Borders

In my last visit to my father's farm, I became interested in the borders that exist. There are borders that exist visually between different types of crops in the fields. There are physical fences that separate cattle from fields and from each other. There are fences that define where one person's property ends and another begins. Most interesting to me is the presence of man-made hills of dirt created by the gravel pit around the perimeter of all of their mines. These "berms" have existed as long as the gravel pits have, but the recent expansion of the pits has made me more conscious of their existence. The most recent addition is this monstrous construction that separates the pit from my father's farm and from the main road that runs through town.





I imagined that these barriers served multiple purposes, specifically keeping people out and keeping people from seeing the work that was taking place inside. But there was another intended purpose for these piles that I hadn't considered. This clip from an interview with my father explains another purpose.