old barns

Old barns really portray some romance in the Hoosier state, don't they? California has its beaches, Colorado-the Rockies, Georgia-plantation mansions. Indiana has barns. And a wide variety of styles from various ethnic influences, maybe moreso than any other state (including being the round barn capital-thanks to Fulton County). My generation may well be the first generation removed from the barn. While I know I got to play in and around both my grampa's barns-that was a foreign concept to most of my friends growing up.

My mom took her two grandsons to visit the farm on which she was raised-and the old barn. The boys had a blast. Now, I make sure that my son is developing a good appreciation for these things; but I imagine most kids have never visited one of these masterpieces.

Barn builders were ingenious, innovative and true craftsmen. And the building of barns was the truest sense of community coming together and neighbor helping neighbor. What takes the place of this today? Seriously, what do we have that even becomes a pale comparison?

Barns are disappearing quickly from the landscape. Often they are impractical for today's farming operations. I sincerely thank those farmers out there who understand and appreciate these links to our past, preserving them for future generations. Here's a thought......Indiana will be celebrating our bicentennial in 2016 and ethanol is taking off (right?). So here's a proposition for the state. For every gallon of ethanol produced in the state, put a user fee of 1 cent to go into a fund to help save our rural, agrarian architecture. We could make some great saves! and help farmers, again!