Through The Lens Frozen In Time Explorers have a code and we adhere to it strictly. We don’t damage anything, we don’t break into buildings, we never remove items and we never deface a location. We’re there to preserve a record of the unseen history decomposing before our eyes. Capturing the spaces humans leave behind. It has become a bit of an obsession, I will not lie…there is wonder and a mystery to these places, a personal element. Some places are very ominous and very creepy, some places are very tranquil and serene and beautiful and other places are just sad. This is the case of the “Raccoon House”, and the “Stand Alone Home” as we’ll call them. As we drive the dirt road kicking up dust in the rearview mirror, I’m on the lookout for the next abandoned home that stands alone, far off the road in overgrown prairie grass or just around the bend of the next gravel road. Fortunately these two locations were not far from each other. We follow through tall weeds the path that once would have been a driveway to a small home. As the entryway had collapsed into the basement, the front door was not an option of entering. What was at one time the bedroom had no window and was our point of entry. Two very large raccoons call this place home and scurried through the kitchen and down the entryway hole to the basement nearly giving me a heart attack and Ryan chuckled behind me from my pitiful scream. Both the exterior and interior are at the mercy of the elements. Collapsing ceilings and floors are frequently found in much of what we find in the abandoned structures we come across. We have learned over the years to be watchful and very cautious of our surroundings, to know the hazards that may lie before us. There is no charging in, but rather walking softly, which is why I caught the pair of raccoons off guard. Inside a mess of all 20vHISVOICEvSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017