Drive-bys

I have seen these barns 3 or 4 times, and I am never prepared to get a good photo. They are just there and gone too quick. I have no idea what the top one is used for...I think every time we have passed it, it has had cars in the parking lot.
The bottom one has the sign about Ring of Fire, the music of Johnny Cash...what that means I do not know. Maybe it features someone playing his music...that is my first thought.
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It has been a beautiful day here...low humidity and mid 80's for temps. We are going to have one more day of it and then back to the 90's.

I hung out two loads of clothes, I put the second load on before I brought the first one up to hang out. By the time I hung the second one out, the t-shirts in the first load were almost bone dry...except for where the clothespin held them on the line and they are the sleeveless that has that ribbing around the armholes...they were not quite dry.

I am enjoying sitting outside and reading....just so lovely these past few days. I hope after this next days of 90 degrees that they are the last of the year. I am really, really looking forward to fall and hope it is a long one. But if we don't get some rain, I am afraid it will be here and gone before we really get to enjoy it.

Round barn in Southwest Indiana

We went on a drive yesterday...on a spur of the moment. Ended up going to Washington, Indiana. I wanted to visit a quilt store there, The Stitching Post....not because I needed anything but just to see. I had been there years ago, and I must say I thought it had improved a lot! I had a very good visit there...the salesladies were very friendly and directed us to this barn.
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On the way there, we stopped in Terre Haute and bought a walker for Bright Eyes....I think she will like it but not positive. She is just so wiggly all the time now. She cannot just take a bottle--she makes this noise while she takes it that is hard to explain. Or she pushes herself away from me and looks back at me and just grins. She has got a twinkle in her eyes all the time almost.

One day last week, I was changing her diaper. I just use our bed as the changing table...I have a pad with a towel over it that I lay her on. I was just starting to change her, and Roger was laying across the bed beside her talking to her when up jumps Cougar...I don't know how he done it but there was just enough room for him to land between Roger and Lorelei.

Lorelei seen him and he started to smell her...she grabbed a handful of fur on each side of his face, her mouth came open as she tried to pull him to her, and she was going to take a bite out of him! It was so funny...of course she couldn't really hold him so he just jumped down. And I washed her hands....but sure did get a good laugh out of it. I am so glad he is an easy going cat. I bet before she is very old they will be best of buddies...

Round barn re-visited

I made a small post about this barn HERE....in it I stated that it is in the northern part of Vermillion county. I don't know why I made that statement...I know that Vermillion county is on the west side of the Wabash River, and this barn is on the east side. In Parke County.
We took a drive last week and ended up passing by it again. I took the opportunity to stop and take some new pictures.
Information in the book A Round Indiana by John T. Hanou states it was built in 1895 and believed to be the first true circular barn built in Indiana.
I am so glad that it is still standing. At one time, there were 8 of these round barns in Parke County. Now there is this one, and maybe one other if nothing has happened to it since the book was written. I have never had the luck to run across the other though.

Barn from southern Indiana....

This is a photo I took last summmer in southern Indiana....I really thought I had posted the photo, but have looked through my blog a couple of times and cannot find it. So thought I would go ahead and post it. I really love finding a new round barn--well new to me.

Round barns were supposed to cost less than a four sided barn to construct for the same amount of space....and were supposed to withstand the storms of the midwest better than a rectangular construction. At the time they were being promoted, they were said to be more efficient than a regular barn.

I love seeing them and hate how many have been destroyed or razed....but I suppose they really aren't efficient now. And maybe they are super expensive to roof.
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On to other things for just a minute. My older daughter is trying to get stuff together one more time for her own household. We have spent the weekend shopping/checking out new and used furniture, kitchen stuff. She is quickly getting stuff together. It just makes me sick to think how she worked before and bought all new stuff....and now is having to do it again. She is hoping to be ready to move back on her own by the end of the year or first of next year. She just has to get all her ducks in a row, so to speak.

Anyway, we have been to the outlet malls in Tuscola, IL several times, and today I made a distinct effort to watch in the distance and I really think I spotted another round barn on the way home. We were all too tired to go find it, but I bet I am over there in the next month sometime checking it out. Hopefully sooner.

Three for one...

Click photos to enlarge.

A few years ago, before my oldest daughter moved out, we went to Champaign, Illinois to go shopping. On the way there, I glanced north off Interstate 74 and seen what I have always thought of as two round barns....and I have always wanted to go back to look for them. Today was the day.
This is what we found--an oblong barn/grain bin with a smaller circular one on each side. I really have no idea if this is a true barn or corn crib or what. Ot definitely looks like ventilation to me. It was a ways off the road and though I wanted to go examine it, I just cannot do that when I don't even know who owns the property.
Now, I definitely want to go back when the corn is gone from the fields and I can see better from the interstate...cause I still have a picture in my mind of two barns. And I really don't think these are the ones I seen!

One more barn picture--this one is up north of here. I used to spend hours just driving and wandering around. Needless to say, with gas prices the way they are, I don't indulge in that habit very often now. And when I do, I usually don't go quite as far.

Before......




After...

The first picture is scanned in from actual photo taken a few years ago. I don't know just when. The roof was really looking bad; I was so afraid they would let the barn just waste away. Imagine how happy I was to find that it had been repaired this past fall! I hate to think about what it cost to repair it because it is a big barn!