This is a barn gutter.
When cows were milked they stood with their back quarters over the gutter so it was easy to clean out. This part of our barn still has a gutter and the goats use it for the same reason. They keep their bedding pretty dry and clean really.
Puppy update:
I do know about them, a very good thing!!
Puppies are looking bigger already, you are such a good “mommy!!!
We have a similar one in our kennel. We had rain most of the day. Tuesday they predict 95. Ugh!!! Dew points in the 70s means I will be in my quilt room.
Oh you bet I know what a gutter is! They always needed to be cleaned out daily, when the cows spent the winter in the barn. Muscle and character builders. Oddly enough, after I went to college I was replaced by a mechanical barn cleaner.
Funny you should mention a gutter, Mary.
I was just in my barn today looking for something and I mentioned to the friend who was with me that this ‘trough’ was called a gutter and explained what it was for!
Have a great Sunday.
Yes, I do know what a barn gutter is. The original barn on the farm where I grew up had one. It was eventually torn down and a new one built in its place without a gutter since it was not used for milking.
Oh yes, I know what a gutter is: I cleaned one out daily growing up on the farm when the cows were inside in the winter. That was ‘character building’ according to my parents!
I am so enjoying all th puppy photos – they look so cute and it is so nice to see them happily and safely exploring the world. I swear they are visibly bigger than when they arrived! You are doing good work there, Mary.
I know what the barn gutter is! When I stayed at Grandma’s in the summers my cousin and I rounded the cows for morning milking, gave them some hay so they were settled then afterwards we had to clean the gutter. Stinky job and not my favorite farm chore but for a kid it was a wonderful experience that all kids should have. I remember telling my sons some stories about staying on the farm and my oldest looked at me and asked why they didn’t get to do some of those things!
The puppies are so sweet and it sure looks like they are a threesome. I hate to see them spit up. They like your farm and look completely at home!
Thank you Mary for all of your farm tales. I didn’t grow up on a farm but was surrounded by them and got to experience that life also. When my neighbors grandchildren came for the summer we spent many an hour in the their barn. Those were the days!
Have a good Sunday.
I grew up with milking cow barns all around us in western NY so those were in each one. There’s a park near us that has several barns for animals that depicts what farm life was like back in the day so it’s there to show school groups and families. Young families today need to appreciate how their food comes to them from all over this country and learn it isn’t grown or produced on their store shelves or Amazon. Maybe then all could understand the food chain and it’s ups and downs. Which reminds me to thank Sue from Oregon for that rhubarb cake recipe. It was wonderful. I now want to grow rhubarb but at my age I guess I am better going to the farm markets to buy it already cut.
Kathy in western NY,
I made the rhubarb recipe too, and it was very good. Took it to a Memorial day dinner and all 8 people there loved it. Thanks again Sue from Oregon.
Yes, we had milk cows when I grew up, and I, too, know about the gutters. Since I had older brothers, I don’t remember having to clean them. My sister and I did the dishes after every meal (for 8 of us). But all good memories and times. And we had no modern plumbing in our house so had to pump the water and then heat it for dishes. The hand pump was in the house, so that was good.
When were your house and barn built?
Barn was built in the 30’s and the original house in the early 1900’s. There have been major remodels to the house since I moved here in 1979.
The puppies are adorable! Being a mostly city girl I did not know a barn had a gutter and I’ve been in lots of them in my younger years LOL, guess I wasn’t paying attention! Just shows we’re never too old to learn new things!
I didn’t know about barn gutters either, guess you are never to old to learn! The puppies are looking awesome! What fun for them to be able to run and play in your wonderful yard!
Those puppies are having the best life! Lots of work on a farm is an understatement.
My Grandpa had a dairy farm so I know what a barn gutter is. I didn’t know there was a term for it. His cows were trained to go to an assigned stanchion for both daily milkings. Although dairy farming has improved it is still hard dedicated work.
Mary – Looked like a lot of people knew what the gutter was for! I have to say, I didn’t know! I learned something new this morning. Love seeing the puppies. Your doing a wonderful thing, taking them in!
We had a barn gutter in the barn on the family farm on the East Coast. And stanchions, a milking machine, a dairy house with a giant cooler like a chest freezer, a spring house, a couple of corn cribs, etc.
Mary Says Sew – all of that sounds very familiar – all except the spring house, we didn’t have that.
Our farm in NE IA – 160 acres then 240 – sounds very similar and very diversified. We had hogs(sows, babies to market), chickens, dairy cows and beef cattle. We grew corn, beans, pasture, oats and alfalfa. We had a chicken house + a brooder house, hog house with various sheds and feeding floors for housing the hogs, corn cribs, granary, machine sheds, and a dairy barn(hay mow included with TONS of hay bales filling it every summer, all above our heads) with milk house attached. AND the giant cooler that held 6 milk cans. The electricity that thing must have used! That cooler tried to kill me – I touched it while setting down a pail of water on a wet floor – it was a very shocking experience!
Sherry – your farm sounds like my farm! I so remember backing up the pickup to raise the fork into the haymow and Dad would drop it – I prayed everytime I didn’t let the clutch out too long and coast further backwards snapping that hay rope! Now why did he make me do that hard job????
We used a hay fork at my grandpa’s farm and uncle’s farm when I was really little so I wasn’t involved, but that looked so scary! We baled our hay when I was involved, Mom driving the tractor, Dad stacking the bales on the wagon. Dad would send Mom in to make lunch – and I would ‘drive’ the tractor, baler, wagon – a very vivid memory when I was 5 (five!) years old. It moved very slowly, and Dad could run up to change speed and stop etc, but when I think about my kids/grandkids doing that at 5(several are 5 right now and no way! lol) I just think of all the things we did that were probably dangerous, though we just knew it was farm life. We grew up knowing responsibility and were very much an important part of the ‘team’. It was a good life. But much of what we did would now be considered child endangerment lol.
Sherry – yes! I agree! Dad would get the pickup going in low for me to drive UP the hill and then to our yard. Good heavens! I had to look thru the steering wheel. Haha! I drove the baler, too, and the binder for oats. We never knew those would be the good old days, did we? And a quart jar of ice water wrapped in a dish towel to take to Dad in the field – kids just wouldn’t believe us.
Our barn doesn’t have a gutter because the cows here are beef cattle. I did learn about barn gutters today, though. Very interesting. Thanks Mary.
Kathy and Jenine…I am so happy you liked the Rhubarb cake. I need to get out and pick more of ours, but the constant rain is keeping me indoors.
Those puppies are so adorable. My favorite is the one with little bits of white on his toes and his face. Looks like he might have a faint star on his forehead.
Jeanine and Sue – I used frozen rhubarb from my freezer to make that cake. I will go find more to freeze in bags. I must admit I never liked rhubarb but this recipe changed my tune,
I didn’t grow up on a farm but I’ve learned about gutters over the years. I would love to have a dairy cow but are we too old? And no barn to house one. I’ll have to investigate that! The puppies – they are so so cute! They look so happy! I’m sure they’re a lot of work but what fun memories you and Rick will have. I meant to write sooner about my daughter Jaime’s medical scare. Thank the Lord, after many months of scheduling delays and a needle biopsy that wasn’t conclusive she and the doctor decided to remove the lump which was in breast tissue and not the lymph glands. It turned out to be a tumor but thankfully it was benign. So glad that is over! Jan in MA
Jan, thanks for letting us know.
My husband and I have been praying about her everyday.
Good news to brighten our day!
Jan – OH, JAN! What wonderful news – benign – thank God! Greetings to Jaime
I was a “city kid”, but I still learned about barn gutters. When we went to visit our cousins and went to see the calves I learned really fast to walk down the center of the barn aisle! My six cousins would laugh, but when they came to visit us they liked being able to walk to the library – no waiting for a ride to town.
Oh, Mary, what lucky puppies to have the space to roam and such a loving foster home.
I was not aware of barn gutters–but I can see they have a real purpose. Sue, yes thanks for your rhubarb recipe–I love rhubarb sauce as well! Mary, those puppies are thriving and enjoying life at the farm!!
We never got rich enough to have a gutter cleaning system installed so we pushed a lot of manure down the gutters to be shoveled out. Some memories! Our farm was back in the days of 160 acre farms with dad working a full time job.
Jane Boyer – same size as our farm and then finally to 240 – big time for then.
Raised on a dairy farm. You better believe I know what a gutter is.
We have a gutter in the barn on the family farm. There was a chain barn cleaner in the gutter that ran around the entire barn. I remember winters so cold that the cleaner would freeze and sometimes break. What a mess it was to fix during such cold weather. Farming is such had work. Beautiful night very hot weather coming for a couple of days this week. The puppies are so sweet. They are so lucky to be with you. Take care.
I’m a city girl! A gutter to me is on the edge of the house to direct the rain and melting snow to a spout on the corners of the house. I have seen that gutter in the barn on the vet shows and figured out all by myself what it was for. ha ha I was calling it a trench. I did not know it was a gutter. Learn something new every day! So enjoying the puppy pictures.
Marsha KS – all of us learn something from this blog – I love these discussions!