Drive down any country road in New York state and you’re likely to spot a barn, a vibrant red barn. Have you ever wondered though why red seems to be the color of choice for barns?

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Years ago, there weren’t a whole lot of choices when it came to painting colors and sealers didn’t even exist. Farmers who constructed barns on their land had to get creative when it came to finding paint for their barns that would hold up to everything the weather threw at them. Sun, rain, snow – all of the elements could take a toll on a barn and would eventually rot the wood.

Farmers needed a way to protect the wood on their barns so that they wouldn’t have to build a new one every few years and this is where rust came in.

In the early days of barns, farmers would seal their barns with linseed oil. Linseed oil comes from the flax plant’s seeds and is an orangish color.

Farmers would mix various things with the oil produced from linseed oil such as milk and lime but would also often add rust. The farmers knew that rust killed fungus and moss and so it was used as what we know today to be a paint sealer.

When rust was mixed in with the linseed oil and other things like milk and lime, it turned the mixture a red color and this is why so many barns in New York were red hundreds of years ago.

Today, paint options are endless and technology has created sealers that are effective at preserving the wood of a barn, but many people still paint their barns red as a nod to the red barns that littered New York countryside so many years ago.

Are These the Best, Most Fun "Retro" Furniture Stores in Upstate New York? We Think So!

Remember when couches were purple, dinette sets were bright red, and living room lampshades came in every color of the rainbow? If you do, your are a Baby Boomer and we have found your old furniture at these great Upstate New York retro stores!

And if you lived through those times, you have to remember when everybody thought, "Thank God!" when those styles went, well, out of style! So, how could they ever come back to being one the hottest collectible styles of furniture today? The answer is simple.
We all got old.

We yearn for the good old days, which seemed simpler and better (OK, put your rose colored glasses down). The furniture, which dawned at the infancy of the Space Age, was zany in design, dazzling in color, and made your home look modern and fun. So why not bring it all back. Can you believe what happened to vinyl records?

These stores are among the best in Upstate New York that sell the Mid-Century Modern furniture that our parents' had. We want them now. And these stores are stocked to the walls with anything you need to enter the "way back machine" and relive the days of your youth with original furniture and accessories from the 1940s-1980s.

Gallery Credit: Chuck D'Imperio

The Tallest Peaks Of Each Southern Tier County (And A Few From Northeast Pennsylvania)

Lace up your hiking boots! Take a look at the tallest point in each county in the Southern Tier!

Gallery Credit: David Hermanovitch

These 21 Tiny Upstate Villages Each Has An Amazing Historical Footnote

Each of the 21 villages on this list has less than 1,000 residents. Still, they all have something worth stopping by for a visit.. Something historic, fun, something delicious to eat, or just plain fascinating, each is worth a side trip. Visit the Three Bears in Ovid (pop. 602). You won't see that anywhere else in the U.S. Stop and say hello to TV stars "The Beekman Boys" in Sharon Springs (pop. 558). What was the "war" that took place in Delaware County that escalated to violence and even death? Why is Tannersville called "The Painted Lady in the Sky?" Is it true that Mark Twain named his favorite house cat after a village in Western New York? And why is the National Abolition Museum and Hall of Fame in Peterboro (pop.176)? Each of these tiny map dots have a great story to tell.

Gallery Credit: Chuck D'Imperio

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