![\"20170524_124228.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org\/wpcchs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170524_124228-e1498163688806.jpg?w=387\")
<\/p>\nI’m home!\u00a0\u00a0 What a trip.\u00a0 Now it is time to bring everyone up to speed on the things seen, and learned.\u00a0 First, I want to note that after the first posting I realized, that that NOT having spell check is really, bad for a person who is challenged from a spelling perspective and that typing on a tablet is really rough.\u00a0\u00a0 The positive is that over the next few weeks I will be posting about the trip, just a month later than when it happened.<\/p>\n
It seems like I missed spring while I was gone.\u00a0 The peonies and irises at my house bloomed and died, and I came home to summer heat.\u00a0 The State of Minnesota voted on its final budget.\u00a0 State Representative Jim Nash went to bat for us wrote a bill asking for funds for the Peterson farm.\u00a0 I was called in and presented to the State Legacy committee. When I came home, I learned that the State passed the bill and we were awarded $160,000 for restoration work at the farm.\u00a0 With the state commitment, it will qualify us for the Jeffris match.\u00a0 That means we have a good $240,00 start to our capitol fundraising.\u00a0 Note: we cannot spend the funds until after the fundraising is complete.<\/p>\n
Now for the trip.<\/p>\n
After my daughter Virginia, her husband Dave, and my son Dain left for home, I started my studies with a trip to visit Lena A:son-Palmqvist at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm. Lena is the Avdelningschef, Kunskap och f\u00f6rmedling, or in English, the Department Head for Meditation and Knowledge, which believe is is close to the Education Department Head, in the U.S.\u00a0 As I learned, some things just don’t translate exactly.\u00a0 Some funny stories on that, to come.<\/p>\n
Lena did her PhD thesis on Swedish farm buildings and properties in Minnesota. So we had a lot to talk about.\u00a0 I asked about “korn” and what Peterson meant when he said he “painted” the roof of the barn.\u00a0 She said korn was not American corn but rather Peterson most likely meant barley. While traveling Sweden, I learned the word korn as found in Peterson’s diaries is more correctly translated as a kernel of grain. If American corn is meant he would use the word maize.\u00a0 During his Swenglish period, he uses both English and Swedish words at the same time- hence Swenglish.\u00a0 So in some passages, as in 1859 he talks about korn- meaning barley- then talks about planing korn in mounds, which is a method not done with barley- only American corn.<\/p>\n
Lena and I discussed what Peterson meant when he said he painted the roof of the barn.\u00a0 With what?\u00a0 She said it was tar, used to make it water proof.<\/p>\n
Our conversation lasted a couple of hours.\u00a0 I was able to find and purchase her thesis, “Building Traditions Among Swedish Settlers in Rural Minnesota” on Amazon and ordered it to be delivered to the CCHS.\u00a0 She also suggested I purchase “Scandinavia Overseas” and “America’s Architectural Roots” which I did via Amazon and also had delivered directly to the CCHS.\u00a0 Following our visit I toured Skansen.<\/p>\n
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Below, left is a photo of the Nordic Museum and on the right is Skansen.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nSkansen if not the oldest, is one of the oldest open air museums in the world.\u00a0 It is in the same vicinity as the Nordic Museum and the Vasa Museum.\u00a0 For those who have asked if I visited Vasa on this trip, I did not, as I had visited before and because with a limited time, I needed to focus on building structures.<\/p>\n
The two areas in Skansen I focused on were the sections about southern Sweden buildings and farm animals.<\/p>\n
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Knowing we would be putting up fences, I took a number of photos of fences and in the Smaland area. I found a 1900-1910 house that had the same type of ceiling found in the Peterson house.\u00a0\u00a0 The knowledge that the ceiling in the house may be not as early as we thought was of concern, as if we interpret the property to 1885 to coincide with the photos taken at the farm, the ceiling in the house would have to be removed.\u00a0 Note the color of the ceiling and the wall paper.<\/p>\n
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The below bench was of interest, as it is a style used both in Sweden and is seen here in the U.S.\u00a0 This makes the style a possibility for use at the farm.<\/p>\n
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Finally, I want to leave you today with a beautiful photo of a house at Skansen representative of a house in Smaland.\u00a0 Note the thatched roof with wooden logs holding it down.\u00a0 The windows are white but the corners are not.\u00a0 Which was a quandary for us when deciding how to paint the north barn.\u00a0 The question of to paint the barn corners or not was confirmed by Lena at the Nordic Museum.\u00a0 She explained the painting as follows.<\/p>\n
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The Falun Copper mines produce the mineral that makes the Swedish red unique.\u00a0 Once all buildings were completely red.\u00a0 Red paint was cheap, white was expensive.\u00a0 Therefore, only accents on houses, such as windows and corners were white.\u00a0 Then, more wealthy people started accenting the windows in the barn white and the population followed suit.\u00a0 Next, the wealthy class painted their houses yellow and some people followed suit.\u00a0 Today, you will find barn doors painted with tar resulting in a black color.\u00a0 Most barn corners are not white.\u00a0 White barn corners are more of an American invention.\u00a0 As we discussed, the option to paint the Peterson north barn corner white or not, we looked closely at the barn wood.\u00a0 It was indeed originally red, later the white trim was added.\u00a0 So, I present to you, a fully restored first time ever published photo of the Historic Andrew Peterson Farmstead north barn!!<\/p>\n