• Wednesday-What'sUP May 10 - 11:23 am

In keeping with yesterday's barnyard theme, Tom Cook brings us a couple of shots of a well kept barn and several retired farming implements strategically placed around the structure. That first piece of machinery is hay rake that was used quite a number of years ago. Today's modern day rakes are a bit more comfortable to ride on and more efficient at raking the hay too. The Milk Wagon in Tom's second photo is something I'm not at all familiar with and am not even sure I know what it was used for exactly, except to assume it was somehow used in the transport of milk, way back when. Any dairy farmers out there that can enlighten us?

Is that not the prettiest barn you've ever seen. What a good picture for a rainy, cold day in TX.

When it was hay making time for us, dad would offer to hook the rake to the pick up for me, I always opted for the tractor, fresh air, the smell of fresh alfalfa, and a nice tan afterwards.

I never tire of looking at pictures of the old farming homesteads.
Lots of hard work was done on them and lots of fun was had by
yesterday's children who played in those barns.

I love seeing red barns. Great picture, Tom Cook!

I love old farm implements. My cousin has an old wagon that he & his wife turned into a planter and filled with beautiful red geraniums a few years ago. They have it in the front yard of their Century farm in Iowa in the summer, and it looks great!

I have recently become "addicted" to jigsaw puzzles. These pictures would make a perfect scene for my new hobby!!! Beautiful pictures.

Nice pictures, Tom. You have some really nice pictures in your album. I love barn pictures. But we have to be careful with these little red barn pictures. Sometimes they can start quite a lengthy discussion. And we might go over our post limit :)

My parents have a couple of seats like the one above. Not sure how to display or use them.

Why were barns painted red anyway ?

I know a farm down in Lenawee County where the most
outmoded piece of equipment is the farmer. His son has run the
farm for 30 years or so, and it has got to the point where his 80
year-old dad can't do more than look at the new equipment. It
is all computerized now, and his dad did not keep up with the
times. So they keep a few steers for him to care for and try to
keep him away especially from the equipment geared toward
satellite imaging. So it goes, I guess, eh?

Flip-flop
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question635.htm

The milk wagon, we called them milk carts, were used to transport the 5 or 8 gal. cans of milk from the milk house or barn to a place where the dairy truck could pick them up. Now a days the dairies haul the milk in insalated stainless steel tankers. It is pumped into the tanker at the farm. Years ago there were no milking machines or refrigeration, the milking was all done by hand.

Hey Bob J. Thanks for that site.....very interesting. I have always loved barns. When we were kids my dad used to always take us camping up North.(i grew up in Detroit) I always loved seeing the land and the big barns.....now at almost 60 I know why they are red!!!! cool...

Another beautiful blessed day in the U.P.

To bad you have to work ole blu.....

Hugs to all.......& Blessings

My favorite barns are the one in Chassell (you know the one), now pretty well obscured by trees, and the octagon barn being restored in the thumb. I know I've read why barns are painted red, but I've forgotten, as usual.

My grandpa took down the old barn on his farm in the 80's. We were always playing in it and he didn't trust it anymore and didn't want anyone getting hurt. So thats gone but a pole barn was put up behind the house, and he turned the chicken coop into a Sauna (what else is a Finn going to do with it with no more chickens?) That pole barn is a lot bigger and has a bathroom off the workroom and a couple wood burning stoves, he upgraded!

A beautiful red barn Tom! Thank you for today's picture.......should be the picture of the week!
I just love red barns. Brings back memories as a child for me.

We have family who used to live near a round barn in southern Indiana. We knew we were nearly there when we spotted the round barn. It was on the corner of the highway and the county road we would turn off on. It's still there and still used as a landmark. Don't know what people will use as a landmark if the barn is ever torn down.

I was told most barns were painted red because it was a cheap paint to make - iron oxide? Just something rattling around in the head but there may be something to it. Played in one at the neighbors when a kid with my brothers and sister. Was treed by his cows one day when they came visiting on our ten acres, too, but didn't think to mention it yesterday. Those are frightening big critters to a ten year old that's never worked around them.

Oh yeah, for whatever it's worth, seems early but the black flies started gnawing on me today by the big lake, probably even sooner inland.

From Wikipedia: Barn

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Quote:

"Many barns in the northern United States are painted red with a white trim. One possible reason for this is that ferric oxide, which is used to create red paint, was the cheapest and most readily available chemical for farmers in New England and nearby areas. Another possible reason is that Ferric Oxide also acts a preservative thus painting a barn with a paint rich in this pigment helps to preserve one of the most important structures on a farm."

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My Dad worked for BASF chemical company in Wyandotte near Detroit, and once on a tour he showed me the enormous wooden vat that held many thousands gallons of ferric or ferrous oxide. It was about 40 feet across and two stories high, or so it is in my memory. He also said that barns were painted with iron paint because it was cheap and inhibited the molds that cause rot.

And then you see the black barns of Kentucky and Ohio......to heat and cure tobbaco I'm told.

The old dump rake brings back memories. Stomping on the pedal and pulling the lever up to dump the load. Then things changed and you had side delivery rakes to make windrows so the baler could gather it up and make bales. But those were too labor intensive, handling all those bales. Now the balers make the big round bales that are handled by machinery. I guess that's progress, 'eh?

Looks like that door roller needs a little attention, too. My garage door works the same way. I had to fix one of those rollers a coupla years ago. It's very old, but works fine.

One year my sister and I loaded and unloaded every single hay bale that we made that year. We had the tightest, best load of bales on the wagon you ever did see. We were very proud of ourselves!! I don't miss the blisters and itchy, burning skin when you got to the suana. Ouch!!

Duh! Can I spell, er what? Er what, I guess. That would be sauna! Got my fingers all tangled UP. Suana sounds like some kind of wind blowing across an African desert.