Mellow Meadows: And the walls come a'tumblin' down!

When we first moved out here, one of the things Mr. Wonderful and I loved about the property was that it had old barns. Nothing like hand hewn beams, weathered siding, the smells of stalls used long ago for livestock, rusty metal hinges and pulleys. It was so romantic and so beautiful.

The barn is actually two barns connected at a corner... on two different levels! Not the best arrangement, but funky...... and we really appreciate funky!

That is a gorgeous butternut tree making its way up and around the northern section of the barn. Apparently, butternut trees are becoming more scarce in these parts. so we really want to save this gem.

Jeez, that barn is AWFULLY close to the road... and that is a steep hill at the top. Cars come racing over the top, so its not the safest spot to enter or leave the barn. But, it is pretty, yes?

The barns are great because they are home to Mr. W.'s TOYS. There's "Mr. White", our tractor. Lord knows, it wasn't in my ten year plan to own and operate a tractor. But, this definitely fits into Mr. W.'s dream plan. He LOVES (and hates...) Mr. White.

Did I already say how romantic and beautiful the barns were? EXCEPT that, after a year or two we began to notice a very definite S-W-A-Y and L-E-A-N to the east in each one. Uh-oh. Yep, the old bones were getting old. Too bad we aren't zillionaires or we might have decided to fix 'em up. But, no, we're just regular folks, so we went to work seeing how we might make some moola out of the gorgeous barn wood.

A business south of us uses old barn wood to make flooring and cabinetry. They took a look at the barns and let us know that only the siding was of any value. If we took the barns down ourselves (WHAT??? TAKE THEM DOWN OURSELVES??!), the company would actually give us money for the wood. Taking down old barns was definitely not in my ten year plan, so no, that was not an option. If the company were to come and take the barns down, after paying us for the value of the wood, we would have to pay them $2000 for the effort! YIKES. OK. Not an option.

Well, Mr. W. just happens to be King of Craig's List, and lo' and behold, one day (a couple of years later.... he is persistent) Mr. W. found a man who was looking for old barn wood and was.... listen to this... was willing to do the work to take the barn apart in order to get it! (And some say, there is no such thing as a miracle...)

Mr. W. jumped right on that miracle, and this summer the Miracle Worker and his son have made a go at stripping down those babies to their bones. Bye bye barns!