The techno-kid is standing in the hay loft in ye olde barn. He has no idea, but that barn has a good hundred years on him, a lot of little guys have stood there over the years. Even this guy has stood there. I also helped fill that loft with fresh cut bales of hay, right up to the top.
We are pretty sure that barn was built in 1903, or maybe '04. The people that know for sure are gone now. The barn next door was built in 1906, we know that for sure, and this barn was built two or three years before. It was the second barn built at the farm. The first barn was built around 1884 and is long gone. When I was a kid, the roof had collapsed in most places and it was not used. I gotta find a picture of that one!
Look closely at this picture. See the pegs? Yep, the barn was not built with any nails, just wooden pegs and it has stood this long. Take a look at this next picture, another fine example of craftsmanship.
Now if you look at those pictures, you would think the wood is just old, rough wood. It is that, but it is also much more. The wood is a bit rough with age, faded and such, but strong as ever. The pictures dont do it justice, but you might just see how the wood was fashioned. Yes.. fashioned.
When they built the buildings for the farm, they got the stone from the field, the wood from the hard woods. They cleared the land and used what they cleared to build barns and houses and such. Clever, if you ask me, and of course, out of necessity. There is some fantastic planks where you can see they used an awl to shape them, a hand drill to set the holes for the pegs.
The big barn needs a roof, and my da is having that done, then metal siding over the sides to perserve the lumber. The stone? He hired a guy to fix it and re-seal it. The other buildings, the old ice house/tool shed and a pig barn, are already done.
You may say why do this now if the buildings have lasted for a hundred years? Well.. if we did nothing, then the holes in the roof would let water sit on the beams, and they would slowly rot. This leads to building collapse and that would be a shame. So my dad decided to do all he could to save what was left. This is cool.
The first barn collapsed when I was a wee lad. The first little house was long gone before I was born. The blacksmith shop was in pieces and my grandfather gave it to a museum when I was a kid. The second house collapsed fifteen years ago. The last house is about to go and we can not save it. So my father saves what he can. This is good.
Someday, I hope we can build another house there. I am sure it will not be as cool as the original buildings. After all, we are not going to go out into the woods and chop down trees to build it, nor go into the field to get stone for a foundation. As awesome as that sounds, I dont know if I could even attempt to do what they did. But still, we can save what is there.
And we can dream...
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