There's More To A Barnyard

                                             By Gary Bryant

           If you're looking for a break from garage sales  
     and shopping malls, take a ride into farm country. No  
     matter where you live in America, somebody somewhere  
     has a farm.  
     
           And what do farms have to do with  classified ads? 
     I'm glad you  asked. From farms comes the very milk of 
     the connoisseur second time shopper.  Farms yield forth 
     fruits and vegetables,  little bunnies and big Rhode Island 
     Reds.  The American  family farm spews forth tons of hay,  
     pre-kitchen  cattle, a veritable cacophony from the mouths 
     of cute  kittens.  Ah yes, the American farm, and what do we  
     treasure more than all of this? A lot of neat old farm junk.

          My uncle's farm gave me the first clue. Before my uncle 
     had his farm, my uncle's father had it, and his  father before 
     him.  So what? You may very well ask? So  what indeed!  A 
     rare view behind the barn of my uncle's farm revealed almost 
     two hundred years of accumulated neat junk!  

          He had an actual horse drawn sleigh minus the horses 
     sitting out there in the barnyard. A  nearly comlete nineteen 
     twenty-one Ford kept it  company.  Just inside the door of 
     the barn hung an  assortment of horse tack and hand tools, 
     lanterns and  lights.

          After that visit, I began to notice barns  and their 
     yards more often.  I soon lost my timidity and began stopping 
     to chat with farmers as they sat on their mowers.  I talked 
     about the '47 Chevy being choked by weeds just a few  feet away.  
     I actually bought a two-man saw one fellow  had hanging from a 
     nail in a tree by his driveway!  Oh sure, farms produce beef, 
     grain, produce and  poultry, but let's not forget the real value 
     of  farming...neat old stuff!