Seen around Henry County

Before we left Will's... a few pictures...

Bison on pasture down the road.

Will and his Ford Fairlane

1957 Ford Fairlane

We went for a drive...

I was getting wind-blown!

I had been intrigued by these barns with cupolas on top...

They were on several different barns.

I had heard that they were for decorative purposes, but... I have a hard time thinking that farmers do **anything** purely for decorative purposes. I found this article:
https://madisonbarns.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/what-is-a-cupola-and-why-do-barns-have-them/
which indicates:

Why do barns need cupolas?

As noted by Thomas Durant Visser in his excellent Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, to reduce the amount of feed required by the animals during the winter, some farmers recommended that barns should be built with battens nailed over the cracks between the sheathing boards to reduce drafts, while others covered their barn walls with wooden shingles or clapboards. But farmers soon found that tight barns could lead to problems.

As one farmer observed in 1852: The breath from cattle, together with the vapor arising from the manure, which defies all attempts to keep it below the floor if the cellar is warm, covers, not only the floor over the cellar, but the beams, and the whole underside of the roof, with pearly trickling drops for weeks together during the winter. If the doors are thrown open in order to evaporate this moisture, you lose the benefits you have been seeking in making a tight barn, by reducing the temperature so much that cattle require more food, while the effect is to reduce the flow of milk in the cows. . . . Many large and valuable barns have been very much damaged by being placed over a manure cellar without proper ventilation.

To remedy this problem, farmers began installing ventilators, known in New England as cupolas, over an opening left in the center of the top of the barn.  The first ventilators were simple wooden louvered boxes with gable roofs, mounted near the ridge of the barn.

 That makes more sense to me!

Phoenix came out to tell us goodbye...

Will says that Phoenix isn't very smart, but I think he is sweet!

We sure enjoyed our visit with Will and Phoenix!