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Pennsylvania Bank Barn
Our Pennsylvania bank barn is a good example of the region’s “Standard,” built with stone ends, a collar structure loft, and an earthen ramp or “bank” that leads to the main floor. Wagons used to be pulled up to unload the harvest here, which was then stacked to dry, thanks to the long, tall slits in the walls. These allowed air to pass through, but were small enough to exclude most larger wild predators. They also served, if necessary, as rifle battlements in the event of Indian attacks.
This venerable denizen of our fields beckons you to immerse yourself in the sensory charm of a bygone era:
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The smell of hay and oats |
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The texture of stacked straw that has provided shelter and feed for huddled creatures — invited and not — for well over 200 years. |
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The dust motes dancing in deep, honeyed sunlight that slants in through the wall boards morning and evening |
Our Sheep – Ben & Jerry
Did you know?
Long ago, people were very superstitious. When carpenters (or simply farmers doing carpentry work) would finish building any structure, they would tap on a piece of the timber as a gesture of a job well done. This was a leftover custom from an ancient Druid gesture of worship.
The Druids, an earth-worshipping culture whose spirituality was closely aligned with the seasons of nature, would knock on the wood of their barn doors after their teams had been fed and bedded down for the night. This rap was believed to summon protective spirits to keep any evil from befalling the stock and stored feed and bedding. It was considered a good luck ritual.
To this day, when people hope for continued good fortune, they often “knock wood.”
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