Gardens at St. Gaudens National Historic Site

 

An outing to the Park with local garden club and historical society for my township. Head gardener gave us some background and we enjoyed the blooms.

Mt. Ascutney in Vermont looking from the veranda of the studio.

Barn #2 & #3

 Continuing our barn tour.

I've been to this farm before. It's where Emily took me in the fall to pick flowers to dry.

Here's how it once looked.

Seeing the stairs to the loft we had to investigate.

Just as we thought - a major storage area for some items that will never see the light of day again.

Like these windows and doors.

The next barn was in very poor shape but it was only the first of many in that condition.

The owners were not present and a couple who were members of the historical society and neighbors were the hosts.  They didn't know much other than what was written in the booklet. 

More old doors in storage.

We walked around the back and could see more of the poor shape the barn was in.

Notice the support beam on the right below that is not plumb anymore.

We were glad we have had the funds to make repairs to our barn. Apparently the owners here have focused on the house and not the other buildings on the premises. It isn't cheap to have historic structures.

Barn #1 (first we visited)

The first barn we visited was #7 of the 12 on the list. There was a short talk about barns beforehand and we learned the English style barns had the doors on the sides where the snow slid off the roof.  I guess this wasn't a problem in England but it was in New England so later barn iterations put the doors on the other two sides.  

So we learned right away that we have an English style barn.

Going up in the loft of this one we saw the same wood lapping floor that Dan removed from our loft. That wood was taken by a neighbor who wants to build a barn one day.

And like our loft stored up in this one were doors and windows.

We could look over the edge at the main work area with the wagon wheel light.

This barn had a basement that opened on a lower level since it was built on a hill.

This rock wall was completely removed, the sill resting on it replaced, and drainage put along the floor.

It's used now for storage of old things including this truck.

I was tempted to ask the owner if I could buy a wagon rim leaning against the barn but Dan said "Don't".

There was a For Sale sign on this yellow beauty.  Anyone interested let me know and I'll share the address and owner's name with you.

One other photo -

This was the backdrop on the stage at the Plainfield town hall painted by the Art Deco artist. Maxfield Parris, who once summered in this area.

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Blogger aggravation

Some of your comments are ending up in Spam for no apparent reason.  I tried putting on Moderation but that didn't help.  I've taken it off now but still find comments in Spam.  Anyone else have this problem or solved it?

I sent feedback to Blogger.  I hope it can be resolved.

Coming Attractions to this Blog

 

Last Saturday we took the tour of these historical barns.  I took lots of photos that need some editing and sorting but haven't had the time to do that yet.

We learned a lot about the construction and age of our barn or at least elements of it. 

We saw barns in all sorts of condition: renovated to almost falling down.

So more coming on barns soon.  Off today to a garden tour at St. Gaudens National Park and this afternoon a book group discussion of These Precious Days by Anne Patchett.