Ozarks Heritage, Barns and More.

I thought I would share this with everyone, lot of folks buy old barn beams to repurpose for fireplace mantels, enjoy.

THE RUSTIC BARN BEAM MANTEL | Turning Primitive Barn Wood Into A Fireplace Mantel Join us as we work to turn a rustic barn beam into a fireplace mantel. This thing is 100 years old and probably three times as heavy as it's age. And you bet...

It only seems like yesterday but it has been a little while since we have had time to post any photos of the barns on our page. But, we are back so here is a few photos of a barn we just started which is located between Ozark and Rogersville.

It is not a large barn but like most, it is unique in its own way and always (every barn does) have a story to tell. The owner said they bought the property in 1984 and at the time the owner who was selling the farm said that the barn (at that time) was over a 100 years old.

That of course would make the barn right at 150 years old right now. If you look back about a year ago I had posted some photos of this barn back then when we first looked at it. This barn is not real large so it should not take too long to take down, just a few days.

There is a lot of water damage on this barn but there is also some real nice material also, the siding which was protected by the roof and was in good condition, it is (approximately) 12 inch wide oak that is about 1.125 inches thick.

Very nice material in good weathered condition. There is also some very nice siding, 2x6s etc. on the barn etc. that will be salvaged. But the most important part of all of this is the barn is not going to be burned down, torn down etc.

It will be recycled / repurposed. That, is where the value is, in the material. So, here is a few pictures with more to come next week.

This is one you do not see very often, it is a wooden grain silo located up by lake of the Ozarks. We had the chance to look this one over and I would not miss that for the world. It is not extremely old (about 1930s) but it is very cool to say the least. If you include the lower grain room and the silo itself (which actual is 8 separate grain bins) and the upper tower the structure itself is over 80 feet tall. That is tall for a grain silo made out of wood. The old concrete ones of course are much taller but for one that is all wood that is saying something. The story goes that the owner was a carpenter also and built the grain silo himself, he had his children (older children) help him build it but there is one very sad aspect to it. One of the children fell from the structure while it was being built and did not survive the fall, very sad. Even today and much more so back then, farming can be a dangerous business and lots of accidents did occur. What is very cool about this structure is the way it is built, there had to be a lot of strength built into the structure itself to hold that much grain and so the walls (all of them) are 4 inches thick red oak. The way they built them was to stack one 2x4 on top of another 2x4 to get the right height, over lapping them as they went. Thing about it (that is something else when you thing about it). Stacking a couple of hundred 2x4s perfectly straight and then doing that on 8 separate wooden bins, that is a feat in itself. Sorry but I am a carpenter at heart and that impresses me for sure. So, each wall of this structure is one 2x4 stacked and nailed on top of another 2x4 to get the desire height, crazy cool..... anyway, enjoy the photos, more to come later.

This barn is located in the Walnut Grove area about 30 minutes North of Springfield, it is just a medium size barn and like most it was very useful in its day. The issue (like most barns) is the design, the small rooms etc. Does not work for today. I would have to say the owner is trying to be smart about the issue, he is looking at (if possible) saving the stone foundation walls and just rebuilding on top of those. I hope it works for him, he will retain some of the old charm while at the same time save some $$ which is always a good thing. But, for now, here is some nice photos of the barn, enjoy.

Normally I would not post this ad here but since there is a lot of barn wood and farm stuff here (in the sale) I decided to share it.

Well, we finally had time to go out to Ash Grove to start on the barn out there. This barn (like all of them) was unique in many ways, most of the barns we do, always seem to have a personal touch to them.

Not trying to sound odd but each one is just a little bit different in style and design and (within reason) always seems to take on a little bit of uniqueness from whoever was the original owner. The loft in this barn was almost 27 feet and if you take a look at the pictures after we took the flooring and floor joist up you can see that from the concrete floor up, it was right at 36 feet to the top.

We have gotten to where we are able to strip down the complete interior of a barn and basically make it one big cavern inside. Also, while we was taking the barn down (and after I had talked to the owner about it) we was talking about the age of the barn and I had estimated it being built right around 1930, anyway, I found a old license plate that had been bent over a hole in the wall. I pulled it off, straightened it up and the date on the plate said 1927. So, looks like I guess that one just about right.

Once we had all the interior framing removed the inside of the barn seemed to have doubled inside, but, it did just seem that way. I was real surprised but even with the inside of the barn completely removed it was still rock solid. Proof that whoever built that barn, not only but a little of there self's into it but they also knew, what they was doing.

A tree pruning crew in 1890s. (This is a shared photo from another site) - But, I just had to share it, Love it !

I know its kind of a crazy thing to do but every time I go look at a barn I give it a name, it helps me keep them straight upstairs in the marbles department so to speak. I am pretty sure it came from when I use to build the sub-division in my past life, I would go out to the property and just walk around, look it over and, would come up with a name that suited the property itself.

Over the years I got into kind of doing the same with the barns, take a look at them and talk to the owners about the history of the barn etc. And, I would come up with a name, so, yes, I know, the name, cannot help it but when I looked at this barn I thought to myself....I am going to call it Big Bertha...

(shoot me later if you want to), I just cannot help myself. So, when you look at the outside and the inside, I think the name fits quite well. So, Bertha, to me, she is a real beauty to me. When I talked to the owner I know she was going to be massive inside and we (side note here) took a round barn down in Fordland a couple of years back and it was 80 foot long, the owner said you could put 4,000 bails of hay in it, I knew this one was bigger.

I said to the owner, I bet this thing can hold about 5,000 square bails of hay, well, I hit it right on the head. That is what she holds, 5,000 bails, that my friend, is a lot of hay. But, the most beautiful thing about Bertha is, well, everything, she is grand, no other way to state it, she has, nice bones...

Anyway, being silly, its a beautiful barn, built well, just think about building a barn like this. From the floor to the ceiling I would bet she is every bit of 26 feet inside the loft area. She kind of looks like a giant church cathedral inside the loft area when you look at her. Large and beautiful !

Anyway, she is not doing to good right now, so she has to come down, But, there is a whole lot of material is this roof, for sure. And there is a lot, a whole lot of siding on the exterior of this building also. What is important is putting it to use once we are done. The old exterior siding would make a beautiful interior wall décor for any room.

Well, the old peg barn is down. It really surprises me, half the base was missing and we pulled out several more beams and supports and she was still standing, they just do not go down without a fight.

I did get a small video of us pulling it down which I will post later, but as off right now we have about 40 or 50 beams that we took out of this barn (great for fireplace mantles etc.). We also got some real nice rustic metal roofing and gray siding from the barn.

One of the main things I like about doing this (taking the barns down) is we can sometimes save something for the owners. On this one they wanted (and I was happy to accommodate them) the star that was cut into the upper gable end of the roof (see attached photos.

We got it down in one piece and now the owner has it hanging on his wall, (what a great way to save a little piece of history). Anyway, hope all is well with everyone, we have some more photos and a video that we will post at a later date.

Well, it was finally dry enough to go out to the barn and work for a couple of days, but, more rain is on the way. ah. yes, spring time is here.

Like always, hate taking the barns down if they can be salvaged but, what is nice is being able to save most of the material. There are a lot of beams in this one. They are not real big but they work great for a beamed ceiling in a house, a fireplace mantle or a big open doorway.

With all the craziness going on in the world right now it is just nice to be out in the open with no one anywhere near us, closest person would be a mile or so away, that is social distancing - country style !

We have to be careful, this barn is the other side of about 400 acres of corn that was just planted, it is ok to cross the field but when the sprouts come up, we will have to wait until the corn has been harvested (400 acres of corn, that's a lot of corn !)

Anyway, we have another one we can start at the other side of the farm if need be, Its a real old, red barn. I also have some more photos, I will post them soon, Have a blessed Easter Sunday, at home with your families.

My brother is closing down his antique store after 20 years up on Commercial street. I walked in the other day and saw this sweet looking mag. (a 1902 National Builder) sitting there and he was feeling generous so he said I could have it.

When I got home I started looking through it and found this super cool articular on a $450 dollar barn. I checked and based upon inflation that would be the same as about $14,000 today (that is cheap for a all wood barn) even based upon the cost of inflation.

As I read the article a few (statements) kind of caught me off guard. Side note: The barn was not real big, its size was listed as 34x37, not small and not big, just kind of medium in size. Now, getting back to the statements, the article said the following things.

1. All of the support post was 8x8 in size.

2. Some of you may know this but the articular says that strong wind is always a issue with a large barn.

3. It also says that if wanted the barn could be painted (2 coats) for right at a additional $20.00 cost (paint and labor).

Just looking at the article it seems weird that back then they was looking at the barn as being new and ready to go, but now, we look at how old it is and what can we salvage before it completely falls apart. Just for fun I have included a couple of pictures from it so everyone can see some of the unique ads they had back in 1902