The Farm

Miniature #10 – Constructed 12/2023

Fun Facts

There are about 4,250 acres that are categorized as farmlands, numbering approximately 300 farms on Cape Cod, and an additional 600 acres where shellfish are cultivated on aquaculture grants. Although some farming activity occurs in each of the 15 towns on Cape Cod, 70% occurs in the towns of Barnstable, Bourne, Falmouth and Sandwich.

About 40% of the land-based agriculture is cranberry bogs worked by about 65 farmers. Another 35% percent is general farming activity (vegetables, livestock, pasture) undertaken by about 140 farmers. The remainder is wood lots, tree farms, garden centers and greenhouses.

Farms on Cape Cod range from a few tenths of an acre to one parcel that is more than 200 acres. The average size of a Cape Cod farm is 14 acres. Thirty percent of the farms on Cape Cod are 1– 5 acres; 23% are 5 –10 acres; and 15% are 10 – 20 acres in size.

Description

The small town where I was raised had a working farm and memories of it prompted me to build a barn and farm for my fictitious town of Capetown.

Capetown’s farm sits on a 12″x12″ plywood base. The overall piece stands at 10″ high and the time invested to design and build was approximately 60 hrs.

Materials Used

The structure of the barn was built with 2mm craft plywood, stained on the inside a Golden Oak color, and covered on the outside with vertically placed craft sticks painted with watercolor to create a weathered look. A wood burner was used to make the nail holes in the barn’s exterior boards.

The trim was made with square balsa wood dowels and painted with white acrylic paint. The fence was made from square balsa wood dowels and coffee stirrers and painted with watercolor paint to add an aged effect.

The pasture was created using Vallejo Earth Texture and covered with straw and grass. The straw bales were made from Styrofoam blocks covered with straw with thin wire wrapped around twice to resemble true baling wire.

The roof was made from craft aluminum that was run through a tube squeezer to form the corrugation and painted with acrylic paint to give it an aged effect.

A cupola was added to allow ventilation to the barn. It was made from craft balsa wood and thin, square balsa wood dowels to form the air vents. Before being attached to the barn, the cupola was painted with acrylic white paint to match the trim on the barn.