We can pause for a moment and admire the astonishing breadth of the infrastructure that supports this home in Iowa, and the role that this place has in the relative prosperity of modern America. There is little that is hidden here, even if we do not immediately see it. The soil that supports the crops was built up over thousands of years and is now augmented by fertilizers manufactured in factories that got their start manufacturing bombs in the second World War. The driveway is probably too long for the owner to pave it, but the equipment that maintains it is just a phone call away. The power company ran wire and set poles from the main road, which in turn is linked back across the electric grid to a series of coal fired generation plants located in multiple states. The home and barns are stick framed from lumber that originated in a forest near the Pacific. The corn grown on this farm is in all of our bodies, and despite the network that connects everything here, it would take only a few acute disasters to plunge it all into oblivion. Such a feat is beyond the ability of Al Quaida, so I'm not losing sleep worrying about this just yet.
From an architectural perspective I'm impressed by the balanced arrangement of the buildings. The owner or owners kept things close together, but not so close that maneuverability or future expansion is compromised.
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