My father (Kenneth Myer) was a barn whitewasher in the early 1970s. My brother, Ken, helped dad by cleaning the windows with water and a squeegee. I was looking through a book regarding barns of Wisconsin when this subheading caught my eye. Whitewashing... Inside the typical Wisconsin barn, little if anything was added that might be called decorative, unless whitewash on the stable walls could be called a decoration. It was common to whitewash the stable walls and ceiling as a way of increasing the available light and adding to the feeling of cleanliness. In most of the old barns, floor joists for the barn floor above were exposed. The cracks and crevices made an excellent place for spiders to spin their webs, as they did in abundance. The spider webs naturally caught any dust in the air. And in a dairy barn, dust was more usual than unusual, particularly during the winter months, when dry hay was fed to the cattle. After a winter of spider webs and dust, the ceiling became quite dirty. So, usually in the spring, the farmer and his children cut willow branches, tied handkerchiefs around their necks, and brushed down the dirty cobwebs some warm day after the cattle had been turned out whitewashing. Many farmers owned a whitewash pump, a simple device that pumped like an ordinary water pump and fit within a wooden barrel. In the barrel the farmer mixed the whitewash, made of slaked lime and water. While the water was poured into the barrel, the mixture was constantly stirred. Heat was given off in the process. If the farmer chose to pain the whitewash mixture onto the walls, he mixed the whitewash so it was rather thick and would stick to a broom or a large brush. This was more often done with barnyard fences than with barns, however. It took a long time to paint whitewash o the exposed floor joists of the stable ceiling. Once the mixture was prepared in the barrel, one of the farmer’s children or his wife worked the handle of the pump while the farmer sprayed the whitewash mixture on the walls and ceiling of the stable. Within a few minutes, the farmer was as white as the surface he was spraying. When the whitewashing was finished, the inside of the barn was a striking white, and it smelled fresh and clean. The whitewash also discouraged spiders from returning for some time, and the barn remained sparkling for many weeks. With the advent of insecticides, certain chemicals were mixed with the whitewash, further discouraging spiders from spinning webs in the ceiling. In some neighborhoods a custom whitewasher came by and for a few dollars sprayed the inside of the barn with whitewash. He also helped sweep down the cobwebs and helped make the stable ready for whitewashing. The custom whitewasher’s sprayer was powered by a gasoline engine, eliminating the job of working the pump by hand. Though the main reason the farmer whitewashed the stable of his barn was to make it brighter and more sanitary, a newly whitewashed cow barn was undeniably pleasing to see and to smell. In a very few instances farmers painted the insides of their barns. This was clearly an exception, usually seen only in barns owned by the so called rich farmers or by thos who, for one reason or another, wanted their barns to be showplaces. Barns of Wisconsin, Jerry Apps
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:27:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015