Originally posted as a short newsletter for Ontario Barn Preservation, Christmas 2024. The first year I did not send out real (not just email) Christmas cards to the members. Kind of sad. Now they are just sending an email each year. The print card was something I started. I'm not sure why it was discontinued after this year. At this time there was a Canada post strike. The next year there was not. But just an email was sent. Cheaper of course. But, people really noticed getting a print card. It was a much better promotion than just another email, probably not opened.

Dear Members,

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, and all the other ways to wish you a wonderful winter holiday.

I'm sorry not to send out the printed Christmas cards this year. It just hasn't worked out due to the Canada Post strike. 

This year I asked my niece, Emma-Jeanne Brown, to create a Christmas card for us. She did! I hope you enjoy it. Emma-Jeanne works as a Pastry Chef, starting a new job at The Watering Can, Vineland, Ontario in January. 

Can a Barn Become an Event Venue?

Location, location, location... as the real estate people would say. Barns are not usually in areas with a lot of local traffic, but people will come to an event. A location might not be on main street but it could still be a place people can come to for a good evening out. Symphony in the Barn and Ontario Festival of Small Halls have concerts in rural Ontario. Could your old barn be restored and become a host to concerts, weddings, and other private, public, or corporate events? 

I thought the idea was interesting. Note, I'm not an architect, city planner, political analyst, or anything with professional knowledge. Just an Electrical Engineer's daughter with an interest in old buildings, art, and history. The following information is what I have found searching online for Ontario based/ relevant resources. 

TVO Today - Rescue mission: Fighting to save historical buildings in rural Ontario

Laura

Originally posted as part of the Ontario Barn Preservation newsletter, March 2025.

Here in Barrie, the masses of snow piles are starting to melt away. I miss the white snow. The in between seasons dirty snow is not pretty. I guess that's why I started thinking about gardens and gardening. (Also, my Mother is 80+ and still spends most of the Spring, Summer and Fall in her gardens which surround her little yellow house).

Thinking about gardens led me to a group planting trees and I discovered the grants they have available for people planting edible trees (fruits and nuts) in particular. That led me to community gardens, finding more grant money available and then, of course, I wanted to know who can start a community garden, how it works, and would it be practical for an old barn...? Read more about it below.

Laura

What About a Community Garden?

A community garden is garden space for local people to plant flowers, vegetables, fruit, maintain their garden space while paying a fee for the space and resources (water especially). The host for the community garden makes the rules for how it works, but that is the basic plan. 

What does that have to do with your old barn? 

If you have enough available land around the barn, a community garden with a barn to store: tools, seeds, plants and soil could be a great thing. If you are a gardener yourself you could offer seeds, starters for tomatoes and so on. 

A barn which is not near your home would work better for giving public access to the garden space. Of course, there would be a schedule for people, times and dates for access. I have seen local community gardens which are on properties with old farm houses, being planted on either side of the driveway to the house. So, it has been done. 

A community garden gets grant money. I found a few sources for you to take a look at. I think the edible trees were the most interesting prospect. I've looked at ideas like this before, for my brother. 

Tree Canada - Edible tree grants

Garden Ontario - Community Gardening

Garden Ontario - Grants

Sustain Ontario - Community Garden Network

A community garden isn't a project to suit everyone, or every barn. But, maybe this will give someone an idea that will work for them, or a starting place for something else. 

Posted by Laura

Originally posted to the newsletter for Ontario Barn Preservation, August 2025. (The last one I wrote any part of).

HERITAGE PRAYER

We keep forgetting all of those who lived before us. We keep forgetting those who lived and worked in our communities. We keep forgetting those who prayed and sang hymns in our churches before we were born. We keep forgetting what our fathers have done for us. We commit the sin, Lord, of assuming that everything begins with us.

We drink from wells we did not find. We eat food from farmland we did not develop. We enjoy freedoms which we have not earned. We worship in churches which we did not build. We live in communities we did not establish. This day, make us grateful for our heritage. Amen

cf. Cumberland Historic Village, near Ottawa - in the vestibule of Vars Knox United Church - adapted from a prayer in the old Covenanters' Church - 1804, Grand Pre, Nova Scotia.

How can you know people who lived before you were born? At best we have photographs, maybe a painting from the days with less technology. I do think about the people who would have dug the farmland, the wells and dealt with all those huge trees long before my family came to Canada. I have regrets for the trees even though I had no part of bringing them down, burning their stumps, and whatever roots they still tried to shoot up. 

I think everyone who is a part of OBP (or reads this far in the newsletter) has an interest in our history. Did you know they call old architecture 'built heritage' now? I guess someone decided to shine it up with a new phrase. 

I am grateful for our heritage. I am glad to be here, in the world, to see what there is of it in this time I'm living in. I will never see it all, freshly built. I will not likely be here when the last barn is gone. I wasn't here when the first one was raised. Do you ever wonder about farther afield than our own time and space, other lives lived on other planets? OK, that's getting a bit too far off topic. But, I do wonder if they have agriculture, farms, barns, and a built heritage too. 

Posted by Laura

In case you missed it!

Canadian Vintage Radio Society 

The Moving Past - A collection of Canadian archival films.

Farm & Food Care Ontario

P.E.I. Heritage Buildings - Site by C.W. Jeffery

The Canadian Railway Preservation and Restoration Association

Ontario Truck and Tractor Pulling Association

Does Canada want them? Should they be considered as a possible threat the way the Japanese were during the second world war? Will US people currently living here be sent to camps?

I'm not off my rocker. The US is a war mongering country. Currently at war, promoting more wars, and picking fights. It would be kind to just call them bad neighbours.

If I have thought of this, how many others are feeling somewhat the same? I've read posts from US people in the US, condoling Canada, feeling "embarrassed" about their government's actions and spoken/ written words. Embarrassed is petty for how I feel when I stop to really think about all of this.

Regardless, this is what is happening, this is what the US is allowing to continue to happen. Whether the US people have regrets... seems almost irrelevant because this is not the first month, not the first year that this has been going on. When will it be stopped? How long will the US allow this to continue? Some of it is to their benefit, else why would they do it at all? So...

I keep hearing about more US people wanting to move to Canada. But, Canada is a different country, with different rules, enforced by law and those unwritten, but expected in our communities. There is a bill C-3 granting US people Canadian citizenship as "Canadians by descent". How valid is that? Will they be allowed to bring their guns and other weapons across the border? Are they tested to see if they know much at all about Canada, our provinces, our culture, our history?

Sure the US people want to come to Canada, to leave dictatorship, to leave what's broken, and the chaos in the US, but what are they bringing with them? Do we want their proven lack of tolerance and understanding? Do we want their obsession with guns and their ammunition? I could spend time and turn this into a longer list. But, I've written enough to give the idea, my thoughts as I read about this latest (can't think of just one word for it) with the US and its people.

Canada is not a landfill for disenfranchised US people. Note, I do not call them Americans. Americans can be anyone from North America, South America, or Central America. So they are US people because calling them USians or USers seems impolite.