Blogs

Discover stories, insights, and technical know-how from barn owners, preservationists, and OBP experts dedicated to keeping Ontario’s barns standing tall.

All things Ontario Barns

A Word of Caution

by John Uren Some words of caution to your readers. It’s easy to assume, as I did, that if the upper barn flooring and the supports underneath look OK, the floor is safe, and can carry a load. Not...

The Return of the Barn Swallows

Excerpts of an email to OBP by member Ted Spearing, edited by Jim Campbell I’m writing back in response to the newsletter and also a previous email concerning barn swallows. We have a wholesale...

Edgemont Barn

Author: Adam Foreman Msc., Museum Collections Manager; Erland Lee (Museum) HomeEditor: Sharifa Riley, Museum Curator; Erland Lee (Museum) Home The Lee family emigrated in 1792 after the end of the...

Hay Trolley

Hay Trolleys in the barn and restored as a collectors piece. by Robert Fleming There are several collectors in south western Ontario who collect and restore hay trolleys, along with documenting...

Drawing provided by Linda Marie Glass Ward (Barn Swallow Carpenter). Edited commentary following provided by: Ted Spearing, OBP Member, in response to Linda Marie Glass Ward’s preceding postings on...

Building a Log Barn in 1840’s Nottawasaga

by Jim Campbell, OBP Vice President, Duntroon. In the early 1900’s my great-great-grandfather, Donald Blair, with only a Grade 3 education, made the effort and took the time to write down memories of...

Barn Swallows, The Shelf That Works

by Linda Marie Glass Ward (Barn Swallow Carpenter). All six species of Ontario Swallows are in decline by 80% or more. They are the Cliff, Tree, Rough Winged, Bank, Barn Swallows, and the Purple...

Barn and Cliff Swallows

by Linda Marie Glass Ward (Barn Swallow Carpenter). In the spring of 2014 my interest in birds gained momentum when my husband and I saw a rare Black-backed Woodpecker in Algonquin Park. The following...

Century-old Film of Early Log Construction

By Jim Campbell, OBP Vice President, Duntroon. Thanks goes to our awesome OBP Administrative Assistant Laura Brown for finding this 1923 silent short film which very nicely illustrates the process...

Barn Owls

by Will Samis, OBP Director, Applehill Farm, Iron Bridge. It’s an old barn to us. but it’s home to them. Less than a handful of bird species are as widely distributed around the world as the Barn Owl...

Barn Records and History

I learned to start snooping around the barns for notes and records and found that they could be in the strangest places. By John Busch, OBP Regional Rep. for Middlesex, Elgin, Chatham-Kent...

The Canada Farmer, 1864

by Diana Macdonald While doing research in The Canada Farmer, a fortnightly news journal printed in Toronto, from 1864 (slowing working my way through each issue), I have found detailed...