Tag: Michael Kaynard

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Hives in Wilcox County, Ga.

Hives, Wilcox County, Ga.
Hives, Wilcox County, Ga.

If you’re traveling country roads across the agricultural South, be on the lookout for white boxes of beehives, as highlighted here near a corn field in the heartland of Georgia.

Bees are critical to successful crops, but have been having a  hard time in recent years due to a wasting disease that is decimating a large percentage of hives.  This Maystory in a recent edition in The New York Times explains more.

Wilcox County in Georgia’s heartland is one of the state’s smaller counties with 9,068 residents, according to the U.S. Census.  About two thirds of residents are white and a third black.  Estimates by the U.S. Census are that 27.4 percent of county residents live in poverty.

Photo taken May 15, 2013 by Michael Kaynard of Kaynard Photography.  All rights reserved.

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Cropduster, near Pitt, Ga.

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Cropduster, Wilcox County, Ga.

 

The cotton, peanut and watermelon cropdusting season is winding down fro Charles Timmons of AeroDusters in Wilcox County, Ga.  Wilcox says his yellow and blue 1992 single-engine plane can spray up to about 100 acres per trip as he flies over fields stretching from middle Georgia to Florida.  Timmons has been spraying crops for 44 years.

Wilcox County in Georgia’s heartland is one of the state’s smaller counties with 9,068 residents, according to the U.S. Census.  About two thirds of residents are white and a third black.  Estimates by the U.S. Census are that 27.4 percent of county residents live in poverty.

Photo taken May 15, 2013 by Michael Kaynard of Kaynard Photography.  All rights reserved.

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Watering the corn near Leslie, Ga.

Photo by Michael Kaynard. All rights reserved.
Photo by Michael Kaynard. All rights reserved.
Irrigation of corn field near Leslie, Ga.

 

Driving across the South these days in the early morning or at dusk, it’s fairly typical to see a lot of cornfields being watered by huge irrigation sprinklers, as shown here in a field outside Leslie in the heart of central Georgia.

Water — or the increasing lack of it — has been in the news lately with a recent story in The New York Times about a huge multi-state aquifer in the heartland that’s drying up in Kansas and Texas.  These kind of water woes could forecast the future in the South.

In recent years, there’s been a three-state water war pitting the metro Atlanta area of Georgia with downstream users in southwest Georgia, eastern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.  Learn more here through the Southern Environmental Law Center.

  • Learn more about Georgia’s corn crop from this previous post.

Photo taken May 15, 2013, by Michael Kaynard of Kaynard Photography.  All rights reserved.

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Picking onions, Cedar Crossing, Ga.

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Picking onions is dirty, back-breaking work, as highlighted in this huge onion field in Cedar Crossing, a few miles south of Vidalia, Ga.,

Photographer Michael Kaynard noted that workers, who appeared to be migrant Latinos transported to the field in a dusty blue bus, harvested hour after hour to fill tan and green onion bins.

“The only positives was that it did not appear to be overly dusty or hot, yet,” he said.  “I cannot imagine having to work bent over day after day.  It makes me feel guilty about the food that we eat and how hard other human beings have to work to help provide it to us.”

As we noted in a previous post, the world-famous Vidalia onions seem to have made the Toombs County area more prosperous than neighboring counties.  Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level.  The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

The region has been in the news lately as labor unions and immigrant groups continue to accuse farmers of exploiting Mexican guest workers who do much of the backbreaking harvest work in May.  And now, a group of mostly black American workers in the area are complaining they have a tough time getting work in the fields because of a preference for foreigh guest workers, as highlighted in this May 6 story in The New York Times.

Photo taken May 14, 2013, by Michael Kaynard of Kaynard Photography.  All rights reserved.

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Vacant truck stop, Ulmer, S.C.

Abandoned truck stop and restaurant on U.S. Highway 301, Ulmer, S.C.
Abandoned truck stop and restaurant on U.S. Highway 301, Ulmer, S.C.

This image recalls a more vibrant past for U.S. Highway 301 as it passed through rural Ulmer, S.C., in Allendale County.  As in our previous post, this image — oddly of an abandoned Interstate truck stop and restaurant — recalls how the Interstate [95 in this case] swallowed up businesses after the S.C. stretch opened fully in 1976.

Allendale County is South Carolina’s poorest with 40.2 percent of its inhabitants living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.

Photo taken May 6, 2013, by Michael Kaynard, Kaynard Photography, for the Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Empty joint, Bamberg County, S.C.

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Empty joint, 13 miles south of Bamberg, S.C.

 

U.S. Highway 301 used to be one of the main north-south arteries for tourists heading south to Florida.  But after South Carolina’s construction of its part of now-busy Interstate 95 started in 1969 and ended in 1976 [more], vehicles opted for the fast throughways over highways that slowed traffic in small towns.

This photo, taken in southern Bamberg County near the 301 intersection with S.C. Highway 64, depicts old joint that had few clues about its earlier existence.  Charleston photographer Michael Kaynard speculated that the building, now boarded up with insulation pressing against big glass windows, first was some kind of restaurant and gas station which succumbed to being a rural club before withering.

“Driving down Hwy 301 is depressing,” Kaynard writes.  “So many businesses are closed.  This road was killed by the Interstate and one business after another just could not make it.

“This particular place is somewhat of a mystery.  I was attracted by the large arrow, just as travelers were many years ago.  There were so many choices that the businesses had to install attention-getting signage to attract customers.  The lettering on the sign was so faded that I could not make out a name or what type of business it was.  If I had to guess I would think that, originally, it was a combination restaurant and gas station.  It would be really interesting to find out if I guessed correctly.”

If anybody has any clues about what this once was, let us know through our contact page.

Photo taken May 6, 2013, by Michael Kaynard, Kaynard Photography, for the Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Man reading newspaper, Bamberg, S.C.

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A elderly Hindu man reading what appeared to be an Indian newspaper outside of an old motor court on Main Street in Bamberg, S.C., represents how more foreign-born people are moving into the rural South.  The man, who couldn’t speak English, was identified by a hotel employee as “Mr. Patel.”  His stark white, pressed outfit stood out on a sunny day in the parking lot of the Relax Inn against the bright blue doors of its 22 rooms.

“At first, I was surprised to see someone of Indian descent in Bamberg,” said Charleston photographer Michael Kaynard, noting that S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, also of Indian descent, grew up in Bamberg.  “But I figured his family probably followed another family to this rural town.

“It reminded me that my grandparents emigrated to the United States around 1900 and they came to avoid oppression.”

Just over 30 percent of the 15,987 people in Bamberg County in 2010 lived below the poverty level, according to the U.S. Census.  The county included 254 people born outside of the United States.   The majority of residents are black (61.5 percent) with whites comprising 36.1 percent.   Some 1.6 percent of residents are Latino while 0.4 percent are of Asian descent like Mr. Patel.

Photo taken May 6, 2013, by Michael Kaynard, Kaynard Photography.

 

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Empty home, near Pleasant Hill, N.C.

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Here’s a photo of an empty home near the decaying barn published on May 3.  Observes photographer Michael Kaynard:

“What struck me was the classic design of the roof line and porch columns.  My wife and I love this type of porch and could see ourselves sitting outside in the afternoon watching the day turn into dusk.

“We were drawn to it because it at first appeared to be overgrown with vines.  When we got a better look it appeared that the vines had been chopped and left on the porch.  You can still see some of the curtains hanging in the upstairs window.

“I feel a sadness when I see these once beautiful buildings that have been abandoned to the elements.  In this case, I did not see a newer farmhouse nearby.  So, what happened to the people who once lived here?”