Susan Apps-Bodilly
Musings from an Old Barn by Jerry Apps

Jer­ry Apps
with Susan Apps-Bod­il­ly
Hen­schel­HAUS Pub­lish­ing, Inc.
August 15 2026
120 pages
ISBN 979–8995632665

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Musings from an Old Barn

What is impor­tant about an old dairy barn?

Jer­ry Apps often said, “You can’t know where you are going until you know where you’ve been.” This knowl­edge includes reflect­ing on how peo­ple and places influ­enced your life. Writ­ten in sec­tions that fol­low the sea­sons, Jer­ry con­tem­plates how mem­o­ries and sto­ries of an ordi­nary build­ing, such as a dairy barn, can prompt you to think about your life in new ways.

In Jer­ry’s famil­iar nos­tal­gic style, he describes life on his home farm in the 1930s and 1940s. There is young Jer­ry, help­ing Pa with chores in the barn, trav­el­ing to the cheese fac­to­ry and grist mill, tak­ing a sum­mer swim in the pond with his sib­lings, help­ing with the corn and pota­to har­vest, and car­ing for ani­mals on below-zero win­ter days.

Each chap­ter ends with prompts for thought­ful reflec­tion that invite mus­ing. Paired with vin­tage fam­i­ly pho­tos, the read­er is immersed in sto­ries of a rur­al past and encour­aged to reflect on how it shapes life today.

With Mus­ings from an Old Barn, Jer­ry’s dairy barn serves as the set­ting for sto­ry­telling and mem­o­ry-mak­ing, inspir­ing you to muse about impor­tant places and peo­ple in your own life.

Praise for Musings from an Old Barn

“Jer­ry Apps writes with the calm author­i­ty of some­one who has spent a life­time pay­ing close atten­tion. In Mus­ings from an Old Barn, he trans­forms the ordi­nary details of farm life into reflec­tions of uncom­mon depth and grace. Blend­ing mem­oir, rur­al his­to­ry, and qui­et phi­los­o­phy, he reminds us that the most endur­ing wis­dom is often found in famil­iar places — in chang­ing sea­sons, hon­est work, and the sto­ries car­ried by old barns. Warm, reflec­tive, and deeply humane, this is a book to savor rather than sim­ply read.”  (Nick Chiarkas, author of the award-win­ning nov­els  Weep­ers and Nunzio’s Way)

“Five of us shared a cam­pus office for years. Jerry’s sto­ries and infec­tious laugh enticed oth­ers to drop in. Always the teacher, he loved telling and invit­ing sto­ries. But, were he here now, I’d have to ask why their cows were named after neigh­bor­ing farm women. Wait! Say more, Jer­ry.”  (Judith Adri­an, award-win­ning author of In Warm Blood, From Hard­ship to Hope, and sev­en oth­er books)

“The late Jer­ry Apps’s late-life book about his ear­ly life on the fam­i­ly farm in rur­al Wis­con­sin is amaz­ing and enjoy­able, not just for the incred­i­bly detailed mem­o­ries of that life but also for his “mus­ings” — Jerry’s think­ing about those mem­o­ries in new and cre­ative ways, see­ing larg­er con­texts and mean­ings about farm life, fam­i­ly, work, the rur­al envi­ron­ment, and more. Here is a first-rate mind look­ing back over many decades and offer­ing read­ers not just a mem­oir but a thought­ful per­spec­tive on those mem­o­ries.” (Mar­tin Drap­kin, author of Poor Tom and oth­er novels)