UPDATE -- a guitar for the grandkids
by Capt. Jack Adair
Coon Rapids, MN

Kathy Anderson's Ashby Visit

Kathlyn Johnson Anderson [Beaver's sister] is visiting from Alaska; she's been helping Mitzi out, mainly, but now it's been grand to have her company for a couple of days here. Yesterday was especially fun, as we took the day to make a trek to Alexandria.

I pulled together some pictures of the Dake home place and made a collage that I sent to several of the cousins, aunts and uncles. With the pictures, I sent the following. If anyone is interested in a full size copy, please email me your address.

Most of you probably don't know that the farm got hit by some very high winds a number of years ago that moved the barn off its foundation. If you looked at the front of the barn you could see it was shifted and tilted toward the road on the bottom half and the top haymow looked fine. The whole thing was resting up against a small tree. We actually thought the tree was keeping it from going completely.

I decided to have a look in the haymow after forty-some years. Of course it looked a lot smaller than I remember, but the old memories of jumping into the hay and making forts all came back. It's sad to say goodbye to a piece of our family's history. But the reality of rotten floor boards, old nails and molding hay made the decision a little easier.

A couple years ago, Charlie decided to get the old hay and straw out of the haymow to relieve the weight and eliminate the potential for a barn fire. With a little help, he managed to remove 8-10 pickup loads of straw and hay out to the field, where we burned it. It smoldered easily, so we had to keep moving it around to keep the flames going.

Before we started, we removed some old pieces of equipment that were still up in the haymow and anything we could find down below. The family took whatever they wanted and the rest Mom took over to her place. What was left was put on a flatbed trailer and many of you picked things out from Mom's on the fourth of July. We had also started removing some of the better wood to keep for different projects. The best we found was actually on the side facing Wroebel's. That side was protected from the elements the best. The other sides had more decay and insect damage.

The next fall, Charlie and Brian (Melanie's husband), with me in the background giving my engineering and supervisory input, decided it was time the old barn needed to come down. With small kids around, we didn't feel the barn looked safe anymore and we didn't want to have someone get hurt for nostalgia's sake.

Our goal was to use a chain to pull the center two support posts out and let the entire thing drop. The top looked so good, we thought we might get lucky and drop that down and use it for a garage. Oh, ye of little faith! I am proud to say that this barn was built to stand, and stand it did. I could only laugh when, time and time again, the chain was put around an area, only to have just that area come loose.

You can see in the "red" picture where the barn gave up the corner. Keep in mind that the two front corners and the inside two support columns were also gone at this time. The section laying on the ground in front of the opening is where we looped through the door and wall shown in the upper right picture.

After looping through the two windows by the tree, we thought, okay, this should do it. Right! We pulled out the old doorway and two panels that were attached to it and the front corner of the barn finally started to move towards the ground. Notice I didn't say to the ground, but towards the ground.

It was obviously taking a little longer than we had anticipated. Now there was more of a safety concern than having it upright. With all the angles and wood sticking out, we had to get it all the way to the ground.

We looped through the upper floor and around one of the main floor supports and pulled towards the road. After fifteen attempts to drop the barn, the top gracefully settled forward and onto the ground.

Had we left the hay and straw, the weight from above would have made a big difference in how the barn fell. But it would also have meant a longer and hotter fire to deal with.

Because of all the nails and wood, Brad Boltz (Lisa's husband) drove his Bobcat over the next day and pushed everything into a pile. He was able to use the Bobcat to break the wood down so that it was more manageable. We burned everything where it was. Brad took some of the floor rafters to his place to use. JoAnne and Wes dug up some of the old rocks that were used for the foundation to use at their place around the front.

The barn had a rail in the peak of the roof for moving bales in and out of the front upper door. I kept as much of the old hardware as I could find when we took the barn down. I found hanger brackets that supported the rail to the roof, clamps that attached onto the rail and other miscellaneous pieces. The wood off the barn has been used to make frames. Don, Mom's husband, made all the frames for me. I had previously removed three windows. Mom has a small one hanging in her kitchen and I have the other two hanging in my basement.

Now it's just our memories that remain. In the collage, the center top picture shows the younger barn standing strong and tall. At its base is the old coop where Grandpa (and many of us) put the corn through the corn shucking machine and cranked the cobs through to remove the kernels. I remember there were always corn kernels on the floor. Lisa still has the shucking machine. Next to Grandpa's shop, this was my favorite building.

Grandpa's shop, with its smell of oil and the large stone wheel grinder, is partially shown in the middle picture. The round, wood slats, temporary storage bin for corn is also shown.

The only original building left is the house. Not a lot has changed inside the house. The side porch has been enclosed and the pantry and back porch have been opened up into one area.

I hope you enjoy the picture and my little history.

Editor's Note: Until I was in sixth grade, that barn was used to house our horses that provided the power to pull the farm machinery. After that time, I don't remember it being used for anything except storage.

Photo © Dorothy Anderson
The Mellon-Dake Farm mural, also by Ardis Quick, framed with barn wood.

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