Are there many abandoned homes near you? I'm not talking about the ones that are falling in but the ones that look like they are fixable.

I pass 3 on the way to town that really look like they could be fixed up but they have been sitting empty for years. The first one is a one story white frame house. The next is a big two story old farm house with lots of land around it. Both were probably built in the early 1900's. They both are sad looking but the roofs are still there and the houses are standing fairly well. The next one amazes me. Its a brick ranch style house, probably built in the mid 60's. Even the carport is standing. The houses are overrun with vines and scrubby plants and have been empty for a long time. The weirdest thing of all is that they are very close to other peoples homes. If I was a neighbor I would have to complain. I have no idea who might own them but I am guessing the owners may have past away and the families don't care for the property. Everytime I pass them, I think of all the people who need homes and would love to be given a chance to fix them up.

Anything like this near you? Doesn't it seem like a waste?

Pat this is one of my favorite subjects and to me, a heart breaker.

We see many of them where we are, homesteads that date back to the 1800's. In fact, if we were ever to win a million, we already have ours picked out. Its a farm with a huge barn, 6 or so out buildings and a huge brick house similar to ours. A guy purchased it and couldn't make a go of it and moved to Australia. The farm dates back to 1884.

Farming has become such a volatile way of making a living and many farmers here have left the farm (abandoned them) and moved into towns or cities. I would expect there will be more of this, considering the BSE situation and the drought that has taken place in our area for 2 years now.

Its such a shame and such a waste. I could talk on this subject for hours and hours.

I too think this is so sad. Our local PBS station did a story on this a while back that was so interesting... here is the link:

http://www.pbs.org/ktca/farmhouses/film_making.html

Thanks for that link. I will check it out.