# Down to Lynchburg VA today



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Haven't been down in this part of VA since watching my wife play lacrosse at JMU back in the 90's, 
Never got a chance to see Bull Run battlefields during the day. Beautiful place, but depressing. 
Coming out of the Bull Run area on 29 south, I was surprised how many abandoned farms there were. 
Nothing more sad than an abandoned house, barn coming down and overgrown fences.


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

You are right nothing more sad or depressing then seeing those once grandiose homes and barns in ruins and falling down...


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Have alot of that around here


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Makes me want to buy one....
All I want is a big spacious barn and it seems all I see are barns falling down and neglected properties.

Makes you wonder why the barn rescue business doesn't flourish....

Hmmmmm......


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

JD3430 said:


> Makes me want to buy one....
> All I want is a big spacious barn and it seems all I see are barns falling down and neglected properties.
> Makes you wonder why the barn rescue business doesn't flourish....
> Hmmmmm......


$$$$ Cost a lot to refurbish a barn and then is it practice for today's uses?

I replaced a 30 x 50 hip roof barn that everything was carried in by hand and out by hand.Not practical for me and today's eq.Replaced it with 50 x 100 mono slope cattle shed that I can put cattle,hay or machinery in.

A.friend of mine did refurbish a barn that's been in there family a long time.I hate to guess how much $$ they put in it.They have had a couple weeding receptions there since they got it done.A link to a FB page for it.

https://www.facebook.com/The-Barn-at-Corabelle-847685795348521/?fref=ts


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

swmnhay said:


> $$$$ Cost a lot to refurbish a barn and then is it practice for today's uses?
> I replaced a 30 x 50 hip roof barn that everything was carried in by hand and out by hand.Not practical for me and today's eq.Replaced it with 50 x 100 mono slope cattle shed that I can put cattle,hay or machinery in.
> A.friend of mine did refurbish a barn that's been in there family a long time.I hate to guess how much $$ they put in it.They have had a couple weeding receptions there since they got it done.A link to a FB page for it.https://www.facebook.com/The-Barn-at-Corabelle-847685795348521/?fref=ts


Practicality not really the issue here. 
I was thinking that it might make a nice business, taking barns destined for collapse and resurrecting them for people who can afford them. Just don't know if there's enough demand for something like that. I already have access to a great 150+ yr old barn that's impractical 
My barn budget is a basic metal skin pole barn.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> Practicality not really the issue here.
> I was thinking that it might make a nice business, taking barns destined for collapse and resurrecting them for people who can afford them. Just don't know if there's enough demand for something like that. I already have access to a great 150+ yr old barn that's impractical
> My barn budget is a basic metal skin pole barn.


Plenty of those businesses already. I think many of them have been doing other things since the economy peaked several years ago.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

swmnhay said:


> $$$$ Cost a lot to refurbish a barn and then is it practice for today's uses?
> 
> I replaced a 30 x 50 hip roof barn that everything was carried in by hand and out by hand.Not practical for me and today's eq.Replaced it with 50 x 100 mono slope cattle shed that I can put cattle,hay or machinery in.
> 
> ...


Yeah, that's the truth.... BIG $$$$...

We had the old barn that my great-granddad's uncle built here on the farm when he moved here in 1898... he was one of the first settlers in this area of the county... it survived the Great Hurricane of 1900 that hit Galveston and killed 6,000 people; that storm was the reason my great-granddad's uncle's wife wanted to sell the farm and return to New York... he sold it to his nephew and it's been in our family ever since. My grandmother fed the Percherons in that barn and ground corn by hand and mixed High-Life (weevil-cide) into the fuzzy gin-run cottonseed they saved to plant cotton crops back when she was a kid... Later they got rid of the hay burners and kept the first tractor in Fort Bend County in that barn, Great-Grandpa Howard's Fordson. Later Grandpa stored small square bales in there for years... My dad and the neighbor kids used to play in there, dropping out of the hay mow onto the back of young bulls and getting bucked off and tossed up to the rafters and knocking their heads up against the purlins with all the ringshank nails sticking through...

But when we switched to round bales in about 81 or 82, the old barn really served no purpose anymore... the central alley was too narrow for a modern tractor, and there was no way to stick round bales in the mow, even if you wanted to. It was constructed with wooden pegs and a VERY steep (snow-load) roof like a barn you might see in Indiana or something, rather than south Texas... but it was built identical to Amish barns using the same methods... just without the gambrel-- steep single pitch roof.

Grandma kept the barn up until the mid-80's but the tin roof needed replacing and she judged it not worth the expense... The old barn survived until the mid 2000's, slowly shedding old tin until a gulf storm finally caused the western half of the barn to collapse on itself, and a year or two later, the eastern half collapsed.

Sad, but it was costing a fortune to keep it up, and for no good reason...

Later! OL J R


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