July 21, 2007. Warm, humid. To save a barn, you hire somebody with special gifts. Anthony saved the diary barn, with his helper Ben, an amazing bit of muscle, skill and commitment. Anthony told me two years ago that the Carriage Barn, across from the farmhouse, was also in danger, and he was right. While painting it a month ago, we saw that the wood underneath had rotted away, covered in dirt and debris, and that there was nothing supporting the foundation in the rear.
  Now, Anthony is designing and sculpting concrete, so I turned to Robbin Slater, an excavator, hydrologist, and philosopher of all things wood, water and soil. Robin sees each project as a story, and his narratives are as enchanting as any writer. He knows what he’s doing, too, another of those  men who know how the earth is put together, unlike me. He came with gargantuan machines, competent and courteous men, and tore up the foundation around the carriage barn and is replacing it (sorry, Paula, it will be pricey).
  It is a sacred obligation, saving and restoring barns. It must be done, whenever it can be done. Anthony and Ben restored the old dairy barn. Bill and Maria restored the Pig Barn. Robbin Slater is restoring the carriage barn (and Flo painted it) and then, Robbin and Bill and Maria will restore the studio barn, now Maria’s art studio and soon to be spectacularly rethought and rebuilt. Then, I will have restored – or, rather, paid for the restoration – of four barns, and there is nothing much in my life that I will be prouder of than taking just about all of my money and doing that.
  A farmer from Cossayuna came by one day and said he wanted to thank me for restoring my barns, because, he said, he and the other farmers, could never afford to do it, and it ought to be done. Hear, hear.  It is my goal to completely restore this farmhouse and barns before somebody, probably Anthony, finds me lying in a heap out in the woods one day. How lucky I am to know people like Anthony, Bill, Maria and Robbin who can undertake these difficult things and make them right, and do so in so respectful, creative and honest a way.