Barn Builders

Voyageurs: independent contractors, workers, or minor partners in companies involved in the fur trade licensed to transport goods to trading posts and usually forbidden to do any trading of their own .

W

Wallow: roll about or lie relaxed in mud or water, especially to keep cool or avoid biting insects . Wattle and daub: wall construction using small sticks chinked with mud or clay . White lead: paint made by mixing lead carbonite and lead hydroxide Whitewash: paint made from lime and water producing calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) . Windmill: circular fan on a tower used to pump water and/or provide electricity . Windshake: crack between the annual rings in wood caused by strong winds bending the tree trunk . Winnow: to blow a current of air through grain in order to remove the chaff and straw .

About the Author

Barns are everywhere in my life . I live on a 100-year-old farmstead with a huge red barn that I’ve been preserving over the past 30 years . My roots in Chisago County go back three generations . I drive by barns every day . I’m a traveler and travel sketcher—when Covid-19 put us all in lockdown in the spring of 2020, I began sketching the barns around me and realized what a treasure they are .

I was trained as an architect back when freehand sketching was an integral part of the curriculum, and I hold degrees in architecture from Iowa State University and Columbia University . My writing has been published in professional journals and online, and my drawings have been exhibited at various fine art venues . My book, Capture the Moment: An Architect’s Guide to Travel Sketching, has been published by ORO Editions . I teach sketching at Marine Mills Folk Art Center in Marine on St Croix, Minnesota .