Orlando Masis | Austin Appraiser for Real Estate |

Out in a field in eastern Travis County, Texas.

This guy was about 25 feet long and maybe 4 feet high at the front. Made from metal with a nice old rusty patina.

Strangely, he was surrounded by an electric fence - perhaps because the cows kept getting tripped up?

Just in case any of y'all thought Texans didn't have a sense of humor, or great taste in their yard art.

Have you driven through a ghost town lately? One that was once a vibrant community and is now the shell of it's former self?

Today's photo is one of my absolute favorites that Alison took this spring. We were in Lockhart, Texas, home of Black's BBQ, shootin' the town.

Lockhart, fotunately, is NOT a ghost town - it's actually quite a nice one, and the 100+ year old buildings on the town square house popular local businesses and have an air of weathered elegance to them.

One building on the corner, however, with fantastic old architecture caught her eye. Three stories tall, with arched windows, it anchored the corner with stately calm. The bottom floor, however, was empty, with a smattering of pieces of left-over furniture, moving boxes and debris.

As she was seting up her shot, she spied a truck barreling down the street, much too fast for a small downtown.

With but a few second to focus and snap, this is what came home on the camera.

Is your yard perfectly manicured, with a broad expanse of nice green grass?

Or is is a junk yard gone wild?

If you're a Central Austin home owner, chances are you have at least something that is a little bit more edgy in your yard. If not in the front, then hiding in the back.

We've seen trellises and water features made from old bicycle wheels, a chicken roost made from an old TV, and most recently, wire cages full of yard waste neatly bound up and used to separate a brick patio from a vegetable garden.

For those that like stuff, and the more stuff the better, Austin has a Backyard Salvage and Garden place that has all sorts of reclaimed building materials. You can find old rusty fence parts, doors, windows, ratty piles of hardwood flooring, and rust. Lots and lots of rust.

But, like Alison said on one of her Active Rain blog posts, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We beheld (is that even a word?) these things, and thought them worth of sharing with you. If you like her photos, check out her flickr stream.

So, what is the most unusual thing you've seen intentionally used to decorate a yard in your area? Extra points for creativity!

We were trolling downtown Austin last week, looking for interesting spots to photograph.

The area around 6th Street and the streets that run north and south near 6th and Red River are a treasure trove of graffiti, rust, crumbling limestone, ratty tatty store fronts and rocking bars hiding behind non-descript doors.

The college crowd knows where to go, so lots of ads to draw them in isn't necessarily necessary.

When we stopped in front of Lovejoys on Neches, they appeared to be setting up for the night.

Alison grabbed one, just one good photo, before attracting the attention of a entertaining character - drunk and wobbling, passing out flyers of his poetry, asking to be photographed, and to have his materials passed out as went went along.

That means we didn't get to explore further, but we stilll wanted to share the photos of the front of this Austin hangout.

The rusty sign, the battered doors, the patina are all classic Austin, classic college town, classic downtown haunt.

Did you got to UT? Did you hang out here? Do you dare share your tales?

604 Neches Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 477-1268

Driveway Art - you might not see it in your suburb, but you can't go far in the older areas of Austin without seeing something unusual.

Well, sometimes what you see is usual - junk - old cars - hundreds of plants in broken pots.

And sometimes, well, what IS IT?

This thing looked to be all metal but it is actually a galvanized metal base with what looks like spray-painted particle board on top - the parts with the holes in them.

So what would you say the inspiration was for this bit of, um, driveway art?

At least this is art for your home that you can throw in the back of the moving truck and haul to your next place that needs something special.