Donna's Korner

I absolutely love BARNS! I think they are beautiful, unfortunately we had to 'knock down' Old Blue who had been around since 1916. In it's place a new barn is going up. It doesn't hold a candle to Old Blue. I suppose it will develop it's own character as time goes on.


I'm glad barns can't speak because I would most likely sit in them for hours on end listening to their stories, thus I would get nothing else done! I imagine if they could speak they would share the history of their era and stories that no one would otherwise know about.

When we first moved to our present location, I remember walking into 'Old Blue' and smelling the musty air. It filled my nostrils with a mixture of oil, dust, urine and donkey pooh! The previous owner had 3 or 4 donkeys around and they spent their nights in a portion of the old barn that had concrete floors, a raised area for their hay, a water spigot, and a drain in the middle of the floor.

It's ceiling was rather lofty, as most barns are, and stored remnants of old lumber.


On it's back side, there was an old rusty metal conveyor that transferred hay from 'down below' up into the rafters of the old loft.

At dusk shadows darted around the top of it like a large halo as the bats set out for the night in search of food, mosquito and the like. During the day they nestled up underneath a loose board that hung on a wall in the donkey stall. I discovered them quite by accident one day as I heard a scratching sound somewhere on or in that particular wall. I called to Tom "honey, there are RATS in this wall, or something!" He lifted the loosely hung board and the swarm of bats came exiting in disarray and fear. Tom ran out ahead, leaving me behind to fend for myself, he later felt guilty for not having 'protected his wife'. I'm sure the bats were just as terrified.

Did Old Blue invite them in? Did they just move in unannounced one day? How long, I wonder had they been inhabiting the old barn?

When Old Blue came down on that sad, sad day the bats were so confused. They flew around and around not knowing what just happened and where to go now!! I'm sure the daylight hours didn't help any, either! At any rate, they are gone now, I wonder sometimes where they went?

So now with the new barn going up, there is excitement in the air......something about a barn party? We'll see :)