
Preservation is a labor of love, but labor, nonetheless. Safeguarding something precious is protecting its past without neglecting it, instead giving it life for posterity. Janet and Steve Kelley have held this notion dear as they’ve tended their ancestral property with their own hands. Many things remain the same — the fields are still harvested, a century-old house stands in the pasture and flocks of geese light on the pond as they always have. Any changes they’ve made, shaped by their own labor and imaginations, have been done with family in mind. The Kelley children built their homes on the corners of the property, cleared trees have been saved as wooden planks and a cedar barn was raised on a bucolic hill. The barn, born from a vision, is more than a structure of stalls. It’s a place rooted in heritage where the Kelleys come together, break bread, unwind and embrace moments yet to come.
Generations of Kelleys have lived and grown together on the rolling pastures Janet inherited from her parents. “I was raised on this land. My grandpa Frank owned it and passed it on to my dad, and he farmed soybeans and cattle until he went into construction full-time,” Janet says. “The house on the property was actually remodeled because it used to be a church. When I married Steve 51 years ago, Dad let us put a trailer on the lot while he built a new place on Perdido Bay. After they were done, my parents moved into the Bay house, and we moved into their old one. My dad and Steve eventually started building the house we’re in now, but we had our kids in the old one. When my daughter got married, they moved into the old house while hers was built. Then my son moved in there, and he built his home in the field. We all live on these 160 acres together, and we’ve all lived in that house I grew up in.”
Janet Kelley prepares for a winter party at the barn’s bespoke bar, with paintings of her ancestral property hanging behind her. Steve and Janet’s grandchildren Kage and Quinn love gathering with their family in the barn. The custom heart pine dinner table attaches to a pulley system that raises it to the cupula, forming the perfect perch for watching the sun set over the farm.
After decades of making memories on the Kelley property, Janet set her sights on a new project that would honor the past and create a space for future experiences. “I had this idea of a dream barn that I wanted to use for family gatherings — whenever we wanted to have people over,” Janet says. “When we first started, though, we were planning on doing this in a complete way.” The original vision for the barn was more traditional. Janet and Steve wanted to support their granddaughter’s equestrian passions by giving her a space to keep her horses, but horse riding was put on the backburner when her extracurricular activities expanded to other hobbies. The change in plans allowed the couple to unleash their creativity. “I knew I wanted a barn when I retired, and this kind of all started with Mobile Bay Magazine. There was a barn featured in 2019, and I decided I wanted my own little version of that. We had already been working with Josh Clark on a boat house on the Bay, and when that project was done, I asked him if he could build something like I wanted. He said, ‘Well, I’ve never done it before, but I can try. I think I can do that.’”
What started as a simple vision quickly grew into something more elaborate as two creative visionaries worked together. “Josh is very inventive. He likes doing different kinds of stuff, and I like doing that too. We just meshed together,” says Steve. “As we built the barn, we would just think of stuff. We had our chandelier and decided we wanted a window up where the hay loft would have gone so you can see it from the road. Then when we were working on the cupola, we had rented a scissor lift to go up there, and the guy was like, ‘Man, that’s a heck of a view up here.’ So, we got to talking and thought we could make a lift to go up in there and sit. He made this table out of heart yellow pine that is over 140 years old, and there are pockets on each end for a handrail that go in them. I made the aluminum beams and Josh put in about an 8,000-pound boat lift to carry it up. It turns it into a room up there, and you can just sit and have a drink and stuff — open the windows and look out all the way across the field.”
For Steve, building the barn was about more than just creativity. It was also a way to honor the family land and the resources it had provided over the years. “When I told Josh to go ahead and put in the stalls, he told me, ‘Well, we’ll have to get more wood, you know.’ I told him, ‘I think I know of some in Lillian. It’s covered up and has been there for 35 years,’” says Steve. “We went and looked at it and he said, ‘Oh yeah, that’ll work.’ It’s all juniper wood we cut out of the back of the property in some swamp land. Janet’s dad and I cut it, stacked it to dry and it just stayed up there. We did that with yellow pine from out of those woods too. Most of the structure is cypress, and we have that saved in case we ever want to make anything with that. But all of that kind of has sentimental value to us.”
Steve Kelley on the barn’s porch where he and Janet watch sunsets together. Steve and Janet’s son Kale stoking the fire in Janet’s father’s wood stove. Janet’s father’s restored guitar is now both an instrument and a piece of art.
Beyond the structure itself, the Kelleys’ barn is home to precious artifacts that carry pieces of the family’s history. “Just about everything we have in the barn has a story to it,” Janet says. “The guitar we have hanging up was my dad’s, and I’d been hunting it for years. Believe it or not, Steve was taking some wood out of an old barn and I just happened to look up and went, ‘Oh my gosh! There’s the guitar after all these years!’ It was in the rafter! Steve climbed up there, and it was in really bad shape. We found a guitar builder who fixed it — completely took it apart and redid the whole inside. He kept some of the scratches. He said he wanted to preserve the history of it. The back was totally broken, but he fixed it completely. We also have my dad’s wood stove that he built for his house. The exact week he passed away was the week he was going to put it in his house. So, we got his wood stove out of the barn he was building it, painted it and put it in here.”
Steve and Janet have found many meaningful connections to loved ones — even in the smallest details. “My mother wrote on everything. She had beautiful handwriting,” Steve says. “She passed away several years before my stepdad did, and when he died, we went to pick up some keepsakes. This little table was there, and I thought, ‘You know, she probably wrote a story underneath.’ We flipped that table over and there was a whole paragraph in pencil.”
Janet’s eye for detail and love of unique pieces added to the barn’s charm and character. “I found this antler chandelier on eBay and knew I wanted it for my barn one day,” Janet says. “We started talking to the woman, and she said, ‘I bought it for my son’s wedding. We had a barn wedding, but it doesn’t work. I am just trying to get rid of it.’ So, we bought it, drove down to Louisiana to pick it up and Steve got it to work. She says she wishes she’d never sold it! I knew then that that was going to be the thing to build the barn around.” Janet later found another statement piece to match it. “I wanted a Christmas tree and couldn’t find anyone to build it. I started looking on the internet and found this young gentleman in Texas and asked him if he could build me an 11-foot tree. Well, he’d never built an 11-foot tree, but said he’d be willing to do it. He said there were 300 antlers on that tree. We drove to pick it up because we didn’t want to pay for shipping. You can imagine the looks we got coming back home!”
Janet knew from the barn’s conception exactly how she wanted it to be used, and it quickly became a gathering place for family and friends. “The whole idea with this barn was to use it for family gatherings — Christmas, Thanksgiving, anytime we wanted to get together,” she says. “We weren’t even finished last Christmas and had people over. We ate in here and had the wood stove going. I’m having my class reunion here this year. And we sit here every afternoon on the rocking chairs and watch the deer and the geese come in. That’s more or less what I’ve wanted from this.”
The Kelleys’ history is even baked into meals shared in the barn. “We make pecan strudel every Christmas. It’s a recipe handed down from my German family,” Janet says. “My grandkids love it. The pecans are picked and shelled by me and my granddaughter from the orchard next to the house I was raised in. We also make Mexican cornbread from a recipe handed down from my husband’s mother. It’s made with jalapeno peppers and scallions that my granddaughter and I grow in my garden.” It’s little moments like these that prove that all their hard work was for something truly worthwhile in the end.
With their dream barn completed, Janet and Steve are ready to slow down and savor life at a different pace. “Steve told me, ‘Don’t think of anything else when this barn is done,’” Janet laughs. “We want to have time to take Steve’s boat out on the Bay, and we’re hoping that we can stay here some and travel out west a little. We’re workers. We’ve worked our whole lives. We want to do something different now: just take it easy.”

Pecan Strudel
Serves 24
Dough:
1 cup milk
1/4 ounce active dry yeast
3 egg yolks, room temperature
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
Filling:
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups pecans, finely chopped
Topping:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons milk
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1. For the dough: On the stovetop or in a microwave, warm milk to 100-110 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in yeast until dissolved. Whisk egg yolks into milk mixture.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour and whisk in sugar and salt. Cut butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or knife.
4. Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir under a dough forms.
5. Flour a clean, flat surface. Turn dough out of bowl and knead for
10 minutes. The dough should be tacky, but not sticky.
6. Roll the dough into a ball, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
7. Filling: With a stand or hand mixer, beat egg whites until glossy and smooth, about 4 – 5 minutes. Slowly add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until the sugar is fully incorporated. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
8. Gently fold in salt, vanilla and pecans until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
9. Flour a clean, flat work surface. Remove dough from the refrigerator and divide into 3 equal portions. Roll one portion of dough into a 10 x 14 inch rectangle.
10. Spread 1/3 of the filling over the surface of the rectangle. Roll up the rectangle, starting from the long side, creating a 14-inch-long log. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
11. Place the logs on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size. Remove plastic wrap.
12. While dough is rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until slightly golden-brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 – 10 minutes.
13. While the rolls cool, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Spread mixture over the rolls while still warm. Top with chopped pecans.
Cowboy Beans

Janet’s cowboy beans and Mexican cornbread are both made using ingredients from the family’s garden.
Serves 6 – 8
1 pound dried pinto beans, soaked in water overnight
4 slices bacon, thickly-sliced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon chopped cilantro
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Chopped cilantro and diced onion for serving, optional
1. Drain the soaked pinto beans into a colander and rinse with cold water.
2. In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook bacon until crisp. Add onion and jalapeno and saute for 5 minutes, or until onion is translucent.
3. Add garlic and cilantro to the pot and cook for 1 minute, or until the garlic is fragrant.
4. Add 6 cups of water, bouillon cubes, beans, salt and spices to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve topped with diced onions and cilantro.
Mexican Cornbread
Serves 12
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamed corn
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 vegetable oil
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup green bell pepper, small diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk cornmeal, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
3. Add creamed corn, sour cream, eggs and oil into the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Fold in green onions, green bell pepper and jalapenos.
4. Pour 1/2 of the mixture into prepared pan and sprinkle cheese over the batter. Carefully pour the remaining mixture over the layer of cheese.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

Janet and Steve’s daughter-in-law Whitney Haber Kelley sets the cheese ball on the handmade heart pine table.
Cheese Ball
Serves 12
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon pickle relish
1 tablespoon dried onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons pecans, finely chopped
Crackers, pretzels or vegetables for serving
1. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and cheddar cheese until smooth.
2. Add relish, onion, Worcestershire, lemon juice, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt and stir until fully incorporated.
3. Form the mixture into a ball and coat with chopped pecans.
4. Cover the cheese ball with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Remove cheese ball from the refrigerator and allow to soften at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving.