1000th load

[grassfarmer]

I can identify with your post Farmaholic, similar feelings and a Dad that is 84 and in declining health. Realizing ourselves that another generation has come along - we are no younger the young guys. As the saying goes "Time waits for no man".

[the big wheel]

That brings back lots of memories. There should be a farm with flat bottoms, trucks with no hoist, 6 inch auger pull start. Milk cows, calving cows, square bales etc etc. And some of these younger kids that think they have it rough at home should spend a weak or so earning their food of which they'd pick and cook their self.
What torcher they would think. Lol

[foragefarmer]

Farma

I can relate very well to your story with the exception when it comes to burning buildings that can be salvaged. If all they need is a roof or some repair I fix them. There never seems to be enough storage on a farm. Not sure in your case you needed them all, but to keep a couple if they are not in the way with only a roof to be fixed, I would have fixed them myself personally.

Not to mention the price of lumber and the workmanship that went into old buildings, not judging your decision just expressing my my view on old farm buildings.

[Jagfarms]

Some of the old wooden bins have lots of sentimental value. The ones we have my grandfather and his brother built back in the 1940s and 50s.

I heard the stories on how they drove the grain truck out to BC and picked up the lumber to build these bins.
All built with hand tools. Pretty amazing when I think about it.

We still have the bins for now and try to keep them maintained. We won’t be sticking a bunch of $ into them and it will come to the time when we may have to demolish them.

[farmaholic]

Farma

I can relate very well to your story with the exception when it comes to burning buildings that can be salvaged. If all they need is a roof or some repair I fix them. There never seems to be enough storage on a farm. Not sure in your case you needed them all, but to keep a couple if they are not in the way with only a roof to be fixed, I would have fixed them myself personally.

Not to mention the price of lumber and the workmanship that went into old buildings, not judging your decision just expressing my my view on old farm buildings.

I hear you loud and clear forage. I'm beginning to wonder if laying gold bricks for others to walk on is such a good idea! In a sense, it is a test, of knowing the value of things and appreciating the work and efforts of those who went before them. I never heard even a suggestion of "repurposing" the old bins.

Accumulating useless stuff can be onerous. When we get rid of machinery that we no longer use.... the parts and related items that serve no purpose get given with the machine or sold to someone else. But there are tonnes of useful items and stuff that "some day might come in handy".

Not "wanting" is dangerous. There was a time, when I started farming, there wasn't alot of money around here. When I think back, I wonder why I stayed. I even worked off the farm for 9 years part-time and that little bit of extra income helped to pay off some of the first land I bought! I know what tight is!

I came from a long line of savers.... people with depression mentality, not mental health depression, economic depression.... I am somewhat inflicted myself. I'm only the third generation from those trying times.

Mark my words forage, what we are doing definitely doesn't feel right! Anyway, not by the way I was raised! We got ahead by making due, not always having the most up to date machinery and vehicles when we had land payments(especially in the beginning) and actually "using" those old wooden bins longer than anyone else used their's around here. Also having livestock, get up do chores, drive to work, come home and do chores, repeat. I didn't have to "look" for things to do. Besides, there's always something to do if you want to work. And not throwing anything of "value" away. I've earned what I have today but....

[RD414]

Hate to throw anything out here also. My boys call me a hoarder. Dad was a cattle guy on a bunch of poor pasture and we never had any money for anything. Boys have followed my footsteps whether they like it or not. Bought a farm with excellent old wooden bins that they did not want. Put them on farm group site and they were all picked up and repurposed in a couple of days. Now have an old hip roofed barn that probably needs $20000 spent on it. Will be good for pretty well nothing. Floor was poured in 1926. Almost pulled the trigger on tearing it down a few times over the years but then had an old guy show up that remembered playing in the loft not long after it was built, sure glad it was here that day

[farmaholic]

RD414. There is a wide grey area between hoarding and "salvaging".

[foragefarmer]

Old farm buildings are the link of the generations that have past. I often look at them and memories of years gone by will reappear taking me back as if I was reliving the moment.

Times were simpler, when grandparents were around still helping on the farm supervising as we shoveled and unloaded grain into those wooden bins. Chasing cows to the barn to be milk or brought in on cold nights.

You tear those buildings down and many memories of the past go with them.They serve as a reminder of where your character was built.

[Braveheart]

Plus memories, the old buildings are great for barn swallow nests.

I've seen several old wood bins converted to saunas. Partition, steel wood stove covered in field stones and voila, a fantastic sauna.

[blackpowder]

Nostalgia. Seems to be history with the stress filtered out.
The memories of youth are such.