Barn again

Helena Flats farm's history is preserved as century-old structure is given new life

Neighbors Rod McIver and Helen Barnard share a love for an old barn peeking out from the trees on Rose Crossing.

"It looks like Old McDonald's barn," McIver said with a laugh.

Until recently, the barn seemed doomed. Its roof had rotted and the structure leaned precariously. But with former owner Barnard cheering him on, new owner McIver has revived the structure that was built by Axel Peterson in 1892.

For Barnard, the old farmstead represents more than a vestige of history nearly swallowed up by subdivisions. It's a memorial to the love she shared with her late husband and to his family's way of life.

"It was all farming way back then you know," Barnard said as she surveyed the looming barn from her driveway.

She has spent nearly 30 years on the property just west of Helena Flats School. After her husband, Harry, died on Christmas Eve of 1990, she struggled to keep the 25 acres she inherited.

"The taxes got so blessed high that I rented the house out and used that to pay the taxes," she said.

When the taxes rose by $2,000 in 1996, Barnard realized she had to sell some land. Luckily, the new owner of the 3-acre piece shared her passion for the barn and the agrarian past it represents.

"I bought the place in 1998," McIver said. "But I was too broke to fix it up."

His new acquisition included a fairly good farmhouse where he now lives. But the other buildings, particularly the barn, had seen much better days.

McIver began slowly repairing the buildings in the fall of 1998.

"I live a sort of disorganized life," he said. "It's been a slow pull."

A Southerner by birth, McIver had spent the last 20 years in Missoula. He was a smoke jumper for 10 years until an injury ended his career. Luckily, he had other skills, including canoe building and tree surgery, to support himself.

He envisions using the barn and other buildings on the farm for his canoe crafting.

McIver jokes that he has been spared the burden of money. Instead, he accumulated a wealth of friends and ingenuity to help him save the farmstead.

At first, his friends failed to see any value or beauty in the old buckling barn. They advised him to burn it.

"But I stubbornly persisted," he said.

McIver knew little about barn-building when he tackled the project. But with the help of friends who knew a lot, he pulled the building back from oblivion with chains and bracing.

"This summer I put a foundation under half the building," he said.

With the framing stabilized, McIver convinced his smoke-jumper friends to mount the ladder-like roof structure. Those with a fear of heights handle carpentry on the ground.

McIver acquired the lumber for the project by cutting up timber for other people with his portable sawmill. Instead of cash, he took a share of the lumber.

Originally, he estimated he would get the work completed, including a new metal roof, for about $5,000.

"Now, I think I'm going to slip in under $10,000," he said. "That's if you don't put any value on my (or his friends') labor."

Barnard, now in her 80s, appreciates every nail hammered by McIver and his friends.

"Now and then I get rambunctious and cook up some chili or chicken soup and bring it over," she said.

Slowly, the old barn has begun to resemble the sturdy building as seen in one of Barnard's old photographs, the structure brimming with hay while Harry Barnard stands in the foreground.

"Harry was 7 and his sister was 4 when they came here," she recalled.

The family moved to the valley from Sunburst where his father had worked in the oil fields. They purchased a quarter section of land with the house and barn to begin their new life.

"Grandpa (Raymond Barnard) built a granary," Barnard said. "They ground wheat, barley and oats."

The family also raised some hogs for income while Harry's mother tended a huge garden. On Friday evenings, Harry and his sister headed for the garden to pull carrots, radishes and onions for market the next day.

"Grandma (Florence Barnard) belonged to the local farmer's ladies market," she said.

According to family lore, Florence sold copious amounts of vegetables along with squash pies at the market.

Barnard joined the family tree in the mid 1970s.

"I never had the pleasure of meeting Grandpa and Grandma," she said with a smile.

But she continued Florence's tradition of a large garden, installing her own sub-irrigation system which employed a burlap sack. She also processed up to 500 cans of vegetables from the yearly harvest.

"I like to cook and can," she said. "That's no chore for me."

Although Harry Barnard worked for the county road department, the couple still farmed the land and raised some cows. Helen Barnard laughed as she recalled driving the old Farmall Tractor and helping her husband buck bales that ended up in the old barn.

Though she has lost Harry, thanks to McIver and friends Barnard has a barn full of memories just outside her door.

On a walking tour, Barnard explained how a horse provided the power for a pulley system that once hoisted loose hay up into the barn's loft off a skid.

She pointed out the area between the north and south stable that served as the feed alley for the livestock in the barn.

"I had a lot of fun out here," she said with a smile. "It was a lot of hard work but that never hurt anyone."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.