Inside the Barn

The old Desjardins barn has stood about 100 years and is looking remarkably well for being so old.  Earlier posts this week about the barn are HERE and HERE.  Today let's take a peek on the inside.

Lots of daylight shows through the old boards and the metal roof.  For the last several years the barn was used for hay storage, but in preparation for the auction all the remaining hay had been moved outside, except for one bale.  Hard to say what repairs may have been done over the years and what is original.

I don't know what is in store for the barn and the hay pasture, but I hope one of the few early Fairbanks barns that is still standing will be around for many more years.

I am linking up with the Barn Collective at

Tom The Backroads Traveller.

More Reindeer Babies

I posted photos of the reindeer and calves at the University of Alaska Experiment Farm last week, and several people were interested in seeing more up-close photos of the reindeer calves.  I took the first batch of photos last Tuesday, and went back again on Wednesday.  One of the reindeer had her calf right up near the fence, but it was sound asleep and not much more than a lump of brown fur.  Mama had been nudging it a bit as her snout was covered with straw.

Mama looked a bit confused.  I believe the reindeer in this section of the farm are all first-time mamas, so they need a little extra attention.

I had taken the photo below of Mama on Tuesday when she was voicing her opinion about something, but at the time I didn't know what.  Looking closer at the photo I see a lump of brown fur at her feet, and perhaps it was not too long after the baby's birth.  They wait at least 24 hours after the birth to tag the baby's ear to allow for bonding with the mother, and I can't see a tag in any of the photos of this baby.  Perhaps Mama is saying "What do I do now?"


I cropped a few of the photos I took on Tuesday to focus more on the calves.  Click on the photos to enlarge them for a better look.

And another shot of the barn from a different angle and one of the grain storage facility.

The Fairbanks Experiment Farm was established in 1906 to conduct research and promote agriculture in Interior Alaska.  In the past they have grown swine, cattle, sheep, and sled dogs.  They got their first reindeer in 1997, and the research is geared toward the nutrition and production of reindeer.  They are studying the effect of different grains on the diet of the reindeer and the taste of the meat.  The program is the only one of its kind in the world.  Although there are huge numbers of caribou in Alaska, there are relatively few domestic reindeer.

The rest of the reindeer at the farm are in pens across the road.  And, yes, they do spend the winter outside.  There are very few cows grown here and the reindeer are much more suited to our climate.

I am linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #28

and

Eileen's Saturday's Critters #70.

Reindeer Barn

This pretty red barn is on the campus of the University of Alaska at the Experiment Farm.  UAF's Reindeer Research Program is working on the development and promotion of the reindeer industry in Alaska. 

The reindeer herd consists of about 70 adult reindeer.


I've shown this barn before, but it's right in the middle of calving season, so I thought I would post it again.  The first calf was born March 29th, and they expect about 30 to be born this year.  Below are two mamas and their babies.  The babies kind of blend in with the dirt, but you can see one on either side of the fence.

I'm linking with Amy's Barn Collective #27.

Back In Time

There aren't many old barns still standing in Fairbanks, but there is one that was built by Charles Desjardin on the homestead he filed for in 1914.  He grew potatoes, hay, produce, and livestock.  I did a little editing on a photo that I took in July of 2011 to take us back in time. 

The photo below is the same shot before editing.

I've posted photos of the barn before and linked them to Barn Charm, so some of you may remember the barn.  The photo below was taken on January 3rd of 2011.  And yes, that is an old cabin next to the barn.  Winter would have been very long in that small space!

I gave more of the history of the barn in the earlier post, and you can find it HERE.  Be sure and click on the photos to see them larger as I was posting them in a smaller format then.

I'm linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #14.

Creamer's Barns at Solstice

The old farmhouse at Creamer's Field was brightly lit up on December 22nd as the setting sun reflected in its windows.  It was around 2:00, with sunset at 2:45.  We do have long twilight hours though, with an hour of civil twilight after sunset.

A bit further out the barns were still lit by the sun, but not quite as pretty as the farmhouse.

Looking away from the farmhouse and barns the sunset was beautiful.  In the shot below my camera was aimed just a little different from the last shot in this post, and also the photo in the header and the one in my last post.  Although they were all taken within a few minutes of each other, just a little change of perspective can make a dramatic difference.

We get some wonderful sunsets and sunrises this time of year.

I am linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #13.

Creamer's Barns

I've taken a bit of hiatus from blogging, but hopefully I'll be back to my normal routine now and can catch up with everyone soon.  Thursday afternoon when I passed Creamer's Field the sun was shining and most of the fog that had been hanging around the old dairy barns had lifted. 

Our snowfall had been much lower than normal, but early last week we got about six inches of new snow.  It was a welcome sight, and everyone who likes to play in the snow was happy.  Skiers, dog mushers, and snowmachiners finally have enough snow to get out and enjoy the season.  It looks more like a normal winter now!

I'm linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #10.

For a bit of summer color, the photo below is from my garden on July 27, 2012,

and is Index No. 6952 for Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 88.

Creamer's Field Residents

As many of my posts do, this one features the old dairy barns at Creamer's Field.  Today I'm also featuring one of the critters you'll almost always see when you visit there, and you can see them lined up atop the barn in the photo below.

There is a large flock of pigeons who love perching on the barns, and they especially like the cupolas.

The photo below was taken in August of 2013 on a gray day, and I did a little playing with it to brighten it up.

It's my Index No. 7777, which I'm submitting to

Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 84.

I included it in a collage on a post I did in 2013, A Walk Around Creamer's Field, which you can see HERE.


I created another collage with some of the photos of the pigeons I took that same day.

I am linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #7

and

Eileen's Saturday's Critters