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No, that isn't a recipe for use at your upcoming church supper or a family reunion. It was instruction on the old time family farm in barn-building daysthe formula for the red paint seen on most barns back then. Red "paint" was the most common shade because it could be mixed together in large amounts right at home. Commercial paint was expensive. Red became traditional. The red barn isn't as widespread as it once was; you'll see other colors and materials than wood. The point is, we're not seeing as many barns in the numbers we used to. They are dwindling steadily; that wonderful rural architecture is disappearing. Their original use being mainly the storage of hay has evolved. Those round bales tidily wrapped, dot the countryside saving the expense and energy of mowing them up. They probably wouldn't go through the barn door anyway and today's machinery is too big, too, to be stored in the barn as well as grains ... They too have gone elsewhere. The dairy parlor took up space at milking time and in winter. Dairies are mostly gone for the most part except for big "commercial" ones. Horses also have been replaced by machinery so the barn has become an anachronism.
Once threshing was done in the barn, first with flails, then cumbersome machines until it moved outside, on wheels. Oh, my, who'd have thought the barn would become passé? Barns are razed as a common thing once they've disintigrated beyond their familiar silhouettes. It's costly to tear them down and so is preserving them and maintaining them. Their stately character gave importance to the farmyard. The dignity of the interior was beyond having just a glance. It's complex simplicity was to be a long-held source of rightful pride. Each barn was different from the other ... Roof style, cupola or not, glass windows replaced shutters. They weren't/aren't the spiritless sameness of today's metal shed! Please appreciate those around us still. A few are pictured here and next week.
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