Tomiym from Common Sense Farm tosses some wood on the fire that is consuming the old and collapsed barn that first drew me to our new home. Common Sense – a religious community in Cambridge, N.Y. and other cities – took as much of the wood as could be re-used or  re-cycled. They found a lot of old chestnut planks, long extinct here. I have hired them to burn and remove the rotten wood and debris. It started pouring today so they hauled the wood way out in the middle of the field and started burning it. Old barns die all the time. They burn, are collapsed by snow and wind, rotted by rain and neglect.

I felt bad burning this old barn, built in 1840. Tomiym thinks I should plant a garden there, I am thinking the foundation would be a great space to put a hay feeder. I took Red out and we said a few words of thanks and appreciation to the old barn. I’m going back tonight to sit with the fire after the Common Sense workers leave. Barns are cathedrals to me, monuments to other times and places. I’m putting up a photo album on Facebook later. It was a powerful and emotional thing to see.