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1959 Tim's Dad, Maurice Huppe,
and grandfather, Alcide Huppe, on west side of barn before corn crib was
removed. (The tractor is a 1930's International F-12.)
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I live today on the same farm where I was born. When my
parents Maurice and Gerie purchased this farm in 1959 there were several
buildings. Aside from the house, the best of the buildings was the 40’ x 80’
traditional New England barn. The barn had a full cellar built of granite. For
many years the first floor housed several dairy cattle and draft horses and had
floor to roof hay mows on a portion of one side. Above the horses and cattle
was a hay mow floor. At another level above the hay mows in the center of the
barn was a narrow deck floor, running the length of the barn, where beans and
peas were stored to dry and be processed. |
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1970 Tim picking blackberries at the
south end of the old barn.
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The barn had been moved by many teams of oxen from its
original site some 1,500 feet away. The barn was built before the civil war.
It was framed with hand hewed timbers and joined together with hardwood pegs.
Many of the wall boards were 24” wide. In the early years on the farm, my father made loose hay
and stored it away in the barn using the old hay fork and ropes conveyor
system. I can remember the hay fork rope being pulled by the family car. My
dad always said cattle like loose hay during the winter months. |
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1970 Old barn
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I trained many pair of calves on the large barn floor on
those snowy and cold, long winter days.
The barn served our family well as it had for many families
before us. But the aging roof system was no match for the great snow storms of
1978. Three storms in one month dumped over 7’ of heavy snow. A broken rafter
and a large hole in the roof brought my father to the decision to sell the barn
for its salvage value.
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1984 Conveying hay into the mow of
the gambrel barn. |
That next spring, Dad built his new gambrel roofed barn
near the site of the old barn. The new barn is a beauty but will never have the
character of the old 1800’s barn.
Some years later, my folks built a new home on the farm.
This house is 400’ off the road and is in a beautiful setting. This new site
needed barns. My dad and I started to build. We haven’t stopped yet. |
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First barn built at BerryBrook Farm.
This barn includes our ox supply store, a small workshop and a garage bay.
The seventy foot cattle barn has
eight tie stalls, sawdust bin, manure pit, large box stall, and addition at
rear for hay storage. The taller roof-line, at left, covers a three bay
machinery shed. The barn also houses our logging scoot and stoneboat
inventory. On the right-hand side of the picture is the corner of a three
bay open-front shed. One bay houses our ox sling, and the other two bays
serve as cattle shelter. The cement area in front of the barn with the pipe
rails is our wash rack.
Other buildings on the farm include
Maurice & Gerie Huppe's beautiful log home, a hen house, small storage
building, and a two bay turnout shed in our front pasture. At the far end of
the farm sits Tim & Wendy's log home with small log barn and large woodshed.
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