“The barn standing so simple, embraced with time past, an old dwelling full of memories that forever last. Rain dripping down the eaves, rabbits burrowing underneath the leaves. Walking with my mind back to days untold, a path in which my father tread until he was very old.” Lorraine E. Watson, Ode to the Old Barn
along a remote road in Central Oregon (above Rufus). Standing alone with the modern wind turbines and power lines in the hazy distance.
“Inside a barn is a whole universe, with its own time zone and climate and ecosystem, a shadowy world of swirling dust illuminated in tiger stripes by light shining through the cracks between the boards. Old leather tack, lengths of chain, rope, and baling twine dangled from nails and rafters and draped over stall railings. Generations of pocketknives lay lost in the layers of detritus on the floor.” Carolyn Jourdan, Heart in the Right Place
“To me, homesteading is the solution of all poverty’s problems, but I realize that temperament has much to do with success in any undertaking, and persons afraid of coyotes and work and loneliness had better let ranching alone. At the same time, any woman who can stand her own company, can see the beauty of the sunset, loves growing things, and is willing to put in as much time at careful labor as she does over the washtub, will certainly succeed; will have independence, plenty to eat all the time, and a home of her own in the end.” Elinor Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914)
