Dayton Idaho

Dayton Idaho at Sunset. It is a lovely place.

I love this barn. It is huge and magnificant. There was large dog barking at me all the while I was taking photos... but I would go back just to see this old barn again.

My brother Rick recently sent an internet message about Old Barns and People... it read...

"A stranger came by the other day with an offer that set me to thinking. He wanted to buy the old barn that sits out by the highway. I told him right off he was crazy... He was a city type, you could tell by his clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked.

He said he was driving by and saw that beautiful barn sitting out in the tall grass and wanted to know if it was for sale. I told him he had a funny idea of beauty.

Sure, it was a handsome building in its day. But then, there's been a lot of winters pass with their snow and ice and howling wind. The summer sun's beat down on that barn till all the paint's gone, and the wood has turned silver gray. Now the old building leans a good deal, looking kind of tired. Yet, that fellow called it beautiful...

That set me to thinking. I walked out to the field and just stood there, gazing at that old barn. The stranger said he planned to use the lumber to line the walls of his den in a new country home he's building down the road. He said you couldn't get paint that beautiful. Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun, only that can produce beautiful barn wood.

It came to me then.. We're a lot like that, you and I. Only it's on the inside that the beauty grows with us. Sure we turn silver gray too... and lean a bit more than we did when we were young and full of sap. The dry spells and the stormy seasons do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce. And to think how often folks holler because they want life easy!

They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify a rich man's house. And I recon someday you and I'll be hauled off to take on whatever chores that are waiting for us on the Great Sky Ranch.

And I suspect we'll be more beautiful then for the seasons we've been through here... and just maybe even add a bit of beauty to our memories. May there be peace within you today. And I do sincerely thank my wonderful friends and family who care about me even though I show signs of weathering!"

Look for the beauty and good in people and things and you will find it. "Some people no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty-- they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. " --Martin Buxbeum

My husband was an Airforce Pilot. He flew B-24's out of Italy, and C-124's during the Korean War, and was in a Command Post during the Viet Nam War. During his life-time he flew over 4 Million miles. He told me he can read the sky like a map. He loved these cirrus clouds... he said they were "text book" and asked me to take a picture of the sky. I see a huge heart. This ended our lovely trip to southern Idaho.