A piece of my past

Here is a picture of, what I grew up knowing as, the Red Barn.



This red barn was located on my grandparents farm, where I spent many a summer as a young child. Gpa would pay us to walk beans and cut thistles. Anyone else have to suffer through the child labor of walking beans or cutting thistles. That's right - with bean hooks and sharpened shovels?? Oh the horror!!! Anyway - this barn, as well as many other eye sores were part of my childhood. As we drove up and down the rolling hills of the road they lived on, we could spot the red barn many hills away. You could also see it from "the bottom", otherwise known as the lower fields down by the river bottom. The corncrib, the red barn, the big building, the chicken shed ~ they were all part of the memories of spending summers and oh so many other weekends on the farm.

These buidling are gone or being torn down, but luckily my dad has a few of the boards from the red barn. He's moved them and hauled them and transported them from house to house, but has the pieces of what remains of my childhood memory, known as the red barn.

I recently decided I wanted a coat shelf by the back door - so I asked Dad if I could have a couple of boards with which to create a shelf as it was designed in my head. He just happened to have a couple of boards that would work great for what I was thinking. And now - thanks to the handywork of my techy, but sometimes handy hubby ~ I have this shelf hanging in my kitchen.





I can't tell you the warm fuzzies I get just looking at the shelf knowing that those boards are the same boards that composed the barn in which we climbed and played. The barn we walked through to see the pigs or cattle - depending on which decade we are talking. The same barn that we hid contraband in as adolescents who had nothing better to do than torment road signs and mailboxes on gravel roads at night. The same barn that housed the cats and kittens which could entertain me for hours. The same barn, that sat beside the grassy area in which we carefully and lovingly burried many pets and critters that came in and out of our lives on the farm. The same barn that was there when my dad was a kid.

Needless to say - if we ever move - this shelf will go with. But - that's not all. To top off the very beautiful shelf, which pieces together my present and past, there is another beautiful piece that sits below it!

As we entered into last winter, I scoured catalog after catalog to find the perfect storage bench for this same space. One that the kids could sit on or store book bags on and would house the many hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves that come with three active children. Not a single one was just right for the space, so I asked my dad to build one. And not only did he build the perfect bench, my mom pulled off a staining/painting miracle and got it barn board red. Exactly as I requested. So - check it out!





This - this makes me happy. Items that are not bought from a store, but rather created for a purpose with a past to pass along with them. **happy sigh**