About this blog

Mailboxes along the roads
and old barns set back in fields overgrown with weeds
often served as landmarks in rural Montana.

These landmarks told us where we were,
and how far we had to go.

Sometimes they signaled “home”  and the end of the road.

At other times,
barely visible through swirling snow,
they told us we had miles to go.

Maybe you’ve seen some of the same mailboxes
along your roads
or glimpsed some of the same old barns
through your storms.

In one way or another, anything you read here at
Mailboxes and Old Barns is a word picture
of some mailbox or some old barn
that I’ve seen.

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As of October, 2017, I’ve turned off the comments option while leaving the blog open for public reading. This blog began in 2010 as an archive of family history and heritage prepared for the use of those who follow us.  Unseen readers are invited, welcomed and appreciated. I have so much material yet to enter in the blog for my family and need to concentrate on recording those things.

It has broadened in recent times with other categories and discussions, although it remains my personal and primary archive for passing along what is contained in extensive, original family memorabilia and records in my possession, dating back to the late 1800s.

Nothing in the blog is time sensitive except for occasional items within the Fresh Thoughts category which may reflect events occurring in the context of the publish date.  The site is intended to be a word picture of our family’s heritage and history,  tracing the goodness of God toward us beginning around 1890 when our grandparents were moving toward their emigration from Denmark to the United States.

I put very high value on both books and music.  Material written by others is a part of this blog and is clearly identified for two reasons: (1) I don’t want to steal others’ stuff and (2) you gotta get a copy of their book and enjoy more of what they wrote.

I wrote the original poems, the journal excerpts and the study notes, the essays and the memories, etc.  If you want to use them in some other format, let me know.  ~~Sharon

e-mail: mailboxesandoldbarns@gmail.com

One of my favorite devotional writers is Bob Hoekstra. Here is a link to his thoughts on the verse from the book of Hebrews from which I draw my theme: obtaining mercy and finding grace  http://www.blueletterbible.org/devotionals/dbdbg/view.cfm