We have a photo taken 50+ years ago that shows the green barn painted white. I can also see traces of red as well.
The green barn used to have a silo. You can see its old concrete foundation in the photo below. Over the years, it fell down, or was torn down. In this photo, you can see where the right side of the concrete chute, which allowed the farmer to send grain into the barn basement, has broken free, and slid through the rock wall. Someone started to rebuild the wall, and I continued it. Next summer, I plan on having this completely closed in and patched up. I will also have to put gutters on the eaves to keep the water from pouring onto the foundation. (I want to capture that water into a cistern system, but that's another post!).
Barn Photos
Pitchfork looking for work
Big fella 14" pillar and 12" beam
Every barn has dirty light bulbs (how did it get dirty?)
Nice curves
Gate looking for work
Gate chewed artistically by horses
Ladder to nowhere (except up)Chicken Photos
Khan, glowing in the midday sun
Honey following Bishop the BarncatThis Thanksgiving weekend has made me realize how thankful I am for all the good things in my life. I know that is a cliché, but it rings true for me today.
Life is good
40 comments:
Don, that must be the ladder to reach the sky hook, in case you ever need one...
Love the old structure and the size of the beams.. they don't build things like that anymore...
That wood is just awesome to me Don.In fact the whole barn is!
In my dreams I would come up there and gladly give you a hand and just enjoy 'piddling' around the place.
Oh yes,I love those rocks too!
Oh what a wonderful post, I enjoyed that! The photos are amazing.
That ladder to nowhere is kinda scary!
gwen: sky hook as in tether for my blimp?, or sky hook as in tether to the almighty in case I fall off the roof? or all of the above? I have enjoyed thinking about all off the sky hook possibilities
What do you mean "they?" You and John built something better than that up there on the Bay!!
carl: I could use a good hand who knows what the *&$% (to quote Yosemite Sam) he is doing up here!
drowsey: scarey yes, and there are two of them! Four if you count the ones on each end of the barn too!!
No, I haven't climbed any of them, and don't plan to.
If I had a monkey around the place, hmmm...
Don, I have a healthy appreciation for those old structures.. which are numbering less every year.. especially when we know how much less mechanization they had to help them.. just each man with his big strong hands ... and a few friends to help him along...
I had a good laugh reading your comments on what to use the sky hook for.. you have probably thought up several more by now!!! those sky hooks can come in handy, you know?
Such a beautiful barn - I love the photos that show how she has aged and how you are also restoring some of her glory. I wish my barn was like that instead of a modern Wick building. It has far less character. My chicken house light bulbs get dirty. I think they spit on them late at night.
My uncle's barn was much like yours. His base structure had no nails in it though...all built with wooden pegs.
Around here, there are a lot of Sears homes. They apparently came in on barges as well as trains. Anyhow, they are very neat looking and they have a ton of character. I didn't know they made barns too but it makes sense!
That barn looks a lot like mine without that long ladder but we do have a short blue one leading to the hay loft.
Hey, your white crested black polish hen, standing behind Khan in that photo...how does she do with your other hens? My polish, "Dot", used to be so beautiful (flight, skittish and a bit odd, yes, but still beautiful), but the other hens have recently taken to pecking her head at night while on the roost. She's a mess! I'm so sad. Do you have issues with this?
gwen: I agree about the old structures disappearing. That tv show "extreme home makeover" did a home about ten miles from our farm (it's airing this Sunday) and they tore down a farmhouse built in about 1860 to build the new one. I didn't like that so much!
I am still thinking about the sky hook
claire: Your chickens can spit?
I am finding that I like any farm building, whatever it's era.
warren: My barn doesn't have any wooden pegs that I can see. I think pegs predate the 20th century, maybe because they didn't have access to big nails?
Sears homes were really popular during the arts and crafts movement. THey are quite nice and detailed.
country girl: I wish I had a hayloft, but I actually have a hay barn! The whole upstairs was for hay storage, so no need for a loft.
Your barn is much older than mine though isn't it?
farmgirl dk: My 4 white crested polish are having the same problem as your Dot. All four look like Friars with the dome head and hair aound the edges. Some days they are bleeding. I keep hoping they will stop, but I think I am going to have to isolate them for a while to see if their feathers grow back in and then see if the others will leave them alone.
I have 7 other polish cresteds and they don't have this problem at all. Go figure.
Lovely pictures. I shall imagine Howard Keel, Tommy Rall et al raising it all those years ago... The wood has aged so beautifully.
The barns interior is so weathered and wonderful. Your photos really show it off. I am wondering though, does the barn cat like birds?
Oh what a loss and shame Don, .. I wouldn't like very much either..
Just 4 nights ago on an extremely windy night I saw and heard the firetrucks racing up and down the road for the longest time... not a good sign...... An 84 yr old womans home burned to the ground.. She had redone the old house and it was always a pleasure to drive by it.. now it's nothing but a pile of burnt mess... although sticking out of it were the strong and proud notched and pegged solid timbers it was made from.. she hasn't decided if she will rebuild or not.. such a shame...
eliane:7 brides for seven brothers, nicely done!
maybe we'll have a barn dance someday, if so, you'll be invited
shicat: Bishop the barn cat is amused by all of the chickens antics, and watches them, and even walks among them, (and gets followed when she does that).
the little birds, however, (chickadees, etc.), are not just watched :(
gwen: oh, fire is so terrible, so completely destructive. I hope your neighbor got out without injury. It makes me sad to think about all the memories of a lifetime that went up in smoke.
Reminds me to be careful with my woodstove!!
I know I've said it before, but I love old barns. They hold so many stories that we'll never know.
And the 'artistically chewed gate' is really neat. It DOES look like an artistic piece!!
jennifer: I agree about the artistic gate. When I redo that doorway, I'm going to have to figure out how to use that gate someplace where it will be seen yet safe.
Thanks for taking us on a small tour of your barn. Would there have been another floor? Would that have been where the ladder led to?
Lol, I love that ladder and 600.00 wow, but a guy was probably making that much a year at that time so it's all relative I suppose. Cute shot of Honey and Bishop.
Denise: That would be cool to have another floor up there. Maybe someday!
This is a haybarn. The farmers would store hay in here from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. There are pulleys all over the ceiling where they would run ropes to haul the bales up. The ladders gave them access to the hay. I can imagine in its "hayday" this was quite a little operation.
Bob: I can't imagine what it would cost to build a wooden structure like this today. It is mostly made of oak.
I think you're right that guys were probably making $600 a year at that time!
Grandpa Walton!
Hi Don, you are so lucky to have such a great and interesting barn...
...Love the shots from Ruth!
You have such amazing things on your land fella, so many brilliant things to waste time looking at and pondering over!
To think that Sears sold pre-fab barn kits. Sears was not only the all-purpose dry goods by mail of its day, it was the Nieman-Marcus of its day! (Though I don't think you could order your own private locomotive steam engine.)
Love the barn pictures, Don!! That is one tall ladder...
I like your new header, too!!
Don,if I could figure a way to get up there one day,it would be a thrill and a pleasure to lend some carpentry knowledge and skills.
Just don't be holding your breath though :)
I bet those awesome foundation stones came from right there on your farm. Maybe some were even delivered there by glacier!
I wish I had rocks,but here I do not know HOW many feet deep one would have to go to find a rock.
Hey, Donnie, Lisa told me that the old farmhouse that was torn down for the Extreme Home Makeover show was in such terrible shape, it was like almost ready to be condemned. So even though I would love to have seen them retain it, it sounds like it would have to be completely redone inside anyway.
Every time I see a picture of that barn, Don, I am in awe of it. Maybe it's the size. I don't know. It just seems...bigger than life. I guess that's what I need sometimes...something bigger than life that is very soulful.
stiggy:This old farm is full of things I love to mess with. It's probably more than I can handle with crumbling foundations, leaky roofs 40 feet off the ground, and poison ivy everywhere, but I woldn't want to live anywhere else right now.
We have talked about renting a little rural place in the UK in about 10 years.
loring: and that's not all! older catalogues served out their last days in the outhouse, both for reading practice and...well you know. Charmin is a bit of an upgrade!
paula: thanks! Ruth loves to fiddle with fotos
carl: THat would be fun to have an amish-type work party and get together a group of people to hang out and also work on projects like restoring old barns.
Don't dig too deeep down there or you might start a sinkhole!
ruth: I'm glad to know that about the farmhouse. We americans need to do a better job of treasuring our heritage, (scarce as it may be!)
My dad has a memory of a huge round barn near his uncle's farm, that was torn down to build a strip mall. Ouch!
ginnie: The green barn does feel big, but there are barns in the neighborhood that would hold 5 of mine!
I too need things in my life that are bigger than I am, and I think this farm is filling that right now.
Your photography does that for me too!
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