time of year when it doesn't get dark here in Fairbanks, and tonight is our shortest night of the year with 21 hours and 49 minutes between sunrise and sunset and twilight the rest of the time.  Sunset is 12:47 a.m., but the sun had already settled behind the hills near our house when I took these photos shortly after midnight.  The photos are straight out of the camera with only natural light.  The focus is a little soft, but there's still plenty of light to do whatever you want: gardening, reading a book, playing badminton, going for a hike or a bike ride, or any number of things.  And people do.  While the midnight sun is around people tend to cram as many things as possible into the day.  Always lingering in your mind is the knowledge that having reached the longest day we begin losing daylight on the relentless march towards the shortest day of the year in December.  But for now we will celebrate the sun!

Summer View of Creamer's Dairy Barns

No matter what the season, the old Creamer's Dairy barns make for a beautiful photo.  The summertime view from the Seasonal Wetlands Trail is especially pleasing with the riot of wild roses in the foreground.

 June 18, 2012

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To see more old barns from around the world visit Tricia's Barn Charm.

After the Rain

This evening we had a heavy shower, and after it cleared up I was taking photos of the raindrops on my flowers.  A robin surprised me when he landed on the BBQ grill very near me.

He was quite wet and shook very hard to dry off his feathers.

He then hopped over to a flower box to think about his options, and then down to the grass to begin hunting. In short order he had a caterpillar and hopped back to the flower box with it.  I can only think his contortions were to get a little better grip on the caterpillar before he dropped to the ground again to continue the hunt, all the while keeping hold of that caterpillar.  I imagine there are multiple open mouths back in the nest and one caterpillar wouldn't go very far.

Who knew that robins had so much white on their rump?

Wildflowers in the Yard

 Arnica

 Columbine

Chocolate Lily 

Wild Iris

Pasque Flower Seedhead 

The Same Pasque Flower on May 24th

Bluebells 

Wild Rose

A special thanks to Stephen Baird of NikonSniper who gifted me with an award.  I truly appreciate the honor for my "fly by the seat of your pants" photography.

Stop by his blog and be prepared to see some wonderful photographs.

Hillside Farm

We saw this charming hillside farm last June when we were in the Skagit Valley in Washington.  It looks like the barn in the back right is the older of the two barns, and that they built the newer one using the same plans but made it bigger.  Many roofs on barns in this part of the country have moss growing on them, and you can see some on the shake roof of the older barn.  I think they wisely put an aluminum roof on the newer barn to combat this problem, although the moss-covered shake roof is more photogenic.

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm. 

In the Garden