In the Cown-tray
There are two types of “country.” One is your typical rolling hills, old tobacco fields, rustic barn with beams and a warm cozy hay loft. Think old Virginia plantations, Kentucky bluegrass or even parts of my home state in North Carolina. This country is pronounced con-tree.
Then we have the sticks, the outskirts of a major city that aren’t quite rural but not quite metropolitan either. Some questionable trailers, one or multiple broken down cars in the yard… Even the confederate flag depending on where you are in the country. This country is pronounced Cown-tray.
Simon’s new barn is in the cown-tray! Don’t get me wrong, the place is gorgeous, but the drive there cracks me up every time. Since I cannot safely drive and fake pictures of some of the stuff I see, I did my best to draw it for you.
Lots of longhorns. Longhorns are awesome, so I’m good with this.
Bones (probably dead longhorns?) spray painted red and placed on a perimeter fence for decoration? For warning? I didn’t know how to draw this so you’ll have to use your imagination.
A donkey standing on someone’s front porch. It was shady… He was very content.
A herd of horses tied to trees. Individually. As in lead ropes in branches.
My favorite is the free range palomino. I think she may be a unicorn. Best I can tell she is a mythical yellow mare that lives in a hugely overgrown pasture that almost hides some cars, a trailer and various pieces of broken down farm machinery. This situation wouldn’t be unique without one minor detail – there is no fence between her and the road. Like, at all.
Don’t think I’m snobby (I am a little bit) or down on trailers… Just find it interesting what different folks call horse care. I’m sure that little palomino lives a great life… Until she gets plowed down by a car.
Do you see anything interesting on your drive to the barn?
24 thoughts on “In the Cown-tray”
I am so stinking jealous of your ability to draw. Also, I think this post affirmed my nickname for you (it’s the Texan and L approves and I think you should start signing your posts with it and start investing in some Lone Star memorabilia ).
On my way to the barn, I typically see trailer parks, people walking dogs, people riding bikes, and mansions. All mingled together.
I accept this nickname. Let it be so.
I love the drawings!!! My drive to the barn is no where near as entertaining as yours. I have to sit in traffic for half of it and then it’s just wide open spaces. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Love the artwork! And yeah, the cown-tray around here is kinda hilarious. 😉
Dang you can draw!!! Those are great pictures!
Lets see on the way to the barn I see a neighborhood, fields, cows, some jankie make shift barns, more feilds and cows, a gun range, more fields, a western barn and our barn 🙂 Oh and chard black hills!!
Chard black hills?
This cracked me up. Love your drawings! I drive past a place that sells pupusas (Peruvian empanadas – most hispanic food in MD is Peruvian. Weird.); some huge houses with large yards-one of them with a Border Collie always lying on the front steps. No fence; I’m guessing (hoping!) they have invisible fencing?, woods where there are often deer next to the road, an intersection where there is a BBQ place announcing free beer that people say is expensive and the food awful-my BO thinks it’s a cover-up for something illegal; more houses with lots of land; the park that connects to my barn’s trails; a cow pasture with beef cattle; and a couple of barns, one of them with a terribly overgrown outdoor arena. This past fall, one of the houses right next to the street that leads to the barn had two scarecrows…one of them was mooning, and the other was flashing her “boobs”…butt cheeks and boobs were pumpkins! Awesome. LMAO!
Oh funny about the scarecrows! I do love it that houses in the skirts don’t have HOA rules and stuff like that, so they can afford to have more of a sense of humor.
Haha. I think I grew up in the cown-tray. My new barn, however, is at the end of a weird little subdivision. The road gets so narrow at one point that you assume you’re going to a dead end and can’t possibly imagine the barn at the end of the trailer park. And then BAM! You’re at my beautiful barn.
A barn I knew in NC was just like that – at the end of a road in a smaller subdivision.
Love how your picture of the donkey is actually Donkey from Shrek.
Omg it does! I didn’t realize that.
I live *deep* in the country..in my opinion there is a FINE LINE between redneck and country..I would consider the people who let their horse run free, have broken down cars everywhere and etc are more on the redneck side of the line. True country folks wouldn’t let their horses run free because they care about their farm and life..enough to keep cars that look nice because they care about how their property looks, and if they can’t get nicer cars, they’ll put them in a garage. We used to live even deeper in the country and for awhile, a trailer was the best we were going to get after a rough divorce due to my father abusing drugs…But still, we were country, southern, not redneck. Country isn’t throwing a rebel flag around because you want to look “cool” and “Country” it’s respecting that history, as I do. Just throwing in my two cents..As for the drive, you go past a highschool in the city-ish-as city as you are gonna get around my part of town-with a subdivision right next to it…we drove by our barn every single day and NEVER would’ve expected there would have been a farm. Lol!
Too cute!!!
I have a rather short drive to my barn (1/2 mile) so there is not much interesting to look at. Only a large TV satellite painted to look like a yellow smiley face and a house that is constantly decked out to the nines in the tackiest holiday decor you can imagine. Otherwise, it’s rather uneventful.
Since I have what I consider to be a longish drive to the barn, 35 min, I see a lot of coun-tray type things down here in Fl. If you drive one way to the show grounds, you’ll pass by a man who sits on his porch all day long watching the cars pass. If you honk, you’ll get a wave. You’ll see dogs staying loyally by their houses, without fences, and horses in huge fields living alongside their cow companions. Theres also a couple random farms thrown in, like a Paso Fino barn, and a Tennessee Walker farm. Theres a random building thats maybe the size of a stall, 12×12, that is supposedly a barber shop. Oh SL-Ocala is as coun-tray as it gets.
Love your drawings! Nothing much interesting on my way to the barn except traffic. I’m betting that palomino mare is smarter than her owners. Just hope she doesn’t get run down because of their stupidity.
Hahahaha this is hilarious! I can’t believe it! Between the spray painted bones, horses tied to trees and the loose unicorn…what kind of TV show is this ;)? Please keep us posted if you see anything else!!
You crack me up! The drawings are so cute! I don’t drive to the barn, (unless it’s a blizzard) I walk.
I love your drawings, they’re so cute, I can imagine your a very talented artist. On my way to the barn I see golfers, a scooter/motorbike dealer. A field that has jumps in that on a sunday every fortnight has a show and a boat parked on someones drive!
I love your art! You should add drawings more often.
Meh, much of that is typical for rural areas. While some of it is odd and not necessarily “perfect” or “ideal” as long as animals are healthy and happy, they’re probably just fine. I personally cringe at the idea of my horse closed up in a stall for any part of the day. Junkyard fields aren’t great, but its really rare that animals actually hurt themselves on things they see all the time. Sort of like the likelihood of you or I driving into a road sign or something silly, we see them and navigate around them all the time, hitting one is rare.
And a side note, you’re seriously a drawing wizard on the computer. My inner wannabe sketch artist was studying the lines and manner in which you made the horses seem realer than just a quick sketch… Really superb work.
Hi! Just letting you know that I’ve nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award, see the post here -> http://lbhlbh.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/liebster-blog-award.html
Ha, your drawings are great! Thanks for sharing your drive to the barn with the world. Mine is pretty boring by comparison, I go uphill with fields on either side, skirt through a small village and then carry on uphill through lots of oak forest until I get to the top and Voilà ! There’s the horse farm!