Not Really a ManCave

We dropped by Skip and Judy's this morning to bid the "gang" farewell before heading back to Berkeley, and I took the opportunity to slip over to The Barn for a picture.

I love this space. OilMan expressed surprise at this and I must say it rather surprises me too. It's all about hunting and fishing which I don't particularly like. In addition to the "heads" there are duck decoys, stuffed fish and other memorabilia of the hunting life. (No guns, thank goodness) However, there are also carefully framed postcards, pictures of beautiful mountain ranges, lamps made from electric meters, gnarled wooden walking sticks in a stand by the door, a piano, a wood stove, old German mugs behind the bar and faded wooden signs with homespun sayings on them. It is a room that has not been decorated, although it evokes the West. It is a room which has evolved.

The Barn has a general air of the past, of dark cosiness, of things casually placed and never removed or remodeled or renovated. It's clean but not pristine. (How do you dust a caribou head?) It's comfortable and unpretentious and very much a representation of the man who put it all there, and things he likes. Perhaps I like it because I like him.