Hay Fields and Hawks

 Hawks wheel above hay fields searching for a meal in the moving grasses.

 Often a lone tree in a field survives cattle ranging and becomes a sculpture against the sky.

 Bales of hay are lined up like windbreaks along the edges of fields waiting for winter use.

A round bale of hay like this will feed a horse or a couple of cows for a week or so.

 Berry and brier bushes spring  along fences in the summer.

 The dry grasses still hold nutrition until they are washed by fall rains.

 This is cattle country. Many farms have horses, cows and a few donkeys. The donkeys act as guards to keep stray dogs and coyotes out of pastures.

Old fence posts intrigue me. This one is a conglomeration of stump,metal pipe , barbed wire, and wood.

These are "horse apples" from an Osage Orange tree.They litter the ground near fence lines bordering hay fields.

 Cedar trees grows wild along fences and are considered a problem by ranchers and farmers.

 This is the path along the creek which leads to our back forty acres which we use primarily to raise hay.

Our neighbors cows were upset at my walking too near.

 Seeds attached to tuffs of cotton-like down are windblown.

 This fence post marks the road line which was once fenced with barbed wire.

Country Roads

 This dirt road near my home trundles off into the woods where I came on an old homesite and a couple of ruined buildings which could have been school houses or possibly churches and another that was obviously a burn site with nothing remaining to be seen except an old brick chimney and some fences around the perimeter.

Sparrows balance on windblown grasses on a partly cloudy autumn day.

I am not certain what crop was growing in this field, but I believe it is sorghum. I took the photo one afternoon just as the world was turning dark. The falling shadows and gray sky made the stems appear frosted and gave the trees on the horizon a mystic blue tone.