It Was Worth It

Hand-hewn beams. They do not build barns like this any more.

Yesterday I made my old knees very unhappy, clambering up the skinny aluminum ladder into the mow in the cow barn. FYI, there is almost no hay up there, which is why we are buying round bales, the rolling out of which is the bane of my existence. Oh, for the day when the ice goes away and the cows can go outside and unroll their own. (Doesn't that sound like a hippy slogan of some kind? Unroll your own? No, well, I digress.)

Detail of beam showing adze marks and how it is pinned to the support

I also made the climb bare-handed for fear of losing my grip with heavy gloves....I am losing my grip in a number of other ways but......

This used to be a horse barn, but then the barn was remodeled in the early '60s .
We milk cows in the stable below this...the "new" part"

At first I thought I would freeze to the ladder, but I didn't.

Not this ladder. I have never climbed this pup, which goes up into the rafters

As any of you who have ever been in one will know, a hay mow is a magical place...well, except on a ninety-degree July day when you are charged with grabbing the bales from under the cross mow elevator and storing them. One job I haven't done in quite a few years and I sure as heck don't miss it.

It can be a fort, a theme park, a ranch, a castle, or just a nice place to sit for a few minutes and ponder the scent of the hay and the warmth of the sun...which was not an issue yesterday. It can be any place you want it to be if you are a kid. I remember jumping and sliding out of our uncle's mow...loose hay don't you know, onto the piles below...when it was full in the fall. They don't make fun like that any more either.

The mow didn't disappoint. I was up there for some special photographs, which will be revealed very early next week. And despite sore knees it was worth every rung.