A Rainy Morning in Downtown Des Moines

A couple weekends ago, we were in the Des Moines area visiting my parents.

This was the first weekend we had the opportunity to visit them since the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market opened for the 2013 season at the beginning of May, so, of course, we had to go to the Farmers' Market!

However, when we woke up that Saturday, we were greeted with lightning and thunder. But we went anyway, thankful that the lightning had stopped and the heavy rain had eased up a bit, and thankful that we had rain gear, as the rain hadn't stopped for long.

While there, during a brief break from the rain (heavy, light and misty, or otherwise), I took a photo of the Polk County Courthouse with the Instagram app on my phone.

Barn Charm - Inside 1850s Americana

Last week, I shared a fantastic barn from Living History Farm's 1850s farm (you can click here to see it). This week, I thought I'd share the photos I took of this barn's interior. I used my iPhone camera, as my digital camera's memory was full. (Oops!) I didn't use the Instagram app this time, just the camera.

As you can see in both photos, this particular barn's purpose is (was) to store farming equipment. 

Sorry, I know this second one is a bit blurry. But you can see that they've got tobacco hanging from the ceiling to dry. (I don't know if this used to be a big crop for Iowa, or if Living History Farms has it in here for "show." I should look up Iowa's main crops from the late 19th century.)

And on the floor, is a yolk for oxen.

"Barn Charm" is hosted by Bluff Area Daily. Please click on the "Barn Charm" button below to view the rest of this week's fantastic barn entries (the link with this week's entries will be available between 6 - 7 PM Central time Monday evening):

Barn Charm - 1850s Americana

Last week, my family and I were in the Urbandale, IA area for Memorial Day weekend. While we were there, we went to Living History Farms (as it seems that's now our new Memorial Day Weekend tradition).

Living History Farms is a great "living museum" of what life was like in midwestern America in "the olden days." (I've posted about Living History Farms before, so when you have the time, check out my other LHF posts. You can either click the label entitled "Living History Farms" beneath this post, or go to the upper left of the page and search for "Living History Farms.")

Anyway, while we were there, I was able to take some fun Instagram photos of barns as they would have been during various times in American history.

This barn photo that I'm sharing this week is a typical rustic barn from the 1850s time period.

(You can click on the photo to see a somewhat larger view of it.)

"Barn Charm" is hosted by Bluff Area Daily. Please click on the "Barn Charm" button below to view the rest of this week's wonderful "Barn Charm" entries: