Pages

Friday, November 15, 2013

Back to the slate roof tomorrow. Barns today.


I was at work ninety minutes or less this morning, and shooed off the upper lot, where shingles would be falling, so I made a couple of pictures and left. On the way back from taking Emily to work tomorrow there should be lovely pictures of what happened today.

Linda and I went to lunch today. For one reason and another we haven't caught up with each other since August. First we went to the woods so my phone could ring her phone, lost somewhere among the leaves yesterday, as she looked for winter berries.  I didn't ask.

That accomplished, as we drove back to the road I admired the large barn and the cows across the road. Linda grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. She told me to pull off the road so she could show me the cow with the bell.



A bell on a cow is no longer usual, but this is a Mennonite farm, and she assumed the bell hearkened back to more rural times. "Look for the cow with the leather collar." Whoops. Three cows with leather collars and bells. Until I edited these photos, I did not see the Malamute keeping an eye on me looking for cows with collars! 


Another cow with a leather collar and a bell. "Perhaps it's tryout week for lead cow!" Linda spotted the bull. "His nose is right up her butt!" I spotted him! It was a lovely blue sky kind of day. We headed off for lunch. 


The lunch crowd came, the lunch crowd left, and eventually so did we. Four months is some serious catching up, though, and we were wondering where we could go next. Show me more barns, I suggested, and we spent another couple of hours pursuing barns in Columbiana County, Ohio, USA.

We saw more than a few, but often I could not find a good place to pull off the road. Columbiana is rural, but less so year by year. A lot of truck traffic. Semi's on county roads. They aren't pleased to be stuck behind a couple of rubber necking old ladies, looking for a way to stop for a picture of a barn.


Although there is a hill behind, this is not a bank barn. The current fencing and the green of the enclosure indicates horses; the barn overhang suggests it formerly was a cow barn. The overhangs are common on eastern and mid-Atlantic 19th century barns; they offered shelter to cows in wet and rainy weather.


The farmer's daughter commented on the good condition of the barn. "All the windows are intact. The paint is recent." Not particularly noticeable in either photo, there are three Dutch doors under the overhang, another indication of a horse barn.




 A fairly small bank barn on a seemingly abandoned property. Bank barns are so convenient to storing bedding and feed above the animals in the lower level. The integrity of the foundation is the key to the life of the barn. This foundation may need stabilizing.


The barn's shingles indicate it was built in 1878. Farm dogs do know their job. Another vigilant sentinel watched until we left. This bank barn's original stone foundation can be seen on the right. On the left the foundation is firmed up by concrete blocks.



We stopped for a picture of the Black Angus at the feeder. Back on the road I asked the farmer's daughter what crop was still in the field. Linda hung out the window, peering. Finally she said the leaves looked like they had a bit of a tang. I stopped, she jumped the ditch, snapped a leaf and began chewing.

Then she pulled aside leaves until she found the fruit. Not squash. Very large and heavy. She couldn't get a good grip to lift it a little. She stood by the side of the road, chewing her leaf, waving another over her head at the farm house. "Yoo, hoo. Look over here. Come out and ask me what I'm doing so I can ask you what you're growing."

Several fruitless minutes and she was running out of leaf to wave. "Pull those leaves aside; I'll take a picture. America will know." And I did. Can anyone tell us what this might be?








17 comments:

  1. I love the country, farms and animals, Joanne, and your photos are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Possibly butternut squash.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well that was a interesting tour, your barns are unique.
    Merle............

    ReplyDelete
  4. Clueless what the leaves could be, but it seems like you and your friend had an enjoyable day together! Love the pictures of the barns.

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  5. There's something about barns that have always drawn my eyes whenever we traveled around the Midwest. I love your barns and the lovely cows. I can just imagine the sound.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the barns - and am drawing a blank about the fruit. Its leaves don't look like squash - but I don't know what they DO look like.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've no idea what that plant is, the leaves are unfamiliar, but the fruit looks like butternut pumpkin in colour.
    Dutch doors, are they the ones that can open in halves? So a horse can put its head out over the bottom closed half?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, open in halves. Can't you just see the horse looking out!

      Delete
  8. These barns are so attractive & something I'd like to see one day. All the cowbells must make quite a noise !

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry, Ontario doesn't know those leaves...but we do appreciate a good barn!
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's been so long since I've heard a cow bell. The matriarch in our herd on the farm wore one so we could find them to bring them in for milking. We found an old cow bell in Dad's shed. I lost the toss and my brother got it. >:(

    The old barns are wonderful! The pioneers of your country knew how to do them right. I've heard (but don't know) that another reason for the overhang was taxes were levied on the measurements of the foundation--thus a bigger square footage on the top would dodge higher payment.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Alright, this is "farmer linda".When you need to know something you go to the source..In this case, right up the driveway and bang on the farmer's door.His name is Zip and he has 26 acres of winter ground cover, called Tillage Radishes. They protect and make his soil easily tillable for corn planting in the spring.He lets them rot and they produce compost nutients,eg. Nitrogen..They go down 30 inches, (no wonder I couldn't pull one out)earthworms are active in softer soil and the hole left after they rot is perfect for catching all of the rain and winter snow. He said the greens would have been tangy earlier in the season. They grow to maturity in 30 days..WOW Now you know and I will keep my eye on those fields. joanne wasn't willing to wait for more comments to see if anyone knew so I am spilling the radishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fascinating - 30 inches down? Holy moly! Thanks for finding out and telling us!

      Delete
  12. I remember as a child hearing the bells on the cows in Austria. It's a lovely sound. I suppose they had them in case they wandered, not really much point in it if they are in a fenced farm, I guess, but a lovely sound nonetheless. Old barns are always so good to look at. .

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely pictures. I always learn something when I come here, Joanne.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Cool barns. I could tell it wasn't butternut and daikon radish popped into my head for why I have no idea. Close, I guess but as Grocho says, no cigar.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Tillage Radishes! Amazing. I was going to guess that the foliage looked like arugula, which it does. But arugula has no 30" root. So grateful that Farmer Linda came to our collective rescue. And what is the essence in "barn" that warms our souls? There is an image of abundance--well-filled barns--that feels good. But there is something more.

    ReplyDelete