[Guest]

I've been white washing the barns cement walls, and would like to do the wood too on the inside, but I can't remember whether it will dry on the wood or eat it! LOL Its just water and lime. Thanks for the help. It's me SherrieC from northern In. I can log on but not log on and then post. Probally because I've been so busy doing all spring & summer, that Chuck thought I died and unactivated my account,(chuck im not dead just BUSY LOL) I've been doing all the usual plus running a small herb buis + market gardening + showing our goats Whew!
-Sherrie

 

[daeve]

Don't remember your Tom Sawyer, eh?

White wash is fine for wood. It was used in all the dairy and I guess other critter type barns in years past. They used to spray it on over cobwebs and all. Lightens up the inside quite nicely. I think it helps preserve the wood a bit too. Don't think it tastes quite as good to the little wood eating critters after the lime soaks in.

Thinking back on it, I don't recall ever seeing wood borer (powder post beetle?) dust or the little holes in the beams in a white washed barn. Wonder if it would do anything toward stopping a existing infestation? The old barn here is eaten up with them and I really don't want to try to treat all the wood in there with pesticides. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Guest]

I thought it would be safe for the wood, I do my entire milk room every year this time with the saanens it gets really white in there! But what about the horses maybe it wouldn't hurt em too bad, and taste so bad that they wouldn't start chewing, keeping in mind that none of my current horses are wood chewers. Thanks sherriec

 

[uncle Will in In.]

The first trip I can remember making to the Doctor was because when I was 3 my family sold pure milk and every inch of the inside of the barn where they milked in stanchions had to be covered with lime after each milking. This meant dusting it on the concrete floor after cleaning up any little smoochy discrepencys comited by te cows while they were in there. The lime was in a small drum by the door. I was watching my brother and sister clean up. I messed around in the lime then rubbed my eyes. Don't ever try this at home children!!!
My grandmother had plastered walls in her house and they got a fresh coat of whitewash whenever she deamed it nessesary.
It can really put a new face on barns and fences. Some people I knew bought a neat little place in the hills of southern Indiana for their homestead retirement. It had a chicken house, small barn and nice little house with a long white picket fence. All the buildinngs were sparkling white. One year later every bit of the place was weathered grey and looked like it hadn't been painted since Abe Lincoln's boyhood days a few miles down the road.
Buyer Beware!