Montana barn
Barns are simple structures of basic post and beam construction. I love barns, I love barn shapes, and barn roofs. I love to paint barns . . . on canvas that is. Barns not only keep animals, but are large enough to invite friends, family and all your neighbors and have a barn dance, a wedding, or become a quirky, marvelous architectural space. Some folks live in barns.
Barns are sometimes a large shed used for storing vehicles. It’s been said that a barn is a large and unattractive building. Buildings are sometimes referred to as a barn of a house. Is a barn the same as a stable? Wasn’t Jesus born in a barn, or was it a stable? Do you think they are the same? Barns are also known as a large building for storing grain, hay or straw and housing livestock. And tools, lots of tools. 
Square dances are fun in a barn. Which barn would you like to see me paint? Do you like barn paintings? Do you have a barn you love? Here’s more for your viewing pleasure. Which one is your favorite?
We have a barn here in my town from before the Civil War period. It was the Hazard Gun Powder Barn where they made the gun powder for the war. I love it. I love it for dances and parties. I love the location next to a river. Also it’s family owned and the family lives upstairs in it. How neat is that?
Katy, that is cool. My ears went up when you said Civil War b/c my book takes place during that time. It is exciting to actually experience that barn of such importance. Thank you for stopping by.
When I was a child, my babysitter’s barn was my refuge. I still find peace and comfort in a barn.
In horse country, especially moneyed horse country, you can tour the fancy horse farm barns which often have unique and luxurious architectural details. Lexington, KY, has horse farms that welcome visitors, but you have to call ahead. The stallion barns are especially fancy because rich thoroughbred mare owners would come to inspect the stallions before breeding them to their equally well-pedigreed mares. At one farm, a barn was built to look exactly like a barn in Normandy in which the former WWII aviator had taken refuge. The barn even has ceramic cats all over the roof. You can see it in the movie “Seabiscuit” as War Admiral’s stable. That particular barn has large stalls, so it’s a foaling barn, not a stallion barn.
Actually, a nice trip for those in the mid-Atlantic is the Virginia Horse Country Stable Tour, held over the Memorial Day weekend. Those Middleburg/Upperville, VA, farms can make the Kentucky horse breeding palaces look quaint. One farm has a barn designed to look like a French chateau, compete with chandeliers. A couple of places have exercise pools or ponds used to condition the horses for sports and racing.
Rhonda, ouuu, I want to see those palatial barns. They sound so, so ah, so must see architecture. We drove right through all those farms in Kentucky horse country on our trip back from Nashville a few months back. Those horsey places are another world. You peak my curiosity to see how they exercise and condition horses. How they are fed, cared for. What is so interesting to me, is that I love horses, and do not understand why. They threw me when I rode them, but I still love them, they are beautiful creatures. Thank you for stopping by.
Barns are awesome! Funny to say that about big old cavernous buildings with mostly dirt floors and a plethora of critters skittering around, but I love that open feel and the wonderful smell of hay and livestock. Barns are versatile, utilitarian, and a place of refuge in a storm for both man and beast. I love the multiple uses for them and you never know what kind of interesting treasures you’ll find there. I used to see this very cool, very old barn with the most beautiful cupola on top every morning on my way to work. The place was surrounded and filled to the brim with antiques, junk, and treasures galore. Sadly, it was torn down last year and I was heartbroken to see it go. It would have been nice if they’d kept some part of it to use again elsewhere, but they just plowed it down with a back hoe. Crazy, right?
Our old post and beam house still has reused beams from either a barn or another old house. It’s always fascinating to see what we’ll find when we open up a wall.
Didn’t Kristan use an old renovated barn in her Blue Heron books?
As for me, I do like the stone barn, and saw several like it when I visited Pennsylvania’s Amish country last year. But my favorite is the big round barn at the top:-)
Paula, terrific story about the old barn. That’s what people do, they fill it up with antiques, junk, memorabilia, cars, toys, you name it. Then they don’t know what to do so they trash them. Some though save the wood, piece by piece. In my life as an interior designer, I have had the pleasure of reusing wood from various sources. Wood never dies, you can scrape, sand, polish over and over. It is sad to see a bulldozer take it down.
Opening wall in old houses is fun. We have found fireplaces, doors to back rooms with antique wallpapers, old newspapers and beer cans in the walls, fun and enlightening.
I have read all Kristan’s books, but for that renovated barn, my memory fails me. She probably did use her barn. I’ll ask her and re-read that one. Thank you for stopping by.
That stone barn is my favorite, Gail. I too love barns, and our little barn was one of the happiest places of my childhood. : )
Kristan, how curious. Aren’t you lucky to have barn experiences? want to know about them. Why not a story in and about that barn? Would it be a long story or a short story? Like you, I love the stone barn. Stone barns are not the usual, neither is that horse weathervane. Did the happy barn make you smile. Tom giggled. Imagine? Thank you for stopping by!!!