Country Winter #10162

The Story

On a quiet country morning after the snowfall, a small white barn with a wooden fence sits in new white snow. The snow the night before wasn’t but a few inches, but it was enough to whiten the world all over again. The countryside became a scenic place once more. Now this barn roof matches the rest of the place.

The bright morning sun was coming in as strong as it could, and shadows from the nearby power and phone lines went zigging across the slanting roof. The batten-covered walls of the barn have even thicker shadow lines curiously zig-zagging across all those upright vertical lines too. Not surprisingly, it was the visual play of all those straight lines at varying angles that got my attention walking through this barnyard.

Besides being an interesting little farm building, it was that array of lines that prompted me to set up the tripod and shoot right into the corner of this white barn. A nice blue sky with clouds above was the icing on the cake.

This barn hasn’t been used for a little while. You can tell by the lack of hoofprints around it and the gate has been swung open back against the fence. There was another much larger barn close by, so the farming operations might have been condensed there for the winter.

This is also a well-ventilated barn with wide louvers in the walls and large stainless steel rooftop ventilators across the roofline. With some decorative metal trim, these were a little fancier than most metal barn ventilators. Importantly, good airflow inside a barn is crucial to prevent fire with all the hay usually stored inside.

Did you know that hay can spontaneously combust as heat builds up within hay bales? And that a fire in a barn full of hay will be out of control in just seconds? Some studies at Penn State have said eight seconds is enough to lose control to a barn to fire because hay goes up so fast.

More snow barns can be seen in the Winter Barn Gallery!

Location: Schellsburg, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks