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The barn is the one built by my wife's grandfather. He was the first to settle the farm. Stories are told that he and his brother lived in a shack on the property at first.  They cut the long prairie grasses and took them downtown to sell them to farmers who had livestock in the area.

The farm itself is not in the ownership of any family member now.  The city required it to become developmental property.  We will be watching this spring to see what they will do first in transforming the farm into flat commercial land for building.

The spots of light are from the holes in the roof.  The barn had a cedar shingle roof but they are mostly gone now. The hay loft was on a second story floor with the area below used for livestock and milking.

The new owners are builders of strip malls.  They lease all that they build.  They did want to let the one who had rented the land for growing corn before for us, to do so one more time this year.  The farmstead will probably be cleared this spring with the buildings and trees all being removed.

Change is hard but the area has become all filled with commercial buildings and soon a four lane road will become a six lane highway.  I am getting a lot of good work done today on the new family room area.  I did work this morning that won't have to be redone; like yesterday's work seemed to be a never ending challenge.  Iowa has turned cold again and is windy.  Not a nice day with clouds hovering and sprinkles happening once in a while.

Thanks for stopping by today.