Farming
Active farm atmosphere

The barn Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

The Barns & Outbuildings

The main part of the barn was built pre-Civil War. It is a bank barn built into the hillside so that equipment could be stored on the second level and animals fed underneath. The animals were also protected from the north wind in this way.

A family story is told and quoted from a letter from Jane Brown Gemmill who was born here in 1899 and died in 1994. She wrote the letter in 1986 at age 87.

"When I was growing up on the farm, I often heard stories about Oakland Green during those tragic, troubling years of the Civil War, with soldiers in the area. As the long war finally was coming to an end, my grandparents went out on the high ground at the end of the present front lawn and counted 10 fires -- of barns being burned. Northerners were punishing the southerners and depriving them of their crops. As they counted those fires, they saw a hawk overhead swooping down toward the chickens. They called to their son Nathan to get the gun and shoot the hawk. Nathan acted quickly just as two soldiers were passing along the road to set fire to Oakland Green's barn! That shot made them wary that confederate soldiers were there so our barn was spared!"

- Jane Brown Gemmill, 1986

Spring House Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

Other Outbuildings:

• Corn crib and storage shed (in terrible condition; please do not enter!)
• A small ash house out back (used for storing ashes for candles and soap)
• Spring house, dated 1801, in use for full water supply until about 1992.
• At the pool, an old smoke house which was removed from a property in Clarke County and re-built here to be used as a poolhouse.

Cows and calves Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

Livestock & Other Beasts

Oakland Green is a small-scale working farm. Sara's old 4-H heifers slowly became a small herd of 15-20 black Angus. We also have two horses who really enjoy carrots and a good pat on the head (not available for riding — see our related sites for that).