builder bob

One of the neat things we did in the Berkshires was go on a hard hat tour of the stone barn at Darrow. The stone barn is a massive structure that was the victim of arson in the 1970s. After years of living next to it but not being allowed in, I was finally given my chance. There is a cool field school through The University of Florida that does traditional building and historical preservation. For the past two summers they've been using the North Family at Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village (where Darrow is - and North Family is where I lived for 6 years) for their field study. Last summer they rebuilt the south wall of the North Family granary. Bob and I learned a ton about the barn and we were in awe of the space and the construction techniques the Shakers used to build it. We both decided that Bob should attend the field school. All of it is right up his alley. It's like a cross between being an engineer and a crafts person. Sound like anybody we know??? I'll post the rest of the pictures on my flickr site soon. There are way too many of the barn to put here, but I can't express enough how impressive it was.