A nice, elderly lady drives in our driveway gets out of her car walks up to me and says. “Hi. Could you please open your barn door. The Barn Swallows are in distress!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked the lady. I was startled that someone would drive in and tell me what to do. I had no idea what she was asking me. I was outside burning wood, so she took the opportunity to stop and inform her new neighbor about those precious birds.
“See the Barn Swallows flying around here?” She points in the sky. “They want in your barn. They come back every spring. Now, since you have the barn restored, and the doors are closed, they can’t get in. Can you open the door, so they can go in and make their nest?”
“I’ll do that.” So, I opened the door and sure enough, those birds flew right in and made themselves at home. They come back every year. They are just adorable, and we enjoy seeing them each year. Hubby does get annoyed at times because they do make a big mess. So, he has to make sure not to park his tractor under their nest. He doesn’t always like to keep the big door open all summer, so he opens a window. I wasn’t sure they would find the open window, but they did. I think one year we had three nests in the downstairs barn.
The lower level of a barn is called the milking parlor. We don’t have cows, so we don’t use that term. The whitewash paint was chipping, so we had the whole lower level power washed. Whitewashing was used in dairy barns for centuries because it was necessary for maintenance and it was safe for animals. Whitewash paint is powdered lime mixed with water.
The gutters in the barn, where the cow manure goes, were full of all sorts of debris. There was also piles of a mixture of wood, hay, a dead possum, dirt and manure. Those piles all needed to be hauled away and the area cleaned.
I was on the phone one morning, with my partner in crime and she asked, “What are you doing today?”
I said, “I have to start cleaning out the lower level of the barn because we need to get it ready to power wash.”
“I’ll come over and help you.”
“No, it’s a mess! There is no way I want you to help me.” I pleaded.
I got my work clothes on and went to work in the barn. To my surprise my
partner in crime shows up to help me clean. I actually was embarrassed to have her work in such a smelly, bad condition. “Well, you sure don’t listen, do you?”
“Nope.” She said, with an ornery smile. I try to convince her to go home, but she didn’t listen and just started helping me. We did have fun. That is if you what to call cleaning out a filthy barn fun. The cleaning included laughing and screaming all at the same time. The screaming was caused by two ladies uncovering a possum. The laughter came when we realized it was dead.
