The Grain Room

This is my grain room. Remember, this farm used to support 100 cows. There are three huge silos which held everything from silage to haylage (pickled hay, I am told) and corn, along with other grains in huge metal feeders. They are empty now, as much of the land was sold off before I got here, and there will never be that many animals to feed here. I like the agricultural, architectural statement they make. I read about wealthy people having silos like mine transported to their new country homes to be turned into libraries, aviaries and the like. At my age with my bad knees and chest pains I will never get this farm going the way it was. If I was young and wealthy, maybe...but now I plan on scaling down from what I am doing now to spend more time with my grandchildren. I am missing too much of their childhood, and I can't see my son moving east, as he bought a plane and loves the wide open skies out there. One legacy of the big cow herd days I am taking advantage of is the grain room. It is a wooden fortress in the upstairs hay mow where the grain company augers or blows in grain. It waits there until I go upstairs and shovel it into a hole under which my wheelbarrel is waiting. We had to cut down some of the wooden stanchions to make a fence between that wheelbarrow and the sheep. Once I was swept down the barn and the rungs of the wheelbarrel broken as I was mobbed by sheep wanting grain. I used to buy grain in bags and it is much more expensive. I am always hemorraghing money in this business anyway, but the grain room helps stop the bleeding a bit. It's a bit spooky at night, as there is no daylight. I wear my miner's light and take my shoes off. The kitty is not allowed in there and is looking at me because he knows I am going to shoo him out. The Hay Mow Kitties have kept the barn empty of pidgeons and rats, so the grain is safe. In a couple of months the sheep will be on pasture and the grain room will be empty for the summer. My pocketbook and my aching back will say "thank you."