Old barn still having heyday

Barn back in action

The Hanson barn in central Iowa was a featured stop on the Iowa Barn Foundation All-State Tour, September 15-16, 2012. Once called a "horse barn," the two-story feed and livestock barn is more than a hundred years old.

Stabilizing the structure

A key to the barn's rehabilitation was to stabilize the walls and pull the barn back together, using seven 3/4-inch rodsets.

Mortise and tenon

The barn features wooden pegs and mortise and tenon joints. The hand-hewn support posts are thought to be borrowed from another structure from the 1880s.

A barn saver

Margaret Van Ginkel and her sister, Nola, grew up on the farm that's home to the Hanson barn. Other work they've supervised: a new roof; door and window repair; additional roof support; and painting.

Barn full of history

The family is using the barn to display implements and tools from the farm's and area's history.

What's this tool?

Hint: It's used with a crop that's better known in another I state.

An old chick incubator now doubles as a display shelf for a barn history display.

Around the farmstead

Among several other historic items is this silo, built in 1942 and converted into a grain bin after being damaged by a tornado in the 1960s.

Once a home

This "truck shed," another restoration on the farmstead, was once the home of the first farmers on place.