The barn was so much a part of life on the dairy that it was taken for granted. Every day’s activities began early as Holstein cows lined up outside the barn to be milked.
There was a brief quiet time in the middle of the day. By 4 PM spotted cows were standing quietly waiting for the afternoon milking to begin. They lined up on the walkway east of the barn. They stood in the same order day after day. It was a mystery how they knew and remembered their place.
The barn had a tired look as if too much life and work had passed through its doors. It was gray, gray siding, gray shingled roof.
It faced south. Summer breezes passed through screened openings. Hinged flaps were dropped down in winter months. The other walls were solid with doors on the east and west.
There were eight stanchions inside, four on each side of steps up to a walkway behind them used for filling the feed boxes.
More steps led to the feed room at the back where feed was stored. There was a large square mixing box in the center.
A center door on the south opened onto a covered breezeway leading to the milk house.
A large mesquite stump sat like a large stool in front of one of the screen openings. The top was worn smooth by years of bodies sliding on and off as someone visited with my dad as he moved and adjusted the milking machines.
It is all gone now. As I stand looking toward the barn site, I can visualize how it once was. Now what I see is a row of houses.
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2 responses to “The DAIRY BARN”
My brothers and I as well as visions spent many happy hours as kids playing in that barn. We even fed the cows sometimes and followed them in the pasture.
My time was mostly spent in the milk house…washing the glass milk bottles and also bottling the milk.