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The Log Barn

Since we were farmers, we had to have a barn, and since our farm was made from scratch, so was our barn. It was probably the most unique building on our farm, built of logs, but very serviceable.

In our barn, we had room for 8 cows and 2 horses, not a very prosperous beginning, but it was a start. There was also a hay mow and a loft above the barn where hay was stored. This served two purposes. It was a place to store hay, but it also kept the barn below it warm. Later on a second log building was added onto the original building in the back in which the young stock was kept. We called this "the other barn".

Hauling in hay was one of the big operations on our farm. This was all done the hard way, pitching the hay up onto the hay wagon by hand, and unloading with the old fashioned hayfork. The horses were hitched to a rope that was fastened to the hayfork. The hayfork had been stuck into the hay on the load so that it would grab as much hay as possible. As the horses were driven away from the barn, the hay was raised from the wagon and deposited in the hay barn, where it had to be distributed by hand to make room for the next forkful. This was repeated until a load was empty, and the trip was made to the field to get another load.

Haying time was a time when everybody got into the act and all had a job to do. Many times we worked late into the evening and on Sunday, so we could beat an impending rainstorm.

Twice a day there were always 8 cows to be milked, fed, and bedded down. In winter when darkness came early, this had to be done by kerosene light. A kerosene lantern hung in the center of the barn was all the light we had. It was a little better than nothing, but it gave the barn a warm, cozy glow. The warmth from the animals helped it to feel quite comfortable on a cold winter night.

Right next to the barn, but outside of it was the silo. This was built much later, but it never did get a roof, so the silage was always frozen and covered with snow. It was not an easy job to get some of this silage chopped loose, so it could be thrown down and be ready to feed to the cows. We then carried it into the barn with bushel baskets. This was all hard work.

But this log barn did not mean all work for us, as we had many good times in it as well. We would play in the hay barn on rainy days. Often we would sweep the chaff off the earth floor, and make a road going in a circle, with cross roads through the center. We would then take some old discarded tires and roll them on the roads

On summer nights, Mother often let us sleep in the hay barn with some horse blankets we kept in the barn. On rainy nights this was a fun thing to do, as the sound of the rain on the roof made for good sleeping. There must have been mice that tried to keep warm with us under the horse blankets, but if there were, we didn't mind their company.

Dad had a circle saw standing in one corner of the hay barn. One day when we were tearing around like kids do, Leona fell onto the circle saw and cut her forehead open. This put an end to our playing in the haybarn for awhile. I suppose Dad should not have had the circle saw standing there, but there probably was no other place to put it. We had other accidents in there as well, as we got more and more brave and climbed all over. One day it was my job to pull up the rope we used for unloading, so it would not get wet from the rain. I was up in the hayloft attending to my job, when all at once the end of the rope was there. At the end of the rope was a heavy metal hook that was hooked to the horses harness as they pulled. This came up unexpectedly and hit me on the nose so hard that for a time we thought my nose was broken. It all turned out alright, and taught me to be more careful in the future.

I'm sure that Mother was happy on rainy days, when she could send a bunch of us out to the hay barn to play. It would certainly be better than to have all of us tear around in the house all day.

The barn is gone now. The new owners tore it down and built a new one. Our dad was going to do that too. The timbers were cut and piled up behind the barn ready to go, but before he got to it, sickness and then death took him from us in June of 1936. After three years of struggling on the farm without him, and without any manpower, we had an auction and moved to town. So, were we prosperous? No, -but happy? Yes.