The one structure on our farm that we refer to as the “Lower Barn” was built in 1938. The barn was built from softwood timber such as Bass and Cottonwood that was logged from the Mississippi river bottoms near Potosi. This timber was cleared to remove the trees from the land that was inundated once the lock and dam system was built in Dubuque, IA. The logs were sawn at the Bode Sawmill in Potosi, owned and operated by Andrew Bode.

Scene from S.W. with “Lower Barn”. 1998

This structure was again raised in the aforementioned “Barn Raising” fashion. It is unknown what mechanical or animal help was used to raise this barn. Since it was the late thirties and the horses were being replaced with tractors, it’s assumed that more machines were used than in the raising of the Dairy barn in 1913. The foundation was a river sand and mine tailing mix. The foundation has cracked, most likely due to the inadequate steel bracing within the walls, the acidity of the mine tailings, and later adding a cement floor which lessened the structure’s ability “to breathe.” The roof was tin which still is in place today.

This barn has a basement area in which to shelter livestock and a manger on its north side in which to feed the cattle hay The loft comprises of three bents, which contain additionally three bents within each of them. The barn initially stored loose hay and now houses square bales.

On the East Side there was a large door which was lowered and raised with the aide of the hay carrier. The carrier moved first loose hay, then 100 lb. square bales into the barn. Smaller hay bales were later put into the structure with a machine powered elevator. The use of large round bales has lessened the structure’s use. Square bales have not been put into the structure for several years. It has been only used for feeding during extreme winter conditions.

The barn remains much as it originally was. The cement floor was added in the 60s and the large door was framed in during the early nineties. Aside from those changes, only normal upkeep such as painting and replacing a few board have been done.

An old barn that was used to store hay and to house beef cattle was located below what we refer to as the sheep barn. This barn was torn down around 1910. Large timber beams from the barn were used in the construction of the machine shed which is still in use today. The wooden silo that was with this building was moved beside the new Dairy barn built in 1913.

	Case tractor & baler by old garage/sheep barn. 1940s

At the location of this old barn and silo a garage was built. A cement and beam floor was built over the silo's cement base. This area under the garage was used to store block ice. The upper area was used as a garage and repair shop.

The building later became the shelter for sheep in the 1960s. The floor over the pit fell in during the 1980s and the pit was filled. The building continued to be used for sheep until the flock was sold the off in the later 1980s. The building is used for storage today.