Another fantabulous post Miss Mary! This one, once again, touches my heart and soul so closely…. Not because I go on many “adventure roads” (that happens totally unintentionally…) but because I’ve had a bad case of “barn-heart” since I was small – and it always breaks my heart seeing one being torn down. But none hurt as much as when the current owners of our family farm took our barn down. Knowing it was built by my great grandfather and his brothers and remembering the time I spent inside its worn walls kept warm by nothing other than the animals within, all came flooding back in a wave that threatened to take me down. I had asked for the old door handle and latch but did not get it. 🙁 Anyways…I digress. You certainly found a wonderful variety of great barns. My favorites are always those with the cupolas and “extra” details and those old, old, ones (like the ones of your black-and-white photos). They are so painfully beautiful in such a bittersweet way. ~Robin~ (PS….It has to be a 1957 Aqua Nomad?? Wouldn’t a 1955 deep burgundy one do???)

Wonderful buildings.
Barns here are usually a lot smaller and built of stone. Many get converted into houses. X

Oh what a beautiful way to start my day! I’m 81 years young and grew up playing in barns and dearly love them. So many of them here in the Midwest are being replaced by steel buildings and it breaks my “barn-heart”. Barns speak of the past without words, of a time when America was young and men were building her future with wooden beams. When I step into an old barn I always feel like I’m in a cathedral, a holy place and it touches my soul. Thank you for this wonderful post.

After a bad start to my day, I found your blog so uplifting and enjoyable !

Dear Mary, thank you for this lovely post. I grew up in the mid 1950’s with my grandparents on a farm in upstate NY.
My grandfather purchased the property from a former dairy;Aldrich Farms. In addition to a beautiful house there was a 100 year old magnificent barn that became a playground and sanctuary for me and my brother. It also housed our beloved chicken flock,our many Black Angus,and of course our pigs. I can still hear the piglets squealing when the country vet gave them shots.
Many years have passed and the barn fell when it was 160 years old. I copied your pic of the hand hewn beams and post & beam joints and forward to my brother who still lives there.Our barn had been constructed in the same manner. I will be visiting my brother next month.There will be many barn conversations.And while the land where the barn once stood is vacant it will live forever in our hearts.
Thank you for embracing history,old barns,old ways,etc. I think of the many hands and hearts, the hard work,passion and determination that created these structures and treasured items.Blessings of gratitude to them and the gifts they left behind.

I love this article and so timely! Unfortunately I lost my beloved very old wooden barn to a barn fire this February. We’ve just finished rebuilding the shiny, sparkly new (metal) barn and I do love it – but also very much miss (and grieve!) my lost barn. I saved the door handle on a piece of wood that was on the main slider door (charred and all) … and will be placing it in the new barn which I’m calling Mariah (the place in the Bible where bitter water was turned into sweet water by throwing in the Tree) – my reminder to keep Jesus in all of my life and He turns my bitter (lost barn) into sweet (new barn). God is so good! Oh also, my last name is Barnhart ❤️. Thank you for the beautiful article!

Beautiful post and photos. I have a collection of barn photos and my honey knows when we drive by an old barn that his job is to slow down so I can get a good look and a pic. I hadn’t heard the term barn heart and it perfectly fits the way it feels to love them.

Growing up in the northeast, “knee high by the 4th of July was an important saying for our corn crops. With a shorter growing season we had to get it planted as soon as was safe to be able get the corn to that growth on time. Hoping the weather cooperated.

I too have collected many aprons over the years. It seems as though I always wear the same select few. I like the idea of turning the towels into aprons. I wear mine full so would probably change the idea up a little to make it that way. So many possibilities. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have grandma’s recipes and my mom’s. I have used them to make all sorts of pickled items including bread and butters. Love them. It’s such a blessing to carry on the traditions!

Ahhh…Pickling!! It is a memory permanently etched in my head. My family loved pickles…of any kind (but mostly the dill sliced or whole variety). I did NOT like pickling season as my job was to help pick the cucumbers and then clean the the cucumbers. I would sit on the step of an old cement foundation that held the topper to my father’s old pick-up truck (which he didn’t use in the summer because he needed it to haul things (i.e., hay, etc.) with a bucket of water, a bucket of cucumbers, and scrub all the “nubbies” off. I think maybe that is why I decided I didn’t like pickles LOL. Everyone in my family LOVED pickles…and it is a trait that must be embedded in the family’s genetic code somewhere as my son would prefer them to candy any day growing up…and my grand is the same way. And while my mother wasn’t a big apron-wearer (she was a full-fledged partner in the farm duties), she certainly had 1001 “old sayings.” I could write not just a novel, but a series of novels. 😉

I love your enthusiasm. I am 91 years old. Lost my dear husband last November. Life is so lonely w/o him. Your magazine is such a comfort, especially niw. I frew up on a small farm in southern MO—memories! Thank You, Ms Martha

My family looks forward to going to the beach more which is minutes from us. It is my happy and peaceful place.
We also enjoy the farmers market, festivals and junking anything outdoors.
Oh how I love summer but for me it is always too short. So we will enjoy it while we can.
Happy Summer everyone.

Thank you. This made a nice morning better. 🙏

I bought a lot of ‘things’ in my younger days at garage sales, junk stores, etc., and still enjoy them in my ‘old age’…and they will last longer than me for sure !

So relaxing to read this early AM for me. I’m having a yard sale with no customers so you brought hope to me. I love freebies but I just enjoy the beauty of like.

Such a lovely post Mary. I think I was born a repurposer and rescuer – or, at the very least, became one at a very early age. One of my earliest “found” treasures was a child’s rocker (sans one arm which my BIL fixed by fashioning two new ones several years later). It was found while visiting the dump with my father when I was perhaps 6 or 7? I still have that rocker today and my little grand now uses it at “Gigi’s” house. And to many’s chagrin, I claimed an old (empty and relocated) outhouse as a playhouse. About the same time, I claimed the topper on my father’s pickup truck (which he took off in the summer for haying, etc.) as my schoolhouse. I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you (and me) LOL. I must say, your treasures are a bit more sophisticated. 😉

Your photos are gorgeous as always, but the two of the skies are just incredibly stunning! (And I’m pretty enamored with the one of chickens too.) I love hearing Mae’s story and so glad she found a good home. You are making me want my own Mae!! I love the extra room for cooling and the pull-out drawers. And double ovens are the icing on the cake! It certainly makes it easier to bake at different temperatures at the same time (I assume you can control each oven separately). I assume also it is gas??? Your baked goods look amazing – tell Mae she did well. And thanks for the cake recipe. I’d seen that somewhere else and thought it sounded good but it was way too much cake for just me. But now I’m thinking I could make a 1/3rd recipe and just have a single layer… Hmmmm…

My reverie is writing and researching my blog, “Everyday Ways, Save Your Corner of the World” (https://everydaywaysblog.wordpress.com/). This is my labor of love. It’s about all the things that we can do to make the world a better place. I have been writing for about ten years, and every time I sit down at my computer. I can’t do everything, but it feels good knowing that I can share the knowledge that comes my way, and to know that every post is a step toward making this world a better place.

I smiled when I read this. I remember when my dad bought my mom a double oven stove. She was so happy! Mom was always cooking and baking, so this made her life easier. The main meal in one part, side dishes fit in the smaller oven. She had cookies in one oven, buns in the other. There were seven of us in the family and she did three meals a day plus the treats for coffee time. We had a lot of people stopping in for coffee, and mom always entertained for the holidays. No one else had an oven like hers, and she was so proud of it sitting in her kitchen, just as she was proud of her family enjoying all her delicious foods. It was a wonderful thing to remember.

I inquired about a pizza recipe for the picture that appeared in the Oct Nov 24 issue. Have you been able to ferret anything out on that yet??????

Beautiful words this morning, beautiful post, every word, every photo. So moved by it, I read it a second time, closely. Thank you for a poetic start to my day.

Your post has me yearning for our own first glimpses of spring. Unfortunately, despite the unseasonably warm(er) temps predicted for this week here, there’s still a lot more winter ahead for us (as last week’s awful storm reminded us). March tends to be our snowiest month and, believe it or not, some of our heaviest snowfalls have come in April…and hard freezes can still be expected into May. But I am comforted by the thought that no spring will miss its turn…and, heaven knows, I have enough catching up on things before a new season opens. ~Robin~

I truly enjoyed your March Blog Mary, just so refreshing. I do not own a farm but always wished I did. So at almost 70 years old I live vicariously through my Farmsisters and the stories they share of their farm life. But, I smiled through your entire blog as I could tell you truly love your life, as all my FarmSisters Farmers do.
Thank you for being a bright spot in my day. I wait anxiously for Spring as you do.

My reverie is curling up in a quilt my grandma made, with a good book by my favorite author {Kathleen Shoop} and a cup of ginger peach tea. Enjoying the quietness of my surroundings and imagining I’m in the book

My reverie – or lost in my pleasant thoughts – is in my garden and flower beds. Ahhh…I’m dreaming of the soon to come color and smells of spring (as we wait for a atmospheric river this weekend!).

My reverie is my rose arbor overflowing with roses and my garden and orchard abundant with fruit and vegetables. At my grandparents house I bought several years ago and I am trying to restore the property to the beauty it was in my youth. Waiting for spring to get outside and work the earth and watch everything grow.

A reverie I have is thinking about what kind of tomatoes to plant in the spring

My reverie is the first Spring breeze an just being still in the moment an all the wonders that await☀️🙏

My reverie is working in my garden and making herbal medicine. I also can get lost in a good book.

Recently retired, my reverie is spending time on my 45 acre farm. After working since I was 17(I’m 65 now) I am going back in time and re-enjoying the sounds associated with this piece of earth that has been in my family since 1938. Peeper frogs singing in the evening, bird songs, cows moo-ing etc. Working didn’t allow me to stop long enough to hear, even tho I listened. Those sounds were ingrained in me from my youth but overshadowed by the hustle and bustle of being in the work force.

My reverie is genealogy research and the compilation of Family Group Sheets. I can spend hours searching the children, grandchildren, and greats right on down the line of my family surname Patriarchs and my Matriarchs. As I research, I review what was happening in their lives personally and in their communities, state, and the country. Family lore is incorporated, along with occupations, military service, and leadership roles. The joy I feel as I make connections makes me realize I am connecting spirit to spirit.

My reverie is putting a G2/07 pen to college-lined loose leaf note paper folded in half and just get into writing away! My current subjects are about my growing up years in my hometown, Philadelphia PA. Not exactly country by looking back on my childhood is my reverie. I hope to leave my writings to my kids and grandkids.

My reverie is preparing my great grandparents’ farm house every September for the fall festival — Greenridge Steam and Gas Antique Show — held on the farmstead. In the house we teach how to make pioneer dolls. We have ladies demonstrating quilting and weaving. There is an apron show and a doll show. In addition there are quilts displayed throughout. The farm located in Iowa between Irwin and Kirkman gets many visitors from all over. Join us this year September 20-21.

My reverie is sitting outside on the porch, with a hot cup of coffee. Listening to the breeze blowing through the trees, the birds waking up and singing their calling tweets to each other. Smelling the crisp freshness of the air mingled with my coffee and watching the tinted clouds from the sunrise floating leisurely in the sky. Wishing I could stay in that moment forever.

My reverie is to watch how the birds behave while feeding outside my deck. Their colors. The radiance of their feathers. How they take turns or almost bump onto each other in the air while trying to get to the feeder. How they are all scared of the Blue Jays. I can spend a lot of time lost in my observations of these wonderful, flying animals.

My reverie is snuggled up in my hammock swing surrounded by flowers with the sun beaming from behind bright white clouds listening to the sounds of the ocean.

My reverie is paper crafting! But now that I have a 7-week old puppy(a mini dash hound)it seems like I’m back in the days of my new-born babies. All those sharp little teeth and the playfulness is keeping me busy. It’s all wrapped up in love,, though. The paper crafting will be back…gotta go for some patience-building potty time!

My reverie is in my garden planting or pulling weeds, which I had the pleasure of doing for many years with my dear mother. When I am moving rocks around, my thoughts turn to my dad, with whom I spent many hours picking rocks. I enjoyed that special time with my folks, and only wish I could have one more day with them.

My reverie is music and my dogs enjoying the outdoors.

My reverie—It is August in the central part of Washington state. A perfect time to go to my special place. There is a break in the row of lilacs (a door, if you will) separating our yard from the neighbor’s. Upon entering, I lay down on my back under a bush that has big, plump, red berries. A lace curtain of leaves gives a bit of shade. I start plucking and popping them into my mouth one by one. Warm and juicy. It’s just me and the raspberries.

Mary, Love your blogs! Thanks for all the ideas and pictures.
Happy February!
Joan

Hi Mary. I enjoy your “visits” very much. I’m in Springfield, near to Dayton, and we had fog and nippy ice crystals all over. The wild birds are eating berries and look so festive against the scenery here. Can’t wait for springtime to come. We have farms around our home area and I enjoy seeing the work change with the seasons. Found a new source of Honey and it is so heavy with a floral taste! My husband made Mead and we are waiting to see how it came out. I love your photos and ideas.

Oh Mary! How I love your blog posts!!! I just want to join your Farmgirl Chapter!!! And join you in all the things!

And that camper??? WOW WOW WOW!!!

Biggest hugs,

Dori

Such a spirit lifter are the winter blog notes!! Maine has been COLD and WINDY this winter. We are getting ready for the first of 2 skijor competitions. My daughter is the rider and my granddaughter and I are the cheering section. Cold but fun with lots of hot chocolate and cookies!! Keep the cheer coming!!

Beautifully written, and excellent advice. Thank you. My goal simply is to have each year be better in some way than the one before – in spite of my advancing age!

Last year I made a PACT with myself, hoping to meet each of four goals each day. The four bullet points are easily a part of everyday life, but I found that I was missing important and fulfilling pieces of my life if I did not mindfully hit each point. When I could mark a letter on my calendar (or in a journal) for each bullet point, the day was a success, regardless of any chaos or physical setbacks. I didn’t hit all four each day, but after a year of focusing on the PACT points, I got much better at it. I think 2025 will have 365 days of success! My PACT goals:

P – Productive (could be anything…cleaning, gardening, bill paying, caregiving)
A – Active (could be walking, stretching my achy 70-yr-old body, even vacuuming)
C – Creative (needlework, crafts, repurposing old stuff, creatively organizing something)
T – Touch (touch base…call/write/meet up with friends, family, community groups)

Mary! I love all your tips and advice! I love to make lists… I’m one of those people that write things down to check them off! HaHa! So I love the thought of breaking things down to manageable (and more boxes to check on my list! ha ha!). AND I love your photos!

I have never been one to make new year resolutions but I do like your perspectives – especially the one about giving ourselves grace. Sometimes I feel as though I am in the never-never land of either not giving myself enough grace and giving myself too much grace, if that makes sense. Living by oneself lifts the yolk of expectation and that can be a slippery slope. I love that you plan on learning to spin and play the violin. I took violin lessons for a brief time as a child. It is still something I wish I could have stuck with and I often wonder what happened with my grandfather’s old fiddle that I used. ~Robin~

Merry Christmas Mary! Thank you for sharing these lovely thoughts.

Thank you for such an uplifting read. I particularly needed it because this is my first Christmas without my husband. He passed away in April, and it’s been a difficult time since then, especially now!
Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Always,

Kathy

As a long-time lover of old-time radio prorams (our dad was the one who shared so many of these with us) I love your quote from the Great Guildersleeve. I can just hear him now.
Merry Christmas to you and yours from western Oregon.
Love,
Beth
❤️

Beautiful post…thank you for sharing it with us! Merry Christmas and blessings to you & everyone reading!!

What a heartfelt post. The quote is marvelous and its sentiment is one I often echo. I continue to pray for peace across the world. I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday. May God bless us, everyone.

Your inspiring words are a gift to many. Merry Christmas & Happiest of New Years!