New at The Barn Journal for 2003

 

July 12th

Attention Mail Pouch barn enthusiasts... the 3rd annual Mail Pouch Barnstormers Picnic is happening later this month (July 26) in Belmont, OH. For more information, see this listing in the Barn Events section. We are also pleased to present a new Gallery of Mail Pouch Barns with photos taken by Elmer Napier and others. Mr. Napier has documented 400+ Mail Pouch barns and wrote an article for The Barn Journal in 2001 called Barnstorming for Mail Pouch Barns, which has even more photos.

In addition, we have added a noteworthy title to our book list: Harker's Barns, by Michael Harker. This book has 89 pages of superb black and white photographs of Iowa's disappearing barns taken over a three year period and 8000 miles of driving country roads. The accompanying text by a NW Iowa native and St. Olaf College professor provides the reader a good explanation of the barns while Mr. Harker describes the technical aspects of his work. You can find this and other books in the Barn Resources section.

 

April 22nd

We have just posted an extensive overview of barn repair issues from Richard Lazarus of New York: Recommendations for Appropriate Repairs to Historic Barns and Other Agricultural Buildings. This article covers diverse issues such as replacing doors and windows, the use of decorative elements, and what kinds of lumber to use. It appears along with other articles covering barn repair, such as Surveying Your Old Barn, in the Barn Resources section under "Technical and Construction Information."

 

April 14th

The Barn Journal is pleased to announce our new list of Barns Available for Events, a resource that many readers have been asking for. The list currently has ten barns available to rent for private social events, such as wedding receptions, and we plan to add more barns as we hear about them. We hope you find this new addition to the Barn Resources section useful, and many thanks to those readers who have submitted entries so far!

 

March 11th

Some readers have reported a technical problem accessing The Barn Board: the bulletin board content was being "cached" inappropriately, so you would only ever see an old version of the bulletin board unless you forced a reload or cleared your browser cache.

The problem has been fixed, but to make sure you no longer have an old version stored in your browser's cache, visit The Barn Board and click your browser's reload button while holding down the SHIFT key; this will force a reload in most browsers. You should see the current date after the text under the logo ("The time now is..."). It may be necessary to do this for other pages you have visited in the past, just look at the date on each page to make sure you are seeing the curent version.

If you are still seeing an old version of The Barn Board, please contact webmaster@thebarnjournal.org. Thanks for your patience!

 

March 5th

Another significant barn has been added to the Featured Barns section. It is The Robert Swason Barn, a "post card perfect" gambrel-roof barn in Chester, New Hampshire. Many thanks to Mr. Swanson for giving us the opportunity to feature his barn at The Barn Journal.

 

February 24th

The Barn Journal has been overwhelmed by the recent widespread interest in finding barns as locations for weddings and other private social events. Just have a look at our Barn Guestbook and The Barn Board, and you'll see what we mean!

As a service to our readers, we are compiling a nationwide list of these properties with information such as name, location, and contact details, but we need your help! If you have information on barns available to rent for such events, please send it to editor@thebarnjournal.org for inclusion in our list. We anticipate that this list would operate like our Barn Ads and Barn Contractors lists. Thank you for your help!

 

February 1st

A daughter remembers her father, the Ohio dairy barn of her youth, and its tragic end in our latest story, "The Big Barn". Check out the Barn Stories section for this and other stories.

 

January 29th

There are two new articles in The Red Mill section, "Red Mill events gain in popularity" and "Red Mill activities a sign of things to come." Both articles cover the 2002 season at The Red Mill, a restored grain elevator in Portland, Michigan.

 

January 16th

We have a new article called "Surveying Your Old Barn" which includes an inspection checklist for barns: problems to watch out for, and what you can do about them. It comes to us from The Barn Consultant, a newsletter published by Charles Whitney of Mt. Vernon OH, a well-known authority on Ohio barns who is frequently engaged in technical consultation. The article can be found in the Barn Resources section under "Technical and Construction Information."

If you have questions or comments on this article or other barn maintenance issues, take a look at the Barn Repairs forum of our bulletin board, The Barn Board.