Defeated #09332

The Story

A broken barbed wire fence barely hangs loose to the wooden posts, swinging back and forth in the constant cold wind. It was the middle of the afternoon during a bleak and bitter snowstorm, a desolate and dreary day if there ever was one. Why take a picture at such a time, other than simply for the sake of the snow? It’s because weather is a big part of winter country life out in the high farmlands of mountainous Pennsylvania. Not every day is perfect and why not show all sides?

Nevertheless, this winter landscape picture is very forlorn and quite dark in emotion which can be part of life too. Using a 4WD vehicle, I was driving through the snowstorm looking purposely for anything interesting that would come up in that very wintery world.

Here was the edge of a cow or cattle field. You can tell by the barbed wire. Horses are never pastured inside a fence that can hurt them; horse fences are never like this with barbs.

I would have never gotten far up and down those farm roads without the 4WD truck. Of course, the only other person out was the local mail carrier. With this broken barbed wire fence showing such wear and character in the all-white bleakness, it was natural for a shooter to stop here to create a picture. Time to get out and get to work!

With the first step out of the truck, I was in up to my knees…the steady wind had drifted the ditch over! I couldn’t see it. How lucky was I not to have driven right into it? I didn’t fight it, I shot right where I landed and cracked off a few shots in the cold driving wind with big snowflakes zinging past. It didn’t take very long to get back into the truck with the heater running, either!

Location: the farmlands of Somerset County, Pennsylvania.