A Cowboy’s Wife

I am happy to submit this guest post while Lori is getting moved and settled. You can visit our blog, Kids’ Cattle Blog.

Where you born in a barn?!

I had heard this many times as a child. And now say it many times to my children. It means the door is left wide open with no intention of closing it. Barns are a favorite structure of mine. Much like some have a passion for lighthouses. Driving to the other side of the county to pick up feed in a small town, I always notice the barns on the way. Some are in good condition maybe even with the date above the main door. Most are abandoned and left to the elements.

When I was growing up, we had some great times in a barn. It was a large barn that had seen a lot of livestock in its time. By the time we were there it was used as storage and our play ground. I remember everything exciting happened in that barn. My dad and some buddies butchered a hog in it. My siblings and I were fascinated. There was a rope that we would swing from one loft to another. Only the brave would make the attempt. A neighbor kid dropped a 2×4 on my brothers head from the loft. Good times!

I think I like barns so much because of their history. Not just barns in general. But each individual barn has a story. The barn that has been in my dh’s family has a story. We discover new things about it all the time. What is interesting is the “footprints” people left behind. There are many carvings of men’s initials. Some have dates like the one below. It says RM May 27 1917. DH’s father says that those are the men who were working on the farm. In the mow, they were likely waiting for the next load of hay to stack.

Last year we found a bunch of old bottles between the outside wall and inside wall. Again we go to grandpa’s wisdom. He says they are from the Prohibition Era. The guys would partake of their forbidden stash and hide the evidence between the boards. Who knew barns were so multi-purpose? I wonder what we will find next.