Barns

[Lazy WP]

I am infatuated with old barns. Dad’s place had an old horse barn that was built in 1921, I believe. As far as I know it was only used for horses a few years before tractors took over.  He didn’t maintain it and it fell in shortly after my brother bought the place. 
I loaded a load of corn and found this one. Please post your picture of barns!!

[Lazy WP]

Native limestone blocks. Lots of stone posts and buildings made from it in that area 

[Chester5732]

I wish the old barn was still standing on our place but it went down over a decade before my time. 

[Kevin in ky]

I love old barns too but all of the ones we had are gone now; they make a farm look like a farm 

[Dave Downs]

My barn

[Ihfan4life]

Mine. 
Dad built it in 1951 after a hurricane took the old barn down. It blew over onto the cows, killing most of them, what wasn’t killed had to be put down.

Milked in it until 2014 with a break for 4 years. It’s my wood shop, storage barn and machine shed. I miss the cows, I don’t miss the bullshite dairy farms are facing daily 🤕

[FoxrunFarms02]

[Jacka]

10 hours ago, Ihfan4life said:

Mine. 
Dad built it in 1951 after a hurricane took the old barn down. It blew over onto the cows, killing most of them, what wasn’t killed had to be put down.

Milked in it until 2014 with a break for 4 years. It’s my wood shop, storage barn and machine shed. I miss the cows, I don’t miss the bullshite dairy farms are facing daily 🤕

We all miss the cows.I replaced my Jerseys with beef brood cows. They are very calm and I walk through them just like my Jerseys.But my Jerseys will always be special to me.I am like you though,dont miss the BS that the powers to be put on the dairyman.I got out because of being able to see the future,what was coming down the road.Didn't want to lose my farm because of market manipulation,government,big business and Co op greed. 

[IHandJDman]

My Dads bank barn.  It was redone less than 10 years ago.  Bottom leanto is a pole barn that has 16ft high doors.and that's where the combine, 1086 planter etc is stored.  

[Sledgehammer]

"Sheep barn"

Utility Barn, it's built with square nails which went out fashion around 1890'

Horse Barn

all of these below at my place are from the 1800's. The metal siding was done in 92/93'

 

[M35A2]

Here is a fall picture of my barn. 

[DT Fan]

@Dan Robinson has a fantastic barn, might have a picture or two of it. I'll look after bit.

[New Englander]

My 19th Century New England bank barn. Dated to 1860 +/_. I've been rebuilding it over the past two decades:

It all started when the North side, which had a lean-to blew out in a winter storm. The junction of the lean-to roof and barn was poor and all the sheathing and some beams rotted out so that side got new sheathing and clapboards. I then moved on to the East/weather side which I completely rebuilt with almost all new posts and beams. With the exception of my FIL's help placing one post and the longest beam it was all single handed work:

Everything was rotted on the East side.

One purlin was twisted so I had to cut this tenon and seat to fit.

I made all the windows. I bought the sashes online and milled the rest out of the clear 1X12s that I'd set aside using PT southern pine for the sills. The double hung gable end windows I installed 30 years ago all had the sills rot out so I repaired them with PT. New roof this summer. Six Guatemalans stripped three layers of asphalt shingles off, and repaired the bad boards with my rough cut. Best workers I've ever seen. I think I heard the barn heave a sigh of relief when that load was removed. I ended up jacking three corner posts to get the building level +/-. It should be good for another 100+ years.

Can only slip one tenon end in so used some steel.

 

[TroyDairy]

14 hours ago, Jacka said:

We all miss the cows.I replaced my Jerseys with beef brood cows. They are very calm and I walk through them just like my Jerseys.But my Jerseys will always be special to me.I am like you though,dont miss the BS that the powers to be put on the dairyman.I got out because of being able to see the future,what was coming down the road.Didn't want to lose my farm because of market manipulation,government,big business and Co op greed. 

Our deal is Coop board arrogance and glaring incompetence along with dishonesty.  You vote these guys in and they so often completely change their personality when the door shuts

[IH Forever]

I love all the pictures and awesome work by @New Englander.  I grew up working livestock and stacking hay and straw in 4 different barns.  Sadly all are gone but 1.  That 1 has a metal roof which has saved it but even so a lot of the wood has termite damage and isn't great anymore. 

I think they are amazing old buildings, and many show off great craftmanship.  But I also know that you need to be willing to spend a lot of money just because you want to save the history.  Sadly, in my area they aren't really practical for today's agriculture.  My brother looked into converting 1 of the old barns into a shop.  But it would have cost just as much as a new pole building and not have been as useful.

[IHRedDrive]

We're in Kentucky, tobacco barn central. When we bought the farm, the barn was in serious decline. We built it back but put steel on the south and north walls and south roof. A few before and after pics. I use it now for implement storage and my wife's vegetable garden tools. 

 

[nepoweshiekfarmalls]

This first barn, I saved off this forum.  So lovely.

The rest of these are Dan Robinson's historic barn near Mechanicsville.

[New Englander]

3 hours ago, IHRedDrive said:

We're in Kentucky, tobacco barn central. When we bought the farm, the barn was in serious decline. We built it back but put steel on the south and north walls and south roof. A few before and after pics. I use it now for implement storage and my wife's vegetable garden tools. 

 

Nice! Saved it! I see barns collapsing all over New England. Once the roof is gone the rest follows in a few years.

[New Englander]

Mine was the typical small tie stall dairy barn, a little smaller than the family barn in MA. They milked about 35 using cans and finally a small bulk tank when cans went out. When I was real little my two uncles were pitching loose hay, still kept a team. As I got older and could help they acquired a baler with a cantankerous pony that my cousins fought with. The baler had its own mind about the size bale it threw. Come haying I would at first throw bales on the truck, then as my pipe stem arms gave out stack them and eventually driving the'48 Brockway. Years later I was driving that same Brockway with a load of shavings when a guy ran a red light and hit it. I saw him coming but the Brockway had a remote brake booster which would not be hurried no matter how hard you stood on the brakes.   

[IHRedDrive]

4 hours ago, New Englander said:

Nice! Saved it! I see barns collapsing all over New England. Once the roof is gone the rest follows in a few years.

Yes! We were probably a year from a total collapse. Part of my decision to rebuild was that it turned 100 in 2020. We finished it up that year. And the wood those men cut and built the barn with in 1920. We saved and used everything we could.

[FoxrunFarms02]

6 hours ago, New Englander said:

Nice! Saved it! I see barns collapsing all over New England. Once the roof is gone the rest follows in a few years.

I wanted to save my barn.  I was looking at company's to come in and then was laid up for 2 years, and the barn really was starting to get ugly after the roof split. I heard once the animals are gone that's when things fall appart. No warmth, no activity to notice foundation cracks or bad boards. Unfortunately it would've cost more to fix than to build new. If I fixed it up it still wouldn't have the storage use or shop space I wanted. A reclaim company came and took most of the wood from it.

[stronger800]

I put old red tractors in view of old red barns a lot 

[lorenzo]

In South east Nebraska , The Philly Stone Barn built in 1867 still stands in Gage county. 
Annually at harvest a festival is held here and children are bused in to participate in hand picking corn while throwing the ears into horse drawn wagons as they traverse the field nearby. Draft horse teams give wagon rides, operate line shafts and antique machinery. Local women bring food and pies and its a great celebration of history. 

[Alan Dinan]

I only have some partial pictures of the barn at my family farm. It’s on its decline, too. I would like to save it, but with mom in the nursing home, and she owns it, I’m not spending the money to repair it. So it will be torn down eventually too. The “little” barn in the first and second picture is in good condition yet. The aerial photo is from 1987, I think.

The barn, here, was torn down 30-40 years ago by the previous owner, termites killed it, they told us.

[yellowrosefarm]

40 minutes ago, lorenzo said:

In South east Nebraska , The Philly Stone Barn built in 1867 still stands in Gage county. 
Annually at harvest a festival is held here and children are bused in to participate in hand picking corn while throwing the ears into horse drawn wagons as they traverse the field nearby. Draft horse teams give wagon rides, operate line shafts and antique machinery. Local women bring food and pies and its a great celebration of history. 

Whoever built that was a forward thinker for sure. Still beautiful and functional after all that time. Maybe built as a tribute to Nebraska's becoming a state that year? Weren't people still living in sod huts then?