This is the same barn as in Locust Grove – Barn Doors, but seen from the other side, across a meadow. Surprisingly for a barn in the US, it’s green. Most of them are red (see: Why are barns in the US always red?).

Who can resist an old barn: colorful, textures, serenely sitting in the middle of pastoral landscape? Apparently there are lot of abandoned barns around though, because they’re no longer required for modern day farming. They can’t fit modern, huge farm equipment and are too small to accommodate large herds or cattle or pigs. The raw materials from which they are made have become very popular though (see: Your Dilapidated Barn Is Super Trendy. Just Ask HGTV):

For 20 years, Bowe has been taking old barns apart. He says his customers are interested in what’s called “upcycling” — taking undesirable or waste materials and creatively reusing them. The barn siding he sells can turn into brewery bars or restaurant tables.

“Most people want those accent pieces,” he says. “They want to have those pretty beams in the ceiling or they want to have the barn wood walls, or the tables and the furniture.”

A few years ago, many farmers didn’t understand how valuable their old barns were and might have been swindled, Bowe says, but today they know the capital they’re sitting on.

He says we’re in the midst of a barn wood frenzy right now, but it still likely has a shelf life. Indeed, there are only so many weathered barns in the U.S.

“This is a finite resource,” he says, “so it seems like every building we take down, we deplete our livelihood.”