Back in Time - Putting Down Roots

Looking South toward the Wind River Range
Autumn 1966

When my parents bought the farm in the early 1940s it was a barren landscape, but they built a modest house (photo in this earlier post), planted trees, and put down roots. The farm was sold after my brother died in 1996.

The tree in the photo was one of many cottonless cottonwoods planted around the farm house. Part of windbreak to the west of the house can be seen on the far right in the photo. That windbreak row plus another windbreak row to the north and an orchard protected the area around the house. It was sometimes eerie how calm it was around the house when the wind was howling from the west. An aerial photo from the 1950s of the trees surrounding the house can be seen here.

One afternoon in the 1980s, my mother was in the house when she heard an explosion. She thought that the propane tank by this tree had exploded, but the tree had taken a direct lighting hit.

Note the propane tank directly behind my mother in this photo. The ground around the tree was littered with bark and limbs that Mom had picked up by the time I arrived with my camera.

Mom and Pepper

The gash in this tree was deep and thankfully it survived.

I loved taking photos of this tree since it framed the view to the south of the house. This photo was posted earlier here.

The new owners put their own mark on the farmstead, but the roots that my parents planted are still there even if the trees are gone.