A Barn is A Barn but...A Round Barn....

 One of our favorite things to do is explore the Palouse farm country through the back roads of Eastern Washington where we live.

On Memorial Day we took a drive on State Highway 23 a 66 mile stretch through high desert country and the rolling hills of the Palouse.

I was so excited to see this round barn  on a neat farm not too far From St. John Washington.

This barn was built in another era but is in relatively good condition. From our vantage point we could not see its flaws, just the charm one experiences dreaming of simpler times.

Many barns along these country roads have not fared so well. The paint is gone and the roofs are falling from the center of the structure. It is a sad sight no matter the story. I think of the young families who built their homes and farmed the land. What was their story? How did they get to this land and what happened that has left no trace of their dreams other than the broken boards of a dilapidated frame.  Our area is rich with history. The beauty is such that I appreciate it so much more than when I was a child in the back of a station wagon wondering when we would get wherever we were going because I was getting car sick on those old two lane roads before the Freeways of today.

My father-in-law was a lineman for Pacific Northwest Bell after WWII and worked throughout the area adding poles and lines for our precious land lines. He has told of other round barns, he thought there were about three. I am on the lookout for the other two from this day forward! What stories these rounded walls could tell!