Thursday, January 29, 2015

the last of the drive...

got a storm coming in the last part of the weekend and first of the week...

last I heard, they were saying 4-6 inches here...

I know that's not much compared to what the east coast and others have gotten...
but still...
I am ready for spring weather and no more ice and snow...

guess I will just have to clean more closets...
dig through more totes and start making pretties...

we will make another run the Walmart on Saturday...
we did a small run last night, but DH was too tired to do anything but what we needed until this weekend...

Courtney continues to amaze the doctors and staff...
with half of her liver gone, her numbers show all very normal, just like they hadn't touched it at all...
she is walking more and more...

and I can tell you that after my surgery, it was the walking that made the pain go away...
after they pulled the morphine pump the first night, I took 2 tylenol the rest of the time...
that's it...
no pain meds coming home...
they cut me from hip to hip...

she still needs prayers...
there are so many things she must heal from on this...
and getting back home won't be easy with little ones...

our Hermie, who had a major ouchie yesterday...
is healing fast, too...
hot packing and put honey in the hole...

completely sealed and half the size before bed last night...

most of your comments were to save the barn and redo it...
its just not possible to save them...
the materials alone would probably cost 5 times the amount of a brand new pole barn twice the size...
then to find someone to do it...
most people cannot do this themselves anymore like they used to...
and then you have to have permits and inspections...
the only ones I know of around here that fix old barns and buildings are the Amish...

so, slowly they are disappearing from the landscape...

and these are taking their place...
even most of the silos of old are gone...
replaced by shiny grain bins...
sometimes the only thing familiar to the old farms are the fences and the livestock...
they still make them the same way...
even the old hay bales are round now...
and they use tongs on the front of a tractor to move them from place to place...

I guess the most important part is that someone is still farming...
however they do it...
because the farmer feeds the world...
one acre at a time...

well, have a fun weekend...
be careful if you are out and about in the path of the storms...
stay upright...
no butt busters allowed!
some of us are too old for such fun...
;0)

prairie barn and Courtney update...

we ran across this small, old barn on our drive last Saturday...

time has taken its toll on it...

 but it must have been so useful in its time...

you can see the front has given way...
preventable...

just bulging at the seams...

they left hay in the loft...

for too many years...
and the roof leaked and saturated the hay...

the weight becomes too much and it becomes dangerous...

this will have to be taken down...
sadly...
but these old structures have been disappearing from our landscape rapidly...
and there aren't very many of them left...
we lose more with every passing year...
replaced by pole barns...


Courtney update:
she got up and walked last night...
and the pain is down...
she did 5 laps down the hall...
;0)
keep praying for a speedy recovery!