Word: barnful
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...Pope: That’s just a barn...
From his dusty work yard in the northwest Massachusetts hamlet of Hancock (colonial, of course, incorporated in 1776), Babcock has mapped virtually every colonial barn standing, or collapsing, in New England. Racing against mildew and termites, he buys more barns than he can afford from farmers glad to be rid of debris. "It's bad business, but I don't know how to stop," he explains without remorse. "I'm barn rich, cash poor...
...rafters of oak and white pine that predate the Constitution, Babcock reads colonial minidramas. He describes his discoveries with delight: stalls on worn threshing floors that mark a farmer's shift from wheat to cattle; scrawled symbols on a rafter commemorating a son who moved his father's barn; boards, sealing the huge doors of a cavernous Dutch barn, that reveal the date of its sale to a German, who then cut smaller doors...
Armed with family papers and genealogies, Babcock has tilted happily over weightier questions against colonial historians ignorant of the latest discoveries in barnography. "We found a 16th century French barn in Rensselaer County, N.Y., last year," he says. "That's a century before the experts say the place was settled. All they know is what they read. I know what I find. Barns always tell the truth...
...drone of rush-hour traffic is spilling from the parkway. Nightfall approaches, and in the chill air Babcock slowly begins to pack his tools. "I must have given a hundred talks," he remarks. "Each time I say the same thing: save the barns! People listen, but they don't act." On the Baker place, the sheep barn's rectangular skeleton now glows softly, a spare Doric temple in the twilight. Babcock touches the smoothly hewn frame with a hammer-size hand. "Look how carefully they worked. They thought they were building for the future." He brightens into a smile...