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Barn Spotlight: Two of the three barns on the farm were moved from about a mile away.

Jan Corey Arnett

November 30, 2020

8 Slides

The Wallis name as a fixture in the Rudyard area — in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula —began about 1915 with brothers Fred and Percy, who homesteaded on nearby farms. 

Built in 1918, the Percy Wallis main barn, at 7538 W. M-48, Rudyard, is 60 by 70 feet with a lean-to. He raised sheep, hogs and chickens; milked a few cows; and also sold eggs and pork in the area. All his farming, on a portion of the 200 acres, was done with horses.

Later, Percy and son Don farmed in partnership and expanded by buying two adjoining farms, both having good barns. But the mile back to the main farm meant valuable time lost in transit and the care of livestock.

What to do? Move the barns.

The one 40-by-60-foot barn was lifted onto an Army truck and towed by a bulldozer. The other, a 40-by-50-foot barn, was pulled by the dozer as men continually shifted logs beneath the barn to keep it rolling. The two barns then were joined with a short stretch of barnyard between them and the largest barn.

The day came for the third generation to take over, and fortunately, one of Don’s four sons, Dave, wanted to farm. Roger and Jeff went into the mechanics trade, and Eric worked happily as a manager in a sports equipment business. If there was one thing Eric insisted he would not do, it was farm — although he did help brother Dave as time permitted.

In 1979, when Eric asked Penny Bosley to marry him, she was happy with the life they would build not farming.

But then, Dave realized that his true calling was not to the land but to the Lord, and that he wanted to be a minister, not a farmer. 

“He told me he wasn’t going to farm!” Penny moans in mock dismay, casting Eric a sideways glance and grin. Soon, brother Dave was tending a spiritual flock, and Penny and Eric, in 1981, acquired a flock of sheep. Chickens would come later. 

Today, Penny and Eric have their three barns, a machine shed and 490 acres. They raised beef cattle in the 1980s, but they now raise more than 400 Polypay sheep, keeping eight rams, both Polypay and Suffolk.

“Polypay are easier to raise and are named as they are because they pay you back in multiple ways," Eric explains. "They don’t eat the volume of feed that Suffolk do. We shear once a year about a month before lambing begins, usually the first week of April.”

Direct to consumers

Like many other farmers, they have moved to direct manufacture and marketing of their product. Their wool goes to Canada where it is cleaned, carded, dyed and woven into blankets.

“It takes about one fleece for a lap-size or throw-size blanket and about two fleeces for a queen blanket,” Penny says. “We have stores handling our blankets, but most of our sales are through our Lake Superior Woolen Co. website [lswoolen.com]. This allows us to recoup more on our wool. Otherwise, we lose too much for all the work we have done.”

Penny raises a variety of chickens as replacement laying hens and experiments with different breeds. They have access to the bar, as well as their own coop. Eric also built a chicken coop on the second floor of the tri-level main barn, which gives the birds shelter without having to spend money on a roof.

Golden eagles and bald eagles live near the Wallis farm, but they are not a welcome sight. Large birds of prey nab newborn lambs and small dogs. The Wallises, whose sheep produce upward of 800 lambs a year, have lost lambs to the eagles, although farm dog, Oliver, an Australian Shepherd, is a deterrent.

“I can’t say for sure whether it was wolves or eagles or both, but in 2020, I was 59 lambs short,” Eric says. 

For several years, haying was done with an Allis Chalmers roto-baler, which turned out 60-pound round bales. “The main barn could hold as many as 16,000 bales,” Eric says. “You stack your corners as you do with square bales and stack them just so, or you can push out the sidewalls of your barn.” The smaller red barn could handle 4,000 bales.

Keeping in good repair

Eric says they have thought about painting the main barn, but instead have focused on ensuring that it is well-supported and in good repair.  

“Some years ago, I hired a contractor to put in additional posts for interior support,” Eric says, his expression growing serious. “He told me to knock the barn down and put up a pole building.”

He shrugs. “I just couldn’t do that to this barn," Eric says. "It is history, and I love being in it and hearing the sound it makes. With a pole building, you have to take extra steps for insulation and ventilation, or you have problems. I like this barn.”

The barn is a study in creative architecture, ever-changing light and constant music. Its long-ago milk house is now the vet supply room for the care of the flock.

The Wallis farm recently earned status as a Michigan Centennial Farm using 1915 as the date of its founding. In addition, it has held Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program certification for the past eight years, based on attention to clean water, air and soil.

Eric flashes a big smile as he talks about finding farm receipt books that had belonged to his grandfather, comparing prices then to now.  When he mentions farm equipment, the smile gets even bigger. “I am an Oliver man,” he grins. “John Deere is that other green.”

A pole building is that other kind of barn. And a congregation is just another kind of flock.

Jan Corey Arnett is the author of “American Barns” and co-founder of Barn Believers Community Project Fund, held with the Battle Creek Community Foundation. The fund provides grants to nonprofits for barn-related projects. Visit barnbelievers.org. She can be reached at [email protected].

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