For Barn Lovers only

[Pine Strip]

For Barn Lovers only.... You don't need to check 'Snopes' to see all these barns have seen there better days ! :tombstone:

 

[MotorSeven]

It's common here to see a perfectly good "old" barn that gets a few sheets of tin torn off in a storm. No one bothers to spend the $200 to fix that, so the rain drains inside. Before long the exposed purlins, rafters & sills are rotting. A few years later they start to lean then finally collapse. Makes good sense to me to not spend a couple hundred bucks to save a $30K barn:confused2:

 

[2458n]

It was common for my grandparents to say that you could tell who ran the place by the upkeep on the barn vs. upkeep to the house. If you are a investor in town and just looking for a cash return the barn only raises the property taxes. Yes ,it is a shame because these old barns will never be replaced. A barn near me is suffering the same fate. A storm tore loose two roofing panels and they have never been replaced. One of the bottom beams is oak and measures 100' with no breaks. what a shame. Some cars and a boat are stored there now. The loft is not used at all. I find it interesting the different styles that existed and how you find little groups of them that are built the same.

 

[300UGUY]

Around here, before they changed the tax setup, I'd see dairy barns that were simply spotless. That was a business property and taxed differently. The house, on the outside, would look terrible. Inside, very nice.... One thing here, is that a large structure like a barn was a lot for a family project, especially if they were busy farming. So some area carpenters specialized in building / repairing barns. There are several old barns here, built by the same guys, they look similar. I guess because it worked. There is one old round barn here, I was in it about 20 years ago, it is built around a central silo, and the hayloft has chutes that let you drop feed into the cow stalls underneath. Quite a labor saving setup. I believe it was built before WW1. I drove by it this aft, it looks sad, the roof is starting to go, the owners put a blue tarp on it. It's going to take a lot more than that to save it.

 

[GGB]

We spent a fair amount of money to fix up the old barn at the farm. Yeah, money wise we would have been ahead to have torn it down and put up a new pole barn (which would also have been bigger), but we decided it was worth keeping a barn that had been on the land when my wife's great granfather bought the place in 1903.

Even after repairing, it's a long way from perfect, but boy does it have character. Just can't get that in a new pole barn, at least not for another 110 years!

 

[KYErik]

My grandpa and a crew built this 36x50 barn back in the early 1950's. The original white oak siding was rotting out and calves would occasionally break through the lower level walls. This past summer, my dad and I replaced the siding on 2 sides with some fresh white oak planks that we sawed with my home made bandmill. He cut he the oaks himself off his own land. I had sprayed the walk in doors with a linseed oil based sealer- that is why they look darker in the pic. I have since sprayed all the new wood with sealer. The scaffold is 7 ft tall and has hoops welded through the bottom for dad's JD 2840 FEL forks to slide through. I hate heights and ladders, but I didn't mind working off that platform in the least.

We ran out of white oak, so the plan is to put a fresh layer of red oak planks on the back side this summer- those planks are already cut and air drying.

 

[Pine Strip]

A good Save !

 

[Bob77064]

More barns.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

The barns around here are dropping like flys ,the market for old barn wood has gone crazy and some people are advertising old 4 plank wood stall doors for 100s of dollars and many old barns have signs on them now that say "DON'T ASK IT'S NOT FOR SALE !" With all the yuppies buying small farms and the first thing they do is remove anything that resembles a farm to bring it up to their "standards" Makes me sick to think someone worked that property for a hundred years or more and now it's turned into a subdivision . The man I bought some steers from is 90 years old and has spent his entire life on 400 acres working cattle and hay fields along with a 40 acre garden ,This man built this land out and when he needed a piece of equipment he didn't run to tractor supply but built it himself .His sawmill is very nice and still works great after 50 + years of use .Well his family sold off all his cattle last week and called me about the land altho they want subdivision prices (out of my range ) I am trying to buy what I can of the equipment and sawmill the problem is he is watching them tear apart everything he built his entire life and he still walks the farm daily .I asked him if he really wanted to sell and he said "NO I thought my sons and their sons would work this land forever now their putting me in a retirement home " It has to be the saddest thing I have ever seen ! :thumbdown:

 

[dave1949]

< snip >
Well his family sold off all his cattle last week and called me about the land altho they want subdivision prices (out of my range ) I am trying to buy what I can of the equipment and sawmill the problem is he is watching them tear apart everything he built his entire life and he still walks the farm daily .I asked him if he really wanted to sell and he said "NO I thought my sons and their sons would work this land forever now their putting me in a retirement home " It has to be the saddest thing I have ever seen ! :thumbdown:

It is foolish to think your kids will want to live your dream. It is just that simple. They are putting a lot of emphasis and public awareness on the importance of estate planning around here, as it applies to woodland owners and what they want to happen to their land.

People need to decide if how the land is used in the future is more important to them than what their kids may or may not do. Family meetings to air that out, and written agreements are recommended.

There are ways to preserve open space, agricultural and timber lands if that is what a person wants to do, you can't wait until you are 90 years old however to put those plans into place. It is a sad story but one that could easily have ended otherwise.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

It is foolish to think your kids will want to live your dream. It is just that simple. They are putting a lot of emphasis and public awareness on the importance of estate planning around here, as it applies to woodland owners and what they want to happen to their land.

People need to decide if how the land is used in the future is more important to them than what their kids may or may not do. Family meetings to air that out, and written agreements are recommended.

There are ways to preserve open space, agricultural and timber lands if that is what a person wants to do, you can't wait until you are 90 years old however to put those plans into place. It is a sad story but one that could easily have ended otherwise.

My father bought a large piece land in Salem,Franklin county, Me many (60 +)years ago and built a cabin and barn on it .just a few years ago he bought another larger adjacent piece to stop a gravel pit from going in .We would NEVER consider selling it !

 

[dodge man]

A lot of the pictures of barns falling over look like they could have come from my area. I did some work for someone that had bought a house with a pretty good size barn in need of repair. He said from a practial stand point, the old barns aren't much good. A lot of farmers don't have livestock, there to small for modern farm equipment, so they are more of a liability than an assest. The people that are keeping them up its more a matter of pride than anything else.

 

[DKCDKC]

I grew up on an old Shenandoah Valley farm with a large red brick barn, the largest I've seen around here. It was built about 1900 using a lot of the bricks recycled from an older, large carriage house built 60 years before that. Love the old barn... Hand-hewn heart of pine beams, a giant hay mow, a variety of pens and a milking stable. Used to have an old wood stave silo as well. That rotted. But the barn's roof is sound and it is still usable. Rental farmer uses it as a cattle hospital and/or sorting unit. It's part of a historical site. The farm's been in the family since 1790... My brother, the older son, owns it now.

This image is a pen-and-ink drawing by talented local artist Joe Nutt.

 

[GGB]

A lot of the pictures of barns falling over look like they could have come from my area. I did some work for someone that had bought a house with a pretty good size barn in need of repair. He said from a practial stand point, the old barns aren't much good. A lot of farmers don't have livestock, there to small for modern farm equipment, so they are more of a liability than an assest. The people that are keeping them up its more a matter of pride than anything else.

That is exactly the reason we redid the barn at at the farm. From an investment/utilization view, we'd have been money ahead to have torn it down and replaced with a larger pole barn. But that old barn is the soul of the farm. We use it now for shelter for the cattle and to store the skid loader and grinder, so it's still a working barn.

We have decided to tear down an old hog shed that was in the corral which we reworked. We were just going to try to save the 2x4's and burn the rest, but one of our neighbors has offered to tear it down for the planks to use for a rustic looking area in his basement. I didn't think they were decent enough to recycle, but glad I was wrong as it will save us the time to use for other projects, which as most of you know is never ending on a farm. And we took down an old small granary that was also falling apart and no longer being used. They had become an eyesore, and we were still paying property taxes on them. And although I've got mixed emotions, we will probably replace an old drive through granary to build a new machine shed. Here again, it has come down to functionality versus what's left of the heritage.

A big part of the equation is that our nephew wants to continue to farm and run cattle. And Grandma still lives on the place, which is also where she was born 83 years ago. We still have to remind her that she doesn't need to be painting outside when it's pushing 100 degrees!

 

[dave1949]

My father bought a large piece land in Salem,Franklin county, Me many (60 +)years ago and built a cabin and barn on it .just a few years ago he bought another larger adjacent piece to stop a gravel pit from going in .We would NEVER consider selling it !

It's always good when it works out that way. You and your father have a commitment to the land. The trouble is, if you wanted your children to take it on, are they interested, can they make a living from it, or even commute to a decent job from that location? Too often, the answer is no.

I doubt if my sons, ages 39 and 35, have any interest in parking themselves in the hinterlands of Western Maine. They didn't grow up here and have no anchors in the community. Time will tell. I do ask them about it once in a while because it affects what I might do with our lot.

Sorry to get off the topic of barns, but the future of aging barns is in the hands of the next generation to some extent.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

It's always good when it works out that way. You and your father have a commitment to the land. The trouble is, if you wanted your children to take it on, are they interested, can they make a living from it, or even commute to a decent job from that location? Too often, the answer is no.

I doubt if my sons, ages 39 and 35, have any interest in parking themselves in the hinterlands of Western Maine. They didn't grow up here and have no anchors in the community. Time will tell. I do ask them about it once in a while because it affects what I might do with our lot.

Sorry to get off the topic of barns, but the future of aging barns is in the hands of the next generation to some extent.

My son 32 is in Dallas working in aviation and my daughter 28 is a model living in South beach ,Fl and I'm not sure if they know where the state of Maine is ?

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

For Barn Lovers only.... You don't need to check 'Snopes' to see all these barns have seen there better days ! :tombstone:



View attachment 299855View attachment 299856View attachment 299857View attachment 299858

The first 2, seen better days for sure.
3rd one a coat of paint would do wonders.
You'll have to help me out with the last one. Looks to me to be in excellent condition, still being used even.

 

[mjarrels]

I have a 140 year old bank barn... It's a maintenance nightmare. New barn doors on the north side and the south side doors need paint. The construction is unbelievable... no nails, just hickory pegs and huge oak timbers. Largest barn I ever saw is located on NAS Whidbey Island... used for DRMO, the vertical post are about 4 X 4 FEET of fir. Huge barn that was on the original farm and was once the largest barn on the west coast.

mark

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

This one is just down the road from us stay on 58 See rock city

 

[dave1949]

This one is just down the road from us View attachment 300756 stay on 58 See rock city

Come to think of it, I've never seen a Mail Pouch painted on a metal pole barn.