A Light in the Barn

[groovedaddy]

Every now and then, I forget to turn off the lights in the barn. I usually notice just before I go to bed, when the farm’s boundaries seem to have drawn in close. That light makes the barn seem farther away than it is — a distance I’m going to have to travel before I sleep. The weather makes no difference. Neither does the time of year.

Where I grew up, nearly every farm had a yard light that shone all night long. I never understood why. Was it so a sleepless farmer could look out at the tractor ruts or watch empty husks blowing past the corn crib? Was it to guide some wandering stranger? Or was it merely to posit one’s existence, compressed, as those farms were, between a prairie of soil and a prairie of sky?

I always thought those lights impoverished everything they shone on. Far better the farms that lay dark until a light went on in the barn long before dawn, a light shrouded by spider webs in the window frame, a light nearly the color of a Jersey cow’s milk. The cows would have milked themselves at that exact hour, and in that exact order, if they’d been able to and if the humans in charge had overslept.

I don’t have cows, and I don’t have an all-night yard light either. Usually, after turning out that forgotten barn light, I sit on the edge of the tractor bucket for a few minutes and let my eyes adjust to the night outside. City people always notice the darkness here, but it’s never very dark if you wait till your eyes owl out a little. I carry a flashlight, but I leave it off until I check on the chickens. Then I let only the dimmest edge of its luminescence show me the hens. Any more, and they stir on their roosts, looking fearful and resentful all at once.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/opinion/a-light-in-the-barn.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

[Tumbulu]

1. How beautifully written

thanks for posting it.

It is one of the things that I treasure living on my farm, that I can go out into the night without any lights and walk around in the quietness of it all.

[fasttense]

2. Our neighbors have lights on all night long.

Where we are situated on our 14 acres, you can see 3 homes, 2 of the 3 have barns. All 3 leave a light on all night long. We never leave a light on and have never had any problems.

I don't understand why they leave a light burning outside. I think they are afraid of the dark.

[bvar22]

3. This was beautifully written.

We moved to very rural Arkansas (Ouachita Mountains) in 2006.
For some strange reason, most of the people out here LOVE those ugly Mercury Vapor lights,
and have them on a auto switch for Dusk to Dawn.
I think they must be afraid of the dark.

If they like those lights so much,
they should go live in the parking lot of a suburban mall.
Each one of those lights blocks out ten thousand stars.
They absolutely destroy night vision for anyone close,
and if you are standing under one of those lights, it is impossible to see anything outside of the light perimeter.
It is difficult to walk beyond that perimeter even WITH a flashlight until your eyes readjust,
and it is impossible for anyone living under one of those lights to ever See the Stars.

My wife & I believe that it should be dark after the sun goes down.
We have flashlights hanging by every door,
and use them to check the coop and count the chickens at sundown.
We have a couple of flood lights at the corners of the cabin that we can switch on if needed,
but we rarely have occasion to use them.

One of the things we truly enjoy about living here is the ability to see the stars,
and to walk outside at night under nothing more than the light of the moon.

As far as I'm concerned, those lights are counter productive,
waste money and energy, and add to light pollution.

[jwirr]

4. My father left the pole light on because it discouraged predators such

as weasels and muskrats, etc from killing the chickens. Also when we had sheep it helped him see if the neighborhood dogs attacked them.

[LWolf]

5. People in my rural area generally use a security light.

I've got one on the barn. I can find my way to the barn in the frozen dark at 4:30 in the morning, and again at night when I get home. When the time changes again, and the days get longer, I'll turn it off. I can find my way in the pre-dawn glimmer, when it gets here early enough.

I could use a flashlight. Those batteries are more $$ and less green than the florescent light; that one bulb has been there for at least 7 years, maybe more.

I've begun leaving the back porch light on at night, too. It discourages the packrats from hanging out on the porch at night.

I don't know where the barn in your post is, but in my area it really IS dark. If there is no moon, in full dark without the security light you can't see your hand in front of your face. We don't have street lights, except inside town/city limits. We don't have the level of light pollution that keeps the sky lighter in some areas. It makes star watching great.

[EFerrari]

6. I walk Kid every night in the dark up the big hill that faces the city lights.

It's pitch black unless there moon is out. The dark and the quiet are soothing. I open my blinds so a little bit of light falls on the path. It's my favorite walk of the day.

[LWolf]

7. I've been known to hang out in the pitch black for long periods,

just to look at the stars.

A funny thing happened when I first moved in; the neighbors kept some steers. My adult son, who was staying with me, went out for something...I don't remember what. It was so dark that he walked straight into a steer and knocked himself flat; he couldn't see a darker patch in front of him, and didn't expect one on the path from the house to the barn. We didn't have the barn light on, and the steer had found a weak spot in the fence and wandered over to explore what we had growing.