Thank you, barn.

Today I cleaned out the old barn and cut a big stack of firewood.  I was going to write “clean up the old barn” on a list, but instead I just did it.  Good thing I didn’t put it on a list or it would have been all over.For those of you just joining us the “old barn” is the unrenovated side of the barn that I do not live in, but kind of use as my shop.  I put an exterior wall down the middle of the original barn last summer and made one side livable.  That’s where I live.The “old barn” is the uninhabitable before picture that I shock visitors with (“The whole thing looked like this?”), pretty much untouched since it housed stock and hay. Filthy, dusty work, but it was definitely satisfying to stack up garbage for a future dump run and cardboard for recycling, organize all the “shed stuff” and make it all accessible by bucking up the small mountain of scrap wood that’s been piling up for burning.Quite satisfying.I can’t really explain why I was never possessed to cut firewood at a more appropriate time, say, last October, but it seized me today, so, whateves.  I’ve got good headway made towards next year’s firewood now.  I didn’t really burn terribly much this year.In a strange example of the universe delivering up what’s asked, the barn yielded a pretty sweet gift while I was bashing up the old packrat dorms.  I’ve “always wanted” a built-in ironing board, the kind that fold down from the wall.  I’ve priced new ones (ridiculous, not built like they used to be), seen a couple vintage ones (not worth the “antique” price or else ravaged by time), and even considered making one from scratch, but never got one.Today, the barn coughed one up, a perfect, barely used one, even with the extra small, sleeve-ironing arm.  It literally fell from the ceiling as I was knocking that down.  It had been safe from moisture tucked under the eave but totally unrecognized, forgotten and disguised as a box under a zillion egg cartons.  Now I’m not sure where I’ll install it, but there it is, arrived:)  Thank you, barn.