You know, if the farmers that originally built the wooden barns could have bought the metal buildings for less, they surely would have bought them. I live in Vermont where the barns are part of the appeal for the tourist industry, but you can see them falling apart. The state will give you a grant to renovate them, but it is never enough. Only the rich, who come here and buy up an old farm and 300 acres, put the money into their renovation. With the cost of lumber and labor, most people just let them go. Farmers, all famers who are not industrial level farmers in America struggle. Its a hard business.
Dear Lord I enjoyed this way too much. Maybe because I know where each of those photos are. Maybe because right behind that garbage can on the second "downtown Varna" photo is the entrance to the Varna "community center", which is really just a room with a small kitchen and an attached bathroom, where my kids meet for their monthly 4H meeting. Along the walls are high school graduating classes photos of the high school that no longer exists, where every face from the 1920s and 30s looks more like 35 year olds than high school graduates. Where I pull up a seat in the corner and wonder how the hell I, a native of a city of 20 million, ended up here.
Fabulous. Terrific writing. I just had this conversation with a cousin who is a painter. Old abandoned buildings. There’s something about them. I did a short blog piece years ago about old gas stations - same thing.
Before we decamped to Canada the first time, we owned 13 acres of country property on the Pacific coast half an hour south of SF. It was big strawberry, artichoke, and Brussels sprouts country (75% of the country's entire crop of the latter were grown within about a mile of our place.)
And we had a barn. 100+ years old, solid redwood planks, still standing strong. It housed barn owls, and made a great party place....but Substack won't let me post the photo.
You know, if the farmers that originally built the wooden barns could have bought the metal buildings for less, they surely would have bought them. I live in Vermont where the barns are part of the appeal for the tourist industry, but you can see them falling apart. The state will give you a grant to renovate them, but it is never enough. Only the rich, who come here and buy up an old farm and 300 acres, put the money into their renovation. With the cost of lumber and labor, most people just let them go. Farmers, all famers who are not industrial level farmers in America struggle. Its a hard business.
Dear Lord I enjoyed this way too much. Maybe because I know where each of those photos are. Maybe because right behind that garbage can on the second "downtown Varna" photo is the entrance to the Varna "community center", which is really just a room with a small kitchen and an attached bathroom, where my kids meet for their monthly 4H meeting. Along the walls are high school graduating classes photos of the high school that no longer exists, where every face from the 1920s and 30s looks more like 35 year olds than high school graduates. Where I pull up a seat in the corner and wonder how the hell I, a native of a city of 20 million, ended up here.
I think it was because it was both our familes' destinies to be buds. I mean, 1841 was a pretty random place for us to end up too!
https://youtu.be/qRSBmalHDV0?si=CS7Nt2W2thZMnaTn
Fabulous. Terrific writing. I just had this conversation with a cousin who is a painter. Old abandoned buildings. There’s something about them. I did a short blog piece years ago about old gas stations - same thing.
Here is a link to one of Noble.s books. Since you admire these kinds of structures, you should know more about them. This is a good place to start. https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/bucknell/the-old-barn-book/9780813521732
You ask why .... Alan Guebert knows more than most. Here's a link to his columns. He lives in Delavan IL https://farmandfoodfile.com/
Alan Noble has written some really good barn books. Your photos are of sheds, cribs and barns. Oh ... thanks for writing this.
Before we decamped to Canada the first time, we owned 13 acres of country property on the Pacific coast half an hour south of SF. It was big strawberry, artichoke, and Brussels sprouts country (75% of the country's entire crop of the latter were grown within about a mile of our place.)
And we had a barn. 100+ years old, solid redwood planks, still standing strong. It housed barn owls, and made a great party place....but Substack won't let me post the photo.