Maggie's Farm

Ya hate to see those grand old barns fall in. Very sad.

They have become an endangered species. Too expensive for most people to maintain.

I wish I had one.

Sixtyville, you and I have very similar memories of playing in barns.

We also rearranged bales to make a fort.

The one thing about barns you can never forget is the smell. It was a mixture of dust, dry manure, straw and or hay.

You are quite right, it was a wonderful place to play but it was also a good place to house newborn calves in bad weather and sick animals.

My grandad milked a few cows when I was small and one of my earliest memories of going to the farm was watching him milk cows. The cows knew right where to go. He restrained them in wooden stanchions and put chain hobbles on their back legs. He didn't sit on a stool when he milked. He sat on two thick boards nailed in the shape of a "T". In summer he would spray them for flies before milking with a couple of pumps from a flit gun. While milking, all the farm cats would gather and when he finished milking he would pour them a little milk from the pail into a scoop shovel with a broken handle.

Grandad's barn still stands and the last time I saw it, it was structurally sound but it desperately needed paint and it was losing shingles.

A cousin owns it now and has the money but is not interested in saving the old barn. In fact when his dad who is 93 passes, I think he will have the entire building site bulldozed before the funeral. All to gain him perhaps 4 acres of farm ground.