A Barn Story

Hi, my name is Lisa and I am a Barn Chick with a story to tell.

In the late 1920's my Great Grandparents purchased 40 acres in LaCenter, WA as a step toward beginning their own dairy. Money was tight and creativity was needed to find the wood to build the necessary buildings for the dairy. Before it was popular, my Grandparents were into recycling and repurposing (must be in my blood!).

My Grandpa and my Great Grandpa went to the big city of Portland, OR and tore down an empty flour mill (or feed store, we're not sure which), and began the tedious process of hauling the wood back home to build what we call today, our 'loafing shed.'

You can see a bit of the words left on the boards, I've tried to make the words out since I was a little kid, to no avail.
They made the best with what they had, and ended up creating their own thick beams to hold up the massive structure out of several 1x6's put together.

As time passes, and the ground shifts, so do the 1x6's on their concrete blocks....

No worries though, our barn is perfectly safe..we've had to replace some of the beams that were really off their rockers blocks :-).
The roof is made of aluminum sheets that were hard to lay down because they were so wide. The rose bush in this picture is one that my Grandma planted a loooonnnng time ago.

 A loft was included in the barn so that they could store hay for the cows and toss it through the rafters  down to where the animals were 'loafing'. A belt was hooked up to this door to haul the hay up.

Although today, it's more of a photo op for us!

This is looking from the bottom of the barn, up through the rafters to the loft.

And the inside of our barn, the back wall....

...and our hay to feed these precious things...

...and to provide comfy bedding for these sweet things...

But I digress, now where was I? Ahhh yes, the loafing shed was a true God send for my Great Grandparents. Being a Grade A Dairy meant the bar was held high, and in order to not contaminate milk, the cows had to be kept mud free...the loafing shed provided them a place to go where they were on higher ground and protected from the elements. It was all perfectly planned and the dairy was well on it's way. However, sometimes our plans and life don't always agree.

During the building of the loafing shed, my Great Grandpa fell against one of those rafters I showed you. Not one to run to the doctor, he brushed it off until the pain became so severe he had to go to the doctor. The fall had created a hernia in his intestine and by the time he was admitted to the hospital, his intestine had gangrene. 21 days later, my Great Grandpa died in his hospital bed.

A new barn...
...a functioning Grade A Dairy...
...and my Grandpa, with gypsy blood
found himself thrust into the life of a dairy man and a life that required him to cultivate the roots planted by his own father.

I always knew that my Great Grandpa died building this beautiful barn that my husband and I now own. Knowing the full story makes this barn and this land even more special to me. I too have roots here. Roots, that a man I never got the chance to meet, planted for his family and I now have the awesome privilege to nurture and pass on to my own children.















This is my barn and this is my story.

Read about some more G.R.E.A.T. Barn Stories with the Barn Chick Blog Party at Brayton Homestead Interiors! Thanks for visiting my barn...
Lisa ;-)