Winter Fences

One of the interesting features you notice driving around the Beaver Valley region is all the old (or sometimes new) fences.  We live in a landscape that 100 years ago was characterized by numerous small fields on the 100 acre mixed farms.  All farms had livestock, so fences were essential.  Nowadays, they're not nearly as important, but most of them are still out there.

On one of my 'sunny-day photography explorations', this fence really struck me, a band of white snow down this side of every post after a recent snowfall a couple of weeks ago, and the shadows of the trees lying across the snow.  I see a lot of fences that have posts very close together, I'm guessing for stability because bedrock sometimes prevents deep post holes.

The most interesting fences in the winter are those that build up large drifts on one side, here outlined in shadows from the southwest sun.  These drifts aren't very big yet; this photo was taken two weeks ago before the big snow storm, but the pattern looked appealing to me.

Sometimes you get a view across several fields, each outlined by fences, extending into the distance like this.  I love driving by these particular fields in the summer because there's a group of large workhorses that pasture here.  Then you sometimes see them entered in events at the local fall fair.

This photo was taken on a recent ski outing, and I don't know if there's an actual old fence buried in that shrubby fencerow on the right or not, but this pattern of drifts was certainly beautiful, on a sunny day just after the big snow, in spite of the flare from the sun.

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