Wow! We’re just a few days away from our barn sale and we could not have imagined we would have so many great items available. After being together for 27 years, I guess Dave and I have accumulated quite a bit.
Dave’s sister, Darlene, and I cooked up this crazy idea back in May and we’ve been on a mission ever since. Between digging through all of our barns, and hitting many, many sales and auctions over the summer, the collection has grown to nothing less than amazing.
Once we recruited Dave to start making things from old materials, this event went to a whole new level. His creative and mechanical mind has “upcycled” barn wood and beams, as well as farm hardware, into functional pieces of art. We hope these pieces will make it to owners that appreciate farm history and will be pleased to know that the wood came from a local barn.
It’s not hard to drive around our community or state and see many old barns that have fallen into disrepair. Many of us drive by without giving it another thought, but others use their time and resources to save these old barns — not a small task. Barn wood seems to be extremely popular right now, but keep in mind that demand is high and resources are low. Once these old barns fall down or burn, that wood is gone.
For every item we’ve made from wood or beams, we didn’t magically “find” the wood. We’ve taken several old barns down (even built special hand tools to do the job) in order to salvage the material, and that’s only if the barn couldn’t be saved. It’s been a labor of love but just know that it has been labor. Our prices are fair, but we’re not givin’ shit away either! The price point isn’t necessarily the main point, but creativity, hard work and HISTORY are the key points.
We love to watch American Pickers, Barnwood Builders, Fixer Upper, Salvage Dogs and all those other great programs. They’ve inspired us to look for things that need saving — things that were made in America by craftsman who didn’t buy power tools made in China. Dave and I have had a great time together this summer hunting for treasures and designing projects we think others will love as much as we do. We’ve found a hobby we enjoy together (now that we have an empty nest) and we hope this builds up into a small business we can enjoy in our retirement years.
So as we enter the last few days to set up for the sale, it’s getting a little stressful. What if it rains? What if no one comes? What if no one likes or buys anything? Well last night as we both stood there, drinking a beer and just staring at all the stuff, Dave summed it up perfectly.
“This has been so much frikin’ fun.”
See you soon — hopefully this Saturday, October 1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Chip & Joanna (I mean Dave & Mel)
XOXO
Kauffman Family Farm 