Winter Barn

An Ozark barn stands quiet among the winter trees.

Old tools, retired with honors, decorate the front of the barn,

and inside, the accumulation of years

precludes any possibility of a cow entering.

There's another barn for that purpose.

It's here that the cows are milked,

where cats, striped by the sunlight 

survey their domain,

and Cracker, the border collie,

makes sure that nobody gets out of line.

Textures by Leslie Nicole

Linking with Weekly Top Shot

Chores

Roy Porter, 86,

pauses in the doorway of his weathered barn after milking his cows, 

as he's done almost every morning for the past 37 years.

To view photos of other barns, take a look at Barn Charm.