Just exactly what constitutes a barn? At one time there was a fairly clear distinction between barns and other outbuildings, but in today’s usage, a barn can be just about any outbuilding, from a simple storage shed, to a much more complex multi-use facility.
In the past, a barn was an agricultural building used for housing animals, storing grain, feed, and hay, and for storing tac, and equipment. They were often used for work during in-climate weather. Today, we often use several buildings to perform the same functions.
We may use a garage or carport to house our transportation, we may have another outdoor storage building or storage shed to keep lawn and garden equipment safe, and we may have a separate workshop for working in bad weather. We may even have a separate building for storing animal feed, these days usually for dogs and cats.
Even in rural areas where an agricultural barn is still needed, many of the former functions are farmed out to other buildings.
Barn notes:
A mini barn is substantially just that, a mini, or miniature barn. It is pretty much just a storage shed used as a barn. There might be some difference, but essentially they are the same. If you want to use your mini barn, or storage shed for actual livestock, it would probably be best to have one built without a floor, or on a slab.
Post-frame structures, or pole barns as they are often called, are versatile structures, which can be simple sheds with flat roofs or large complex buildings suited for living quarters. Holes are dug into the ground and posts inserted to allow for the building of a frame. Such structures are very strong because of the building method.
In much of Europe and early America barns were constructed in much the same way as other structures using the timber frame method. This involved setting a foundation, and raising a timber skeleton of the building and then covering the structure with planks. Spaces between the main supports were sometimes filled in with the equivalent of modern studs. The number of studs was usually determined by the importance of what the building housed.
Log barns were another common type of barn building. It used many resources, but in the early days of our country, trees were an abundant resource in much of the new territory and an obstacle to farming.
Post-frame structures or pole barns as they are often called are a more modern type of barn. They have existed in one form or another for hundreds of years, but today the types of materials used, and the methods employed make them a popular and reliable form of barn structures.
There are many methods used for barn building, but most of them fall into one or the other of the above-mentioned categories. Even steel framed structures set on a foundation, or on top of the ground are basically using the same methods as timber frame construction.
Escaped cattle brought by the Spaniards into countries south of the U.S. border and escaped cattle brought into America by European settlers met in the area we now know as Texas. They created a unique breed of cattle, and their presence created a unique breed of men who made a living gathering these cows and driving them to market. The cowboy. It lasted for about a century in it’s initial form, and the vestiges of this culture live on today in the people known as Texans.
Gradually, over many years, settlers came to stay. They built ranches and farms, dug wells, built barns and houses, usually in that order, and the often difficult and dangerous place known as Texas was settled, as much as you can settle such a place. In truth, the land settled the people as much as the people settled the land.
The settling of the land required a place to protect the settlers, supplies, and domestic animals from often hostile outside forces. In such cases, barns were often the first structures to be built. "Build your barn, and let your barn build your house", was a common proverb among settlers throughout the new world.
The early barns built in Texas were similar to the barns built everywhere else. They were assembled of the materials at hand which varied from sod to logs, and from stone to mud. Over time many developed characteristics unique to the new environment.
Texas developed into more than just a farm and ranch powerhouse, fuel oil and natural gas production drove the economy forward, lakes were built as reservoirs on an unprecedented scale to meet the water needs of our growing population, and fueling an enormous tourist fishing trade, and technology now produces jobs and growth in the same places where the longhorns once roamed.
Most modern barns are made of steel, or at the very least, covered with steel. For information on metal barns and how to find the right one for you by getting a free steel barn quote click here.
Barns in Texas today still provide some of the same services as their predecessors. Farming and ranching in Texas still thrive, and new agricultural buildings are being built every day. Many of the older barns that once provided service as homes and for agriculture have been preserved in their natural state. Many more have become homes. Today, barns are rarely the multifunctional buildings of the past, they are far more likely to be built as separate units for each function. Large buildings for storing hay or other agriculture produce, mid-sized buildings for equipment, run-in sheds for animals, and a variety of small barns serve other purposes around the home, the farm, and the ranch.
There was a time when Texas had a distinct barns style, and that style was quite similar to the small portable barn pictured on this page. The layout was not for visual effect, each part had a specific purpose, in many cases, it included a double loft. One side was often used for feeding cattle or horses, or in some cases, milking dairy cows, the other sometimes served as a poultry house or similar purposes.
When was a child, I was lucky enough to have lived on 2 properties where 2 of these old cathedrals to agriculture from earlier days were present. One was a log structure with rough-hewn, flat logs, and the other was a timber frame structure of similar design, well built and solid. One we used much as it had been used the century before, the other was left unused, and became my home away from home, and personal playground, and fueled a life long interest in construction techniques. As children, we would take our western-style cap pistols and reenact the old western movies and TV shows that were so popular during that era in and around them. A practice that seems to be frowned upon in todays more sophisticated culture. The western movie has all but disappeared from the screen these days, and these old barns have seen their better days, and at least one has been torn down to make way for a sleeker modern, and more practical model.
As a preteen and teenager, barns began to have a slightly more practical symbolism. They were the places where we stacked the hay in the days before it was rolled and hauled by tractor and trailer. Thank heavens for mechanization, but it did take away the summer jobs of a lot of young men around the country used that few cents a bale they made by hauling and stacking for extra cash. Overall, it was an improvement for everyone. My most vivid memory of a barn during that period of my life was waking up in the hayloft with vomit all over me after having passed out from heat exhaustion. Not nearly as pleasant as the earlier childhood memories!
There were pleasant memories from my older teen years that involved hay barns, but none that I can tell you about on this site. Let's just say that a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
Barns play many important roles in the world of rural agriculture, and for that reason, they are important to everyone. Everyone has to eat, and it is a good bet that a barn played at least a small part in the production of what you had for dinner!