New Year’s Day in the field. I wasn’t up to catch the sunrise, so I snapped a pic of the barn…instead. Happy New Year!!
barn
Barnyard at night
Here’s what I see coming out from the Milkhouse at night, as I head to the house. Facing is the goat barn, with the big old barn out of frame to the right, the farmhouse off to the left behind the rail fence, and the curve turning into the on-farm lane that meets the road. (I borrowed a tripod to check out photos by available light. It’s cool, way more picture possibilities. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks, avoiding the annoying flash.) The light from the street light-type lamp pools brightly right below and fades across the yard. (Without that lamp, it would be pretty near pitch black around here unless the moon was out.) The scene seems sometimes picturesque, sometimes a little ominous, that desolate, deserted parking lot look…but it’s only the Farm. As far as anyone remembers, the lamp fixture was rented 20 years ago from the provincial hydro company, they still come around every few years in a huge truck with a cherry picker to change the bulb, or tube or whatever it is up there. I could call and find out the details, but at the moment, they’re not important…
View from the other end
A view from the north end of the market garden field, the reverse angle of a couple of days ago and a relatively rare perspective for me. Although the crops are on a 7-year rotation that marches them from here towards the barn, I still tend to spend more time down around the greenhouse-Milkhouse end, no matter what’s growing where. Today, I’m once again checking things out as fall clean-up proceeds in pieces. The nearest section is the new addition, recently cleared of squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons, and the raccoon-fated corn just out of sight on the left. After one season, it’s a little overgrown with grass, but not bad. Next year, this will be beans!
Big old barn
The main barn is huge. I’ve gotten used to it, because it’s always around, but it’s on a whole other scale from my tiny farming, and I don’t know it that well. Upstairs, in the cavernous main space, mysterious rigging and wooden contraptions that probably have something to do with hay float in the shadows 30-40 feet up. There are hidden stairways, built-in ladders, chutes and trapdoors in the floor. In a little corner in the back where it stays cool, I store garlic and onions during the summer and fall. I also take a long view of the garden field from the top of the gangway leading in. The barn was built in 1949, after its predecessor was accidentally burnt down by the idly discarded cigarette of a wandering stranger (“hobo”? “itinerant rural homeless person”?) who’d spent the night. The main structure is all wood—mortise and tenon—with no nails or other metal fasteners involved. I’ve picked up lots of details and stories centered around this barn. It symbolizes farming, it makes this place look like a farm, but to me it’s mainly just…space. That’s a little weird. As I took stock of the last of the onions and the seed garlic today, I decided to spend some time on really looking around. Explore now!
A beautiful day
A beautiful day in the snowy field, looking back at the outbuildings from the greenhouse. I used the Kubota (the trusty compact tractor) to clear the path, more to take it out of the shed and give it a little run than because the snow’s too high to trudge through. The temperature’s around zero C, the sun is getting higher in the sky and warmer as she climbs, snow is melting at the edges and through the thin spots wherever you go… Is spring in the air? Sure feels like it!
Roof is working out
Here’s the barn with the new milkhouse extension, doing fine. We were slightly concerned that the slope of the new roof might be too shallow for snow to slide off, particularly with roll-off from the roof of the barn. The starting point was determined by an existing heavy cross beam in the barn, while the next beam is halfway up the wall – sloping the roof from there would’ve required tons of extra work and materials. As it is, it seems to be working out. Not having much snow or much of a winter at all helps. I doubt the sky will be falling in!
Foundation
A concrete mixer pulled into the farmyard and poured a 6″ concrete pad on top of the firmed up gravel. Then we built a concrete block retaining wall against the gangway to the barn. The Milkhouse Extension’s ready for framing and well underway!