My old 100 yr old bank barn

[Bull]

Feb 13, 2013 7:49:38 GMT -6 Mack said:

Oh my goodness! I thought this was a "Just Barns" forum. Here we are waxing poetic and speaking of work. . . . I had to read "Heart of Darkness" in Freshman English. As an engineering student, getting meaning from Conrad was harder than solving partial differntial equations.

Still, I like the idea that the more work you put into your barn the more you like it. But, frankly, this man DOES like work from the process to the end -- I could (and do) spend hours in the workshop. Work becomes enjoyment when it's with a good friend, human or material!!

I'm an English teacher; I am always connecting to the world through the lens of literature. The piece above really captures the essence of work for me.

Even if you like work, the quote still applies. You like the work because you find yourself in it; it's creative; without work we never know who we are or what we can do; we're the only animals that work with tools extensively.

I think the quote goes well on a forum about old barns. Why do we love them so much? They are buildings that are directly connected to the work of agriculture and we add to that history our own creative powers and produce or perpetuate something that would otherwise die away.

[Linda]

Bull, I felt that your quote, was "right on", very heartfelt. I was born on a farm, it is now, very old, & not cared for. Wish that someone, would give it, a re-birth. To give life, to an old barn, is a very special project.

[Mack]

Bull, I just had to pull your chain. I enjoyed the quote very much -- not so much the rest of "Heart of Darkness" -- and agree that it fits here very well. I can't wait to share your comments with my younger sister, a fellow English teacher!! Oops, for clarification: SHE is the fellow English teacher, not I.

[Bull]

Glad the quote was well-received, Linda, Dave and Mack.

I'm also so glad to have this forum and threads like this one and others on here that allow us to share our love for these old buildings.

[tarnished]

Feb 12, 2013 19:36:59 GMT -6 Bull said:

"I had expended enough hard work on her to make me love her. No influential friend would have served me better. She had given me a chance to come out a bit—to find out what I could do. No, I don't like work. I had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work,—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means."

Great quote Bull. So many of us know exactly what you mean.  It's not really work when you enjoy what your doing.  Such a good feeling after working your butt off, to turn around and look at what you accomplished, and say "Oh yea, that's what I wanted". 
I think all of us who work on these old buildings know this feeling.  We have to, or we wouldn't do it.
Paul: Great little tractor. I see quite a few of them around here, and they just keep going and going... Barns & tractors kinda go together don't they.
John

[Paul]

Feb 26, 2013 7:03:13 GMT -6 tarnished said:

Feb 12, 2013 19:36:59 GMT -6 Bull said:

I think all of us who work on these old buildings know this feeling.  We have to, or we wouldn't do it.
Paul: Great little tractor. I see quite a few of them around here, and they just keep going and going... Barns & tractors kinda go together don't they.
John

I do agree, restoring old tractors and old barns for me generates many of the same feelings.  Perhaps part of it is bringing a bit of another time into the present day.  Not nostalgia per se, but maybe identification with a different quality of life.  Satisfaction not as easily experienced in today's ready-made culture. 

That's a 1951 Farmall Cub I restored.  I suppose it reminds me of my grandfather's Farmall A, on which I used to play as a young child and on it later learned to drive.  There is a whole fraternity of old tractor enthusiasts  ( www.farmallcub.com ;  www.ytmag.com )  and through them a not-to-different experience of the feelings we share poking around rotted beams and antique hay dust.   

[tarnished]

Paul, how right you are. Worked on old Ford tractors since...., and kept an old Ford 600 running around here for 30 years till I out grew her and passed her on to another care giver. And from other "antique" machinery boards I read, there are a lot of us who share the same feelings about keeping something of the old alive. Just something satisfying about bring an aging derelict back to life and functioning for then next generation of care givers. A "quality of life" quickly disappearing I'm afraid!
Nice to find others to give me hope.
John

[Paul]

Wow, my last post was in 2013 . . . 5 years ago??  How did that happen?  I did put in that propane heater to the workshop so I could work in the winter. 

The barn has also become a construction workshop for a non-profit Christian volunteer organization I direct which designs and installs solar electricity and builds libraries for orphan children in the remote villages of Malawi, Africa.  Here's my friend Keith helping build a crate we'll use to ship solar panels and books via ship to Africa . .







Where else can you do this sort of thing except in a barn ?  I digress . . .

A second barn door in the lower level was needed to make getting the tractors in and out easier. .








Also, I finished the gable end of the barn . . .



Never know where you'll find more deterioration and rot . . .



that's better . . .



Got to do something with the space that used to be the cow shed (under the new heated upstairs shop) . . . sure would be nice to have a ground level machine shop . . .. old wooden walls removed (always forget to take a "before" image . . . it was pretty ugly and scary looking)  but now need to add and support a header for the floor above

Stairs make it easier









next thing is to call you mason buddy . . .



gotta have a knee wall to support what's above . . .




and then up from there . . .working alone . .  you have to figure out a way . . .



scaffolds are a wonderful thing . . .


 
now, that's much better . . .




the start of my machine shop . . .

 



coming soon . . . the dust collection system . . .

but, after all of that work, I still say it was worth it, and that there's nothing like an old barn . . .