CHAPTER XXIX. 



OUR BARN. 



N previous chapters we have had a good deal to say 

 about our tool house, covered barnyard, etc. ; we 

 will now take the barn as a whole. There is a 

 good deal in so connecting and arranging buildings 

 that they will be very convenient. We have ours 

 so fixed that they suit us very well. Take a good 

 look at ground plan on next page, and pictures on pages 255 and 

 257, then you will be ready for the description. We will take the 

 ground plan first. T is the tool and carriage room that was fully 

 explained in last chapter. To the right stands the main barn, 

 45x60. Back of the tool house is the covered yard Y. This 

 extends fourteen feet beyond the tool house, so as to give an 

 entrance from the front. There are two doors here, about twelve 

 feet high, like common barn doors, large enough to drive through 

 with a load of hay or grain, if one wished to. Notice the double 

 doors ( X stands for door all through plan) in right end of tool 

 house. They are the same size as those opening into covered 

 yard. This makes it easy to get into yard and out, as one can 

 go in either way and out the other, when drawing manure or 

 simply driving under to leave tools over night. There is plenty 

 of room in ' Y to have a good many tools standing around 

 temporarily, without being in the way, in the summer, when no 

 stock are in the yard. Now, perhaps you are ready to see how it 

 is just as easy for us to care for tools and wagons as not. Nearly 

 everything is on wheels now. Just make a rule that tools shall 

 be brought up at night. It is little or no trouble ; usually easier 

 than to leave them in the field, as one can ride. Then have a 

 nice lawn in front of barn as we do, all nicely cut with lawn 

 mower every week, and let no one unhitch from anything out there, 

 but just drive in. It is just as easy. The doors stand open, 

 usually; if not, they must be open for the team to go in. Then 

 your tool or wagon is under cover. Notice the horse stable, right 

 at the end of yard, and tool house, with doors directly in from 

 each place. How handy to let horses go right in there after 

 unhitching, and hang the harness just outside between X and O 

 on end of tool house. And then in the morning you can hitch 

 on and go ahead out, all as easy as not. As I am fixed, I do not 

 deserve much credit for taking care of tools, do I? Well, I got 

 tired of being greatly bothered to take care of things, and I 

 could not afford not to, and so worked to get things handy. 



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