Sunday, April 12, 2009

Seeing red

Sunday stills

Before I start I want to add something about barns since there are old barns in my pictures. Traditionally farmers used linseed oil to seal the wood of the barn. This would turn the wood an orange hue. Unfortunately this would not keep mould, moss, fungus or moisture from getting into the wood and the barns would have a short life span. This is where the real red tinge came into play. Farmers would add ferrous oxide (aka rust) to the oil mixture. When it dried it would give a rich reddish orange hue to the wood and protect it more than just the oil.
After red became the traditional colour wealthy farmers would add blood to the oil mixture after a big slaughter and it would dry a burnt red colour.
Once paint became cheaper to seal wood with the fire engine red became typical to see.
Dairy farms came around and white washing was cheaper yet.

There you have it, a history of red!!!

This Sunday stills was easy. Finding the time wasn't. I do however have an abundance of red things around. I could have gone on all day to photograph tons of things. Red truck, red tack trunk, red carriage, red four wheeler of the neighbors zooming up and down the lane. The list goes on.


Red halter

The red Canadian stop sign

Red grain buckets

Red Konk lid


White...err mud horse, red barn. I think shes trying to use horsey eye and ear language to say "Put down the evil bright light device and feed me already!"
Red barn
Red barn(s) The two in the front of the picture used to be about 200 meters or so back in the field. Don't quote me on it but I believe they are about 150 years old, maybe older. They were moved up closer to the road in the 70's and added on to.

This is the front of the barn. This used to swing down(the section there with the boards a little shorter than the others) and that little hole at the peak is where a pulley would be. Hay would have been loaded onto a wagon, pulled by a team of drafts and then hauled up into the big hayloft. The pulley system is still there in the loft but I wouldn't want to use it anytime soon.

RED RUM!!! RED RUM!!*Cue Stephen king* ok, just testing.

Red rock! This one is in the garden by the barn door. We have a big slab of rock under the farm right where the paddocks are so every spring rocks surface. We can pick them up every year and they just pop back up in the spring. Good for keeping the horses feet hard.

Enjoy. Have a happy easter.

14 comments:

Ed said...

Very nice, love the horse in front of the red barn..:-)

CTG Ponies said...

Love the barns!

VioletSky said...

I don't get to see many barns - so I always enjoy the view when I can. Old barns, especially, have a certain appeal and character to them.

WhimsybyMari said...

Barns always have such character I love seeing them.

Andrea said...

Love the old red barns! :) Great shots!

Jen Mo said...

I like your stop eh! sign the best! Cracked me up!!!

Unknown said...

Thanks all for the comments. Old barns are great, even though this one has been painted a few times.

Pony Girl said...

Great shots! I loved this theme. It's been fun to see what everyone came up with. I liked the Red Rum line, hee hee! That movie was freaky. Only saw it once....that was plenty!

J9 said...

My favorite is the white horse in front of the red barn!

Paint Girl said...

The stop sign got a good laugh out of me, I had to show it to my OH!
The red barns are pretty neat too.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget red was also the Scarlet letter..:-)

Anonymous said...

Love the barn shots. I feel a barn challenge coming on. :)

Kelly said...

Great photos and the history lesson was great too!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Totally great Sunday Stills photos! I enjoyed the red barn history, too. The blood part was rather macabre, though. Who knew!
I'm glad we use real paint now. lol!

~Lisa

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