Signs of Spring!

It was great to be outside yesterday, visiting a historic dairy farm, now enjoying new life as Crossen Arabians - here's this year's new foal, 3 weeks old. That was the most obvious sign that a new season is arriving any day now.

More to celebrate today:

  International Womens Day 

and

  National Agriculture Day 

Winter Reflections

from Jonathan Papers by Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris, 1912 One hundred years later, the barns that were groomed and spiffed up in Elisabeth's time, have returned to the "unkempt" condition that she loved.  Though, if not groomed a bit, they're apt to collapse entirely!

THE COVERED BRIDGE

The covered bridge of solid beam

Above the slow, meandering stream –

The misty lake below the hill,

The mountain forest, cool and still,

Where birch and oak with spruce and pine

In cheerful harmony combine –

The countryside, so good to see,

And, most of all, so good to be –

All this, though elements may rage,

Stays part of all our heritage.

In healing sun and windy rain,

The touch of earth brings strength again:

And if a while it lies behind,

It still supports our strength of mind.

Catharine Jackson Alger

CHRISTMAS 1941

Note from Barn Hunter Charlotte: 
This poem was written by my grandmother in the days after the Pearl Harbor attack.

October Fieldwork

We're getting to work on our Thematic Multiple Property State Register Nomination - that's the long way of saying, Todd and Charlotte are getting out in the field to "interview" and research 200 of Connecticut's significant barns which we are nominating to the State Register of Historic Places.

It's hard to choose 200 from the 8,000 that we have seen!

This is a classic 20th century dairy farm - it turns out the little 3-bay English barn was there first, and the big gambrel dairy barn was an addition following a pattern book from U Conn - the latest technology in the 1920s.

It's a gorgeous location on a ridge overlooking the Naugatuck and Little Rivers. Sad thing is, there haven't been cows here since 1984.

September Fairs

We'll be at the Guilford Fair September 16-18

 and 

at the Durham Fair September 23-25

Stop in and say hello!

Celebrate Barns - the Hoedown!

Thanks !

To Ragweed - the band, 
    Bushnell Farms - the barn raising, 
        Bring Back Barns - the joinery, 
               The Eli Whitney Museum for the barn, 
                     All our friends who came and made it a great time!

Hoedown Time!

We're CELEBRATING 

our Statewide Barn Survey
and
all the great volunteers who make it happen!

Join us at a Hoedown 

Sunday, July 24 from 1 to 4 pm 

at the Eli Whitney Barn 

940 Whitney Avenue, Hamden CT

$10 donation requested

RSVP 203-562-6312

Prizes

Live Bluegrass Band

Food

Barn-raising

Barn Art Show in the Barn 

Barn Challenge 

We've got over 7,920 barns listed so far - 

Help us reach 8,000 by the Hoedown

Scout out the missing barns and send in the barn photos to connecticutbarns.org

Photo by Alec Frost

Help us find this barn!

First in a series of mystery barns ...
Here's a barn - we don't know where to find it - can you help us?
If you know, email us at ctbarns@gmail.com

Tough News in a Hard Winter

It's been a hard season for our old barns - we've been learning of roof collapses all over the state from the weight of record snowfall saturated by rain.

Eli Whitney Barn's Wagon Shed, February 4, 2011

Just this week the 1816 Eli Whitney Barn, which we see out our office windows, lost its wagon shed. Wednesday it was there, Thursday a pile of rubble.

 Wagon Shed Rear (West), February 4, 2011

The "before" portrait shows the barn with its shed, which has had several different roof configurations over the years. Check out the story of this barn at http://www.connecticutbarns.org/1788

The Eli Whitney Museum, owner of the barn, had plans already in place to restore the wagon shed back to its earliest appearance. Watch for the work to get started after the snow melts.

Eli Whitney Barn, back in the Spring of 2010

Photography by C. Hitchcock

New Year 2011 - a Good Start in Sherman

Happy Acres Farm is one of the last working farms in the town of Sherman. Owner Tony Hapanowich has lived here all his life. 


During 2010, residents approved purchase the of the farm - all 96 acres - by the town, giving Tony lifetime residency. Plans are to eventually keep it a working farm with a resident tenant family or local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project.


Click this link for some great photos of Tony and his animals published by newstimes.com

Thanks to barn volunteers John Jenner and Hildi Grob for sending us information on how this farm and its numerous barns will be preserved.


Photography: Hildi Grob

A Tale of Two CSAs

Local food supporters in these two Connecticut towns have started Community-Supported Agriculture projects on historic farms purchased by each town for open space.

BEFORE -

In Cheshire, the old Lassen Farm is now producing weekly supplies of vegetables for its subscribers as Boulder Knoll Community Farm. When the farming group began, the old red dairy barn stood next to the fields.

In Woodbridge, the Massaro Farm on Ford Road had a decrepit-looking green gambrel dairy barn as well as a few other outbuildings adjacent to the vegetable plots.

AFTER -

The "after" picture reflects the different fate of each barn. The refurbished Massaro Barn stands proud in its new coat of red paint. The Lassen Barn is only a memory.

Photography: T. Levine, C. Hitchcock, F. Jordan