So next up on the farm-buildings-tour is the Horse barn, which I’m going to be using as my woodshed. On the map this is the green building that’s right next to the well house.
I initially referred to this building as the horse barn because it has quite a bit of horse manure under the lower awning, and there was, at one point, lots of tack and saddles stored inside.
This is probably the building that’s in the worst overall shape, or at least will be the hardest one to fix. The roof is good (metal) and it has electricity, but the foundation and lots of the structure have seen better days.
I have reason to believe that the building was erected in July of 1941. Don’t ask me how I know.
It’s got this nice big sliding door on the upper side, easy to back up and unload firewood. But you might notice that the wall is kicking out on the near corner, no longer square with the sliding door.
The first firewood that I stacked in the building was from right outside the front door. There was a tree that had grown up right next to the building so that you couldn’t even open the door all the way.
On the upper side the entire concrete foundation looks terrible. There are some huge 2-3″ cracks in the slab with lots of chunks of the slab heaved up out of place. According to the date inscribed in the concrete, it was poured in 1949.
The wooden floor is in equally bad shape. I don’t walk on it for fear of falling through into the lower level. Still, plenty of space for storing cords of firewood while they season. Lord knows I’ve got enough junk trees to cut down to keep me in firewood for the next decade or so.
Anyway, here’s a view from the lower portion of the building. There’s this awning, under which the horses hung out.
These horses were apparently cribbers, so anything they had access to looks like this.
There are two rooms on the lower level of the building, and besides being full of old boards and junk, they don’t look half bad.
Shockingly, the concrete even looks good from down here. The lower wall is kinda bowing out a little bit, but it’s not THAT bad…yet. The power for the stock tank de-icer also comes from the lower part of this building, and it’s a bit of a mess. The mess works, but it might get re-wired sooner or later.
So there it is in all it’s glory.
It’s a mess, but since I don’t really need it for anything, I’m not going to spend much time on it just yet. It’ll do for keeping the firewood dry, and that’s good enough for now.
Love it Andrew! Keep up the commentary, I feel like I have been there!