Lancaster Barnyard

Lancaster County in Pennsylvania has so many huge barn complexes.  This is one we saw last October, and again these are drive-by shots.

Another view of the barns, around to the right from the shot above.

A few cropped images....

....and a shot showing the overall barnyard through the bushes along the road.

This scene seemed to cry out for a sepia image, taking us back a bit in time.

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm!

Meet Me At Veronica's

A Cruise on the River

One of the favorite tourist attractions in Fairbanks is the Riverboat Discovery.  The three-hour cruise is down the Chena River to the Tanana River and includes a stop at a recreation of a Native village, and features life along the river with a fish camp, fish wheel, dog teams, and a bush pilot.  Those tours are on the Discovery III, which was built in 1987 and is 156-feet long and carries 900 passengers.  The picture below is from a tour we took several years ago.

We went to the dock Saturday evening for a cruise on the river, but we walked past the Discovery III which was tied up for the day.... 

....and boarded the smaller Discovery II for a wedding reception.  The Discovery II is mainly used for special charters such as we were on, and is 116 feet long and will carry 400 passengers.  It was built on the hull of the freighter Yutana and put into service in 1971.

It had been rainy for several days and although it was still overcast the rain held off for a pleasant two-hour evening cruise down the Chena River.  We passed the Discovery III as we made our way downriver. 

Even with the overcast skies there were still some beautiful scenes on the river.

The cruise took us down the clear water of the spring-fed Chena River to where it flows into the Tanana River, which is much larger and full of glacial silt.  

The mixing of the clear and silty water is very apparent and here the boat turns around and heads back up the Chena River.

There are many houses along the river, but my favorite is the one that looked like it was ready to take a cruise on the river.

We met the Tanana Chief on its dinner cruise.  Everyone looked to be having a good time.

Tied up along the bank is the Riverboat Discovery I, which was built by Jim Binkley in his backyard and put into service in the tour business in 1955.  It's 65-feet and carries 150 passengers.

We passed the Pump House Restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat since it's close to our house.  On a sunny evening the deck would be full, but on this cool rainy day everyone chose to eat inside.  It's always interesting to see a place from the opposite viewpoint from which you usually see it.

Riding a riverboat with a paddle wheel behind always seems to carry you back a bit in time.  The riverboats were an important part of Alaska's history, and the reason Fairbanks is where it is today.  But that's a story for another day....

Building the Barn

Creamer's Dairy modernized its operations in 1938 by constructing the larger of the two Iowa-type barns.  It was designed by the Louden Machinery Company of Iowa and built by an Anchorage contractor for $13,700.  It featured a Gothic-arch roof and measured 110 feet long and 36 feet wide.

Its hayloft could hold 165 tons of hay, enough to feed 55 cows through the long winter months in Fairbanks.  Its modern design featured a bottling plant and low pressure steam heated blower units and exhaust fans to keep the cows warm and dry in the winter.  Sawdust was used as insulation in the foot-thick walls.  The body heat from the cows actually heated the barns sufficiently in the winter.  A cart on an overhead track carried the manure from throughout the entire barn out a side door 80 feet where it was dumped to be later spread in the fields.  Grain in the manure as well as leftovers from the previous fall's harvest began drawing the annual migration of waterfowl to Creamer's Field.  The barns and farm buildings are now part of the Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge.  Inside the old farmhouse is the visitors center, and there you can find out information about the wildlife in the Refuge as well as the history of the dairy.  A model of the barn shows details of its construction. 

The photo below was taken in 1938 during the construction of the barn. 

The Louden Machinery Company had catalogs from which you could order barn plans, along with a lot of other farm equipment.  The page below is from their 1915 catalog and shows a similar barn to the one built by Creamer's Dairy.

The Creamer's Dairy buildings were admitted to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1977 and were purchased by the state of Alaska in 1982.  Heavy snows in 1991 and 1993 caused structural damage to the barns at Creamer's Field.  In 1998 funds were obtained to renovate the barns with the repairs for both barns estimated to cost $498,000.  The photo below showing the inside of the barn was published in our local newspaper in 1998 and the renovations were done in 1999. 

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Click on the barn below to go to Tricia's Barn Charm to see more old barns.

Lunch

Yellow Warbler, July 20, 2012, Creamer's Field

Daisy Bouquet

I have many daisies growing in my garden, from the daisies that grow in my wildflower garden and come back each year....

.....to daisies of many colors that I buy to plant in my containers.

Their natural beauty is very appealing, but they also make good subjects for a little editing.

One thing is certain, if you grow daisies you can always be assured of happy faces in your garden!