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49 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, December 9, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 28, 2004 The old barn on Hanley Farm is being restored using hand-hewn beams. The final beam will be put in place Sunday. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Beams and blisters — down on the farm By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune The first barn-raising at the old Hanley place in more than a century will be celebrated this weekend after more than a year of coordination and the kind of good old-fashioned hard work that puts blisters on top of blisters. The event won’t be a barn ‘raising,’ in the sense that early farmers might have had — the kind when a barn took months to build and the whole community pitched in — but Southern Oregon Historic Society Executive Director John Enders said it will be as close as it gets for the new millennium. Built in 1854, the historic barn has been under restoration since November. The final hand-hewn beam will be raised into place on Sunday by volunteers for the project from the Southern Oregon Draft and Harness Association. The 60-by-50-foot structure was restored thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Jeld-Wen Foundation. The grant was used to hire a professional restoration firm to train volunteers in traditional construction methods using old-fashioned tools and pioneer-style determination. Advertisement Enders said each of almost two-dozen volunteers put 100 hours or more into the project, which consisted primarily of four large beams and two support beams created from raw timber. "Those early settlers worked a lot harder than we’re used to," said Enders with a laugh. "One beam is hundreds of hours of work. To turn a round log into a square beam is no small task. It’s just amazing what they’ve done out there." The oldest of two barns at the Hanley Farm, and possibly the oldest in Jackson County, the structure was originally located along Hanley Road until around 1910 when the arrival of the automobile to Southern Oregon created too much ‘racket’ for farm animals. Restoration followed the same style of construction the barn was originally built with — a post-and-beam structural system with mortise and tenon joints. Volunteer John Casad of Talent, who volunteered his time for a love of history and working with wood, said it was an eye opener to learn how things were built before modern power tools and easy access to hardware. "It was fun to see the workmanship done back then and bring the old barn back to a standard where it can be enjoyed by everyone," he said, adding that the experience was as much about physical labor as about learning. "I’m sure a few people got sore spots and blisters," said Casad. Hanley Farm maintenance supervisor Steve Gordon, who also spent more than 100 hours on the restoration, said there was a certain respect to be had for the way pioneers got things done. "Over a two-week class, we did one beam, just to take it from looking like a tree down to something square," said Gordon. "Back when they still built things like that, it was a community effort. Everybody got together and they did barn-building. When they finished, they went on to somebody else. I can see things weren’t done in a month back then." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities