Thursday's Things In A Row...

On a farm, it's hard to find

rows that aren't a farmy kind.

Three horse noses in a dark barn,

sharing feed, doing no harm.

Rows of pieces that belong

I know not where.

Rows of rafters and slats

make stalls to share.

Rows of cattle looking at me,

I may be in trouble,

I carried no feed!

Join Pat to view rows

 across the planet, Earth.

Always showing beauty

sometimes, filled with mirth.

My Wonderful Barn

It began its life as a chicken house but never housed chickens.  It has been a cow barn, a hay shed, and a storage facility.

When we moved here, Beverly and I redid the barn from end to end, making it compatible for miniature horses.  We used what we had as you can see Dad's old truck rack is the sides on these two stalls.  The missing roof and the dipping roof supports are thanks to the tornado in 2008.

It is not a prize winning barn but it is ours and no monies owed.

Made by Dad, with some help, years before I can remember.  Through the red gate are two mini birthing stalls, no longer used.  The old deep freeze is where I keep halters, brushes and some feed.

This Sunday Beverly and I toured the barn with a new plan in mind.  Where were the supports no longer good, what was our purpose, what did we need to tear out, what to leave; these were just some of the questions we asked.

Since my tack is in my bedroom, a plan to make a mouse proof tack room is in the works, using one of the mini stalls that already has half walls.  We have lots of lumber that Dad milled At The Farm, trouble is, most of what we have not used is hickory and oak.  Hard timber!  Old seasoned like iron lumber but lumber none the less.  So diamond drill bits will be needed and lots of muscles and lots of time...but it possible.  Now that we have a plan, it shall come to pass.

We will also have to take a section out of the center where the rafters have been lifted and set down by the same said tornado, converting this into another entrance where we could go right to horses or left to Marcy's potting shed, goat house and storage.

I have been stacking rocks.

With all the rocks that keep turning up, I just stack them where they will not harm the horses.  There will be a purpose for them sometime.  We use everything At The Farm.

The Old Barn

It was there when Dad was young and he said it was over a hundred years old then. You can see the marks the hand axes made as they cut the log into a square timber for the barn. Each piece was cut to fit together like a puzzle, no nails needed because each added weight held it together more tightly.

It is sad to see it dying though it has taken more than a hundred years, there are only a few pieces left from the ravages of time.

The barn was used when he was a child but as long as I can remember it has only been a shadow of what had been. With Daddy's stories, I can hear the axes and the shouts of men as they raised the barn, timber by timber.

It is sad to see it go, now covered with mosses and lichen with insects eating the meal within the last logs. It is good to know, it shall feed the earth again from where the first tree was cut.