Barn Charm: I'll Huff, And I'll Puff...

...And I'll blow your barn down.

Not long after we acquired Le Rustique two years ago, we discovered these standing ruins of an old homestead on the country road that runs south of our road. I took a bunch of pictures of the buildings, because I was sure they would topple over momentarily. [Side Note: Only about a mile away as the crow flies, this terrain is nothing like the terrain of our property. I guess that's the nature of the Ozark Plateau.]

An old homestead. The land is brushed and fenced, but there appears
to be no other activity anywhere near it.

I love the old barn, but it definitely looks precarious.

I think it's square on its rock foundation, but the main structure is a little askew.

Part of the old tin roof looks like it was hit by a meteorite, but I guess it just collapsed
as its underpinnings  lost the battle to neglect.

Last year we experienced some very windy days, a couple of tornado warnings and a night of straight-line winds in excess of 100 mph. In spite of all that huffing and puffing, though, the three structures continued to stand. All my photos following those storms look exactly like these.

Off and on this month the March winds have lived up to their bad-ass hype, though, and the inevitable finally happened.

The old barn stands no more.

It appears that someone has cleared away the tin siding and roof sections, leaving the stone piers and decaying wood to attest that a barn used to live there.

And Missouri loses another barn and a bit of its heritage.

We've been told that this old homestead belonged to the maternal ancestors of the family from whom we bought Le Rustique. That's probably true, because the old dirt road that passes by this land carries their name. I can only wonder how many wind storms it will take to demolish the old house, and eventually the shed.

Linking up with

Barn Charm ♥77♥ over at Bluff Area Daily

Be sure to check out some of the plethora of barns there, many of which are presented by "real" photographers, as opposed to my point-and-shoot method.