Barn in Absentia

In 1995 my husband built us a beautiful, monstrous, red and white barn 85 ft by 65 ft. He did this without contractors, skid steers or cranes, using an old tractor with a rickety bucket. An amazing feat. Please forgive the fuzzy photo, I can barely chew gum and walk at the same time let alone fly and take photos. 

  Keith used the old wood from the property's first barn built in 1898, hauled it to the new site and used that wood for the bones of the building. We purchased new steel siding and new roofing materials. It had a large hay mow where our grandchildren begged to play with each visit and inside we sheltered horses, cows, calves, hay, straw...etc. The small addition was our milk house added in 1999. We loved that barn. Here it is up close.

An intern, back in the day when we had such, 
helps Keith put up hay.

We loved that big barn so much we left it, to start this new simpler but albeit, barnless life.  Please refer to the word "morons" on this blogs header, above. What we have instead,is this quaint building measuring a whopping 25 ft by 20 ft.

The original shed, to the right, was likely built about the same time as the old decrepit house on our property, in 1867. Somewhere along the line, a  concrete floor was poured. I love the look of this shed and it is hoped we can save it and use it for many years. It contains feed barrels for cats, chickens, and pigs,  horse tack, garden tools, buckets, fencing supplies etc...

The addition to the left is crap on a cracker as my mother would say. She was from southern Indiana and prolific in her quotable quotes. Miss her I do. Primarily it is cheap fiber board and warped plywood with a dirt floor. One day it will be torn down and replaced, but for the moment it serves a purpose. It houses our hay, straw and miscellaneous inventory. With the exception of a disoriented duck or laze-about dog, the building does not routinely house livestock. Instead, we house our animals in numerous creative ways.

A small milking "barn" for Holly and her mentor Mucca, the livestock trailer for Ennis the horse (pulled in and out of her pasture as needed to haul hay or other large items that won't fit in the back of our truck) and the old well house for the steers, who were not at all kind to the old well house. 

Well house circa 1867, turned steer shed 2015 turned chicken coop 2016.
Yes, repairs are scheduled.

With winter just 5 short months away we are considering our options for 2017. Stay tuned.