I amvery fond of our 150-year-old bank barn, which is built into the side of a hill so that it is accessible from two levels. We recently had 2,000 screws put into the roof, and are having the stone foundation fixed up so it'll be good for another 150 years. Give or take!
There are lots of neat old things in the barn, some mysterious, others not.
Lots of baling twine!
Beautiful posts and beams.
Reflective things.
Chickens. And brooms!
Old coffee pots.
Posts to which dairy cows were once chained.
A beautiful, albeit damp, stone wall.
A screen door that's going back on the house soon!
An 100-year-old interior door that is also going back in the house.
I'm not sure what this is...
...but there are several rusty leghold traps scattered around the barn! (Don't worry, they are all rusted shut or open and are nowhere they can get stepped on.)
An oil can and old papers.
Gordon's future poker parlour! It used to be a workshop for the former owner.Then raccoons moved into the insulation for a winter. Now it's cleaned and ready for the menfolk. HAHAHA!
The old pump in the pumphouse. It's still functioning and we plan to use it for water for the animals. During the ice storm of 1998, the former owners got all their water from this well!
Enamel bucket in the pumphouse.
The roof.
Yet another leghold trap!
And the pièce de résistance...
The muskrat stretcher. There are several things written on it, including the date 1929. So if you've got any muskrat pelts that need stretching, I'm your girl.
And the pièce de résistance...
The muskrat stretcher. There are several things written on it, including the date 1929. So if you've got any muskrat pelts that need stretching, I'm your girl.
When I first read the final item, I thought, who would want to stretch their muskrat?
ReplyDeletePelts. Got it.
You weren't the only one who envisioned whole, live muskrats being stretched.
ReplyDelete"Ve haf vays of making you talk, Herr Muskrat!"
I thought that's what all that iron work was for. HA. HA.
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE your barn. I felt I was visiting a future project of This Old House.
You have an artist's eye Nathalie, that coffee pot shot is fabulous...it would make a great painting.
You don't stretch muskrats, love. You carry them on the stretcher to the animal hospital when one of your lovely dogs has injured it.
ReplyDelete:)
I love old barns! I hope those muskrats run away from your area fast!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteElisabeth -- we looove the barn. We have a great granary too, and one day it will be my studio. We have to evict the squirrels first!
ReplyDeleteHWB, the dogs could stretch a muskrat all by themselves... and, uh, they aim to kill, not injure. Sssssigh!
Shelley, for the most part the muskrats evade our dogs, and I'm not setting any leghold traps these days! :) Nor do I blow up the beavers and their dams with dynamite, like a certain neighbour I know.
Où est le foin? Great barn 'n' stuff. But I thought barn was to keep lots of hay and big forks. Don't know really. Just got that from books. Great photos. So nice to nose around other people's place.
ReplyDeleteWow you have an utter treasure in that barn Knatolee. It's probably bigger than my house too!
ReplyDeleteJams, I think you could fit our house in that barn three times. It is absolutely massive! We fell in love with it when we bought this place, and are doing some work on it to make sure it stays upright for many decades to come.
ReplyDeleteClaudia, there's still a bit of hay in the barn but it's really old. Since we have no hay-eating animals right now, there's no need to store any. :)
This is a beautiful photo essay.
ReplyDelete