More Iowa barns

[IAbarnguy]

I am finally getting around to posting some information and pictures about some other barns that we have in Iowa.  My previous thread was about our large, red dairy barn on our mom's family farm in NE Iowa.  This post is about some small barns we have in my hometown of Odebolt in NW Iowa, 150 miles west of the other farm.  These barns were built by my grandfather on my dad's side of the family to support his small dairy operation.  One was built around 1920, another around 1940 and the pole hay barn in the 1950's.  There is also a very small grainery.  About 10 years ago I prepped and painted them myself but this time around we hired a professional painter.  The work was done in April of this year.  The barns are not actively used except for storage.  These pictures show the barns as they are now, plus two from the 1940's and a couple showing the recent prep work before painting.











Small grainery:


My Dad and a friend, taken in 1942:


Some of the barn residents, late 1940's:


Prep work before painting, April 2016:


Prep work before painting, April 2016:

[Dave]

Thanks for this post, we love it.
Do you know the reason why the downspouts go all the way across the building at a slight grade and than return gain to discharge on the side that the gutter they come from?
Don't remember ever seeing that before.
Love the pictures.

[IAbarnguy]

Thanks, Dave.  From what I can see in the 8th picture down (the one with cows in the pasture), the downspout went across the drive to the other barn.  There is a cistern there and I'm guessing that at one time my grandfather used that downspout to help fill it.  Sometime around 1961 the silo blew over so maybe after that, if he didn't need that water going to the cistern, he just rotated it 180 degrees and made the discharge over on the other side of the barn where it could drain on the concrete slab.  It's been that way as long as I can remember.  

[Dave]

Thanks for that info on the downspouts.
And thanks for maintaining the barns. Very nice to see that. We see so many barns here in Arkansas that are just going to ruin, sad.

[minsc]

It's always nice seeing pictures from times long gone by.