I can still remember the first time I walked into this barn. It was a late summer morning and I was 15. As I stepped through the small wooden door I felt transported to another place and time. I imagined the peoples and animals who had once worked and lived there. My head filled with the bleats of lambs and bellow of a lonely cow. I noticed the loft, and envisioned it filled with rowdy sheep shearing men. My hands touched the wooden pens so smooth and glassy from the years of hands coated in lanolin. Then I moved on to the raised wooden floored area that was once 3 tie stalls for horses, with a raised loft with openings for ease of feeding. It was a magical and sacred time in my mind. The dust motes flew like little angels of light and I paused in my teenage angst and contemplated what once was and what might be. Mark says I married him for the barn!
Today I have more dreams of 'what might be', while trying to hold onto some of 'what was' as well. Mark and Eric have fall and winter plans of continuing with their barn renovation that was begun last spring. During the last week Mark has jacked up a post most evenings and then poured a new pier.
There is a discussion of a new tack room and a 12' by 16' stall. Time will tell which direction this old barn takes. We'll will keep you posted.
I did some work on a barn over on sunnyside once, years ago. I felt the same way as you describe. It was like "Man if this barn could talk...". Incidentally, I was doing the same task. Lifting posts and getting some solid foundation under them.[24x24 cement pad with pier block set in] Working on that old "California Pole Barn" also dialed me into the local ranching history, which I was unaware of, and found quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love old buildings, especially barns. We visited the Amish settlement in New England that has the round barn. You could feel the many people and animals that had used that barn for years.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to more updates.
Dan
I love old barns, I wish his cousin had one. How nice that you are restoring yours. We see so many around here that are literally falling down and I always wonder why they didn't save it.
ReplyDeleteSomeday we are planning to build a new/old (new construction but looks old) barn here, but that may be quite a while yet.
Brenda
Oh! Your writing about the barn was so magical. I so enjoyed reading this.
ReplyDeleteI have a love for old barns, too. :)
~Lisa
New Mexico
That barn looks fantastic. I can't wait to see more on the re doing of it all!!
ReplyDeleteI love old barns.
I don't know your backstory for some reason. Did Mark's family own the ranch? Have you know him since you were fifteen? Do tell!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, gorgeous barn!!!
Yes, Mark's family owned the ranch since the 70's and my father and his were acquainted. The summer of my 15th year my family was included in one of his family's visits to the ranch. While I had met Mark before, we had never really talked. During this trip we talked a lot and I fell in love. Crazy, I know, but true. It took a while for me to convince Mark though! At the time our age differences seemed a bit much, since he was already out of high school, and I just beginning. By the time I was 18 we were wed.
ReplyDeleteAhh!! I wish I could be there to see the work being done, and buy some jeans so that I could get them dirty (probably not by helping but by causing mischief)
ReplyDeleteI think there are alot of barn
ReplyDeletelovers out there. To me they seem
somewhat motherly.
Very cool imagery in describing this special barn. I love old barns! Like you, I always wonder about their history. A few years ago, my family looked at a home & land for sale that was part of a historic homesite and it had a really large old barn on it. It was just amazing.
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