Why are barns red?

Did you ever wonder why most barns are red? I did, so I went to my favorite source - Google. I found this in the Farmers Almanac:

Many years ago, choices for paints, sealers and other building materials did not exist. Farmers had to be resourceful in finding or making a paint that would protect and seal the wood on their barns. Hundreds of years ago, many farmers would seal their barns with linseed oil, which is an orange-colored oil derived from the seeds of the flax plant. To this oil, they would add a variety of things, most often milk and lime, but also ferrous oxide, or rust. Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color.

When paint became more available, many people chose red paint for their barns in honor of tradition.

You learn something new every day.

There's never a dull moment at the Farm. We had ordered 100 chicks that were shipped from Missouri on Monday. I called the post office Wednesday morning because they should have been here. I called the post office Wednesday at noon. I called the post office Wednesday at 4:00. No chickies. Thursday, Marvin got a phone call from the Malibu post office. They had somehow mixed up the shipping and billing addresses and sent them 200 miles away! I called the hatchery and explained the problem. They contacted the post office and told them to give them away to whomever wanted them. Forty minutes later, they all had new homes. The hatchery will resend them to us next Monday. I'm sure that all those new families are thrilled to get free chickens. I hope they are still thrilled when they find out that they are all roosters!

Marvin has been taking bee keeping classes. With all of the trees and vegetables, we need plenty of bees to pollinate. He picked up our first 150,000 bees on Thursday. He looks so darn cute in his bee keepers suit (but don't tell him I said so). He makes up a feed of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water - boil it, cool it, and add a tiny bit of peppermint extract. This goes into feeders that hold canning jars. He also sprinkles powdered sugar for them.

We went to San Miguel last night for the Lions Club fish fry. They hold them every Friday during lent. We kept trying to go, but only were able to make the last one. Wonderful, wonderful fish, fries, cole slaw and ice cream cups and an opportunity to see many of the "old timers" in the area. The bad thing is realizing that I'm becoming one of the old timers!

We had gone by the feed store on our way to dinner to pick up bags of chicken and pig feed. Ben and Angel must have been bored during the night. We had unloaded my Tahoe when we got home. Since it was late, we just left the bags in a pile by the door to the barn. When I got up this morning, they had pulled a 50# bag of feed clear across the barnyard. Fortunately, they left in intact.

My sister and I are going to go to Santa Cruz this next week and pick up the rest of our olive trees. The freight is very expensive and I love any excuse to go on a road trip.

The cute couple on horses are our daughter Meghan and our soon-to-be-son-in-law, Travis.

Have a great Easter!