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THE BARN
The boards were old and worn
brown and jagged on the bottom
rocks held it up on the four corners
and it was warm and homey
and smelled of leather and cow feed and hay
it was long and not to wide
and it belonged to Daddy
on one shelf sat the cornsheller
it was used a lot
and the big box was always full
of those yellow kernals
it made a great place for a summer nap
and I curled up in there often
when I could not be found
this was the place they looked for me first
along side this, on the rest of the wall
were slats in the sides that opened
out into the stables
there were large v shaped trouves
and they were always filled with hay
so cows and horses could munch at night
On the wall above this hung an assortment of
saws and hatchets and axe's
rakes, shovels, hoe's and pitchforks
also hammers, sychtes and pruning shears
all in their special places
Daddy's barn was always neat
every thing had it's place
when he got a new tool, he would
just nail up another hook
On the right side, just inside the door
was the hide room ,a small room where all Daddy's cow hides
were salted and rolled up to store
after butchering beef
they were kept on shelves to mature
and till the hide man came to buy them
also in this room were the different kinds of fertilizer Daddy used
also there was cow, horse and chicken feed
also lots of buckets and hampers
sweet feed always smelled so good
Next to this room was the tack room
a much bigger room
this is where Daddy kept saw horses with his saddles
across them
on the walls were all his bridles, reins and harnesses
His cow whips were kept there
along with a large bunch of cow bells
horse shoes, curry combs, saddle bags and spurs
his bed rolls and camping quuipment
branding irons, tar and marking shears
in it he also kept his plows, his seeder, his hay rac kand harrows
this was a very busy room
Along side this room was Daddy's box
a flat box about six feet long and nailed into a long table
it had sides of about eight inches high and dividers
in these spaces Daddy kept his small tools
there were wrenches, sockets, plyers, screw drivers and files
planes, levels and tin snips
screws, nails, brackets, staples and hooks
hinges, hasps, clamps , punches and chisels
nuts, bolts, marking gauges,
carpenter squares, plumbobs, mitre boxes, routers and bits
tape measures and cutting nippers
Above these tools were his fishing poles and tackle boxes on a shelf
Daddy kept his surveyer tools there also, there was another room
one that covered the whole back on the barn
it was called 'The Fruit Room' it was Momma's room
it was filled with all her canned goods
cans and jars of soups, gravies and stews
fruits and relishes, vegetables, preserves, pickles, jams and jellies
also beef and pork and chicken
sugar cane syrup, brown sugar, crocks of molasses and sour kraut
and salted fish were kept there
Moms home made butter, cheese, eggs and her lye soap
were also stored there in the cool dark
there were no windows in this room
and a lantern had to be lit to see
On the outside of the barn, on one side
were the stables and horse stalls for his horses
Babe, Dolly, Dexter and Rhoda also
the cow and calf stalls
All the milk cows and horses came in at night
On the very back of the barn were the chicken and turkey houses
and the old two holer
It was always my job to gather the eggs at night
and to shut the chickens and turkeys up
There were a lot of panthers and wolves in our neck of the woods
When I was ten I lost my little pearl ring down one of the holes in that toilet
Daddy would never let me look for it :)
Oh how I lamented that little ring
On the inside of the barn, up above the door
Daddy kept a double barreled shot gun and
a 22 rifle. He always said, just in case
The milking stool was kept just inside the door also
and on the outside of the door and up over them
were double horse shoes, for good luck
A big grind stone stook to the right of that barn
with a bucket if water sitting beside it
Daddy always wet the stone before he
sharpened his axes and tools
on the other side was the persimmon house sitting on a high pole
and a bird house
also there was a potato house dug into the ground
In the back were the orange and grapefruit groves
and the peach, pear, plumb and persimmon orchard
and the grape arbor
The horses and cows had to walk down
the lane and through these trees
to get to the pasture
Memories, how the linger
and how I wish I could go back
for just a day
to sit down in the door way of that old barn
and just be Daddy's little old galyungin again
in a feed sack dress, and my feet buried
in the hot sugar sand
