Big Old Barn Up In Center Point

What a great tour I had the other day of the new/old barn that has been erected in the last couple of months on the Dusty Sylver and Mike LeClere acreage on the northwest edge of Center Point, Iowa.

The century old barn near Manchester was torn down in June by Amish workers who drew seven pages of diagrams to help someone reconstruct it. And Dusty and Mike (right), along with Dusty's nephew, Mike Silver (left) of Cedar Rapids, did just that, putting the barn up on a new foundation. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Gazing up at the beams inside the old 36-by-48-foot barn, it's easy to see the old wood and some new wood. Not all of the pieces came down intact or were able to be resused. But, enough of  them were that you can still call it an old barn.

Once completed, this will be a great addition to Dusty and Mike's acreage that includes a 1934 farmhouse, several gardens, a garden shed, a swimming pool and some private recreation trails in woods adjacent to the public Cedar Valley Nature Trail. They will decorate the main floor of the barn in a motorcycle motiff to use for their Harley-Davidson motorcycles while Dusty, who loves to create works in stained glass, will use the loft as a studio.

Originally dubbed "The Bike Barn," the couple will now call it "The Hog Barn," with the double meaning that Hog is also a nickname for Harleys. If you want to know more about the project

click here to read Dustry's blog that includes photographs and a running narrative of the project.