I can think of half a dozen old barns/and or houses that have been torn down and burned around us in recent months. I drove by this place on nearly a daily basis, and it is down to just a small pile of lumber that will soon be burned. The top photo was taken two years ago, and I took the one below just yesterday. (Photo Credit for the first picture goes to JimH.)
The face of farm country is changing fast, and the family farms we like to envision really do not exist anymore, except in the Amish and Mennonite communities. One of the things that bothers me is that the barns I see being knocked down and burned are usually better than the one I am working on. This barn is over 100 years old, and raising it up out of the termites is a never-ending task.
Our current focus is on the southwest corner, which had no sound wood holding up the roof. The footer was poured during the early 1950's, and for some reason it has a kink in it. The south wall leaned out to meet the rafters, and we poured a new foot for the corner, which we think is lined up pretty well. Lining things up is sort of a relative thing in a building with no parallel lines or right angles. As we put new wood back into our barn we are mainly shooting for less whopperjawed-ness.
Sad to see old familiar buildings disappear but, I suppose, these days, liability is a major factor in the decision to take them down. These don't appear to have been habitable for- perhaps- a while; but I can't help but wonder about past occupants and their lives. I'm glad you thought to take the picture two years ago.
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These old buildings are liabilities for the owners, and are also attractive nuisances, so taking them down makes sense. If you look around in a house trashed by racoons you will want to strike a match rather than try to clean it up. Most landowners do not fill in old cisterns on these old farmsteads, and that is something you have to think about every time you are woods-walking. I am pretty good at sniffing them out, and many landowners are unaware of these man-traps until I point them out. I have almost (but not quite) fallen down two because I was looking up at trees.
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