3. What kind of farm work could Martha be doing in the barn that isn't necessarily be considered "woman's work"? And would there be a bale of hay in this barn?
Since no one has tackled this one, I'll give it a shot. My first thought is to ask if you actually mean stable instead of barn because around here - western Kentucky - there is a BIG distinction between what people think of when they hear barn or stable, although that's not always true everywhere. Barn here means a building used mostly for housing equipment and/or farm produce/products. Stable, OTOH, is an extremely specialized barn for housing animals that's earned its own name. And a horse stable is the most specialized of them all. Just about any stable, though, is likely to have hay as well as some bedding straw in it year-round both stored in haylofts above the stalls as well as simply laying around because a square straw bale makes a great place to take a break.
Even though most general/multi-purpose barns share common features, they can also be specialized to some extent according to what's grown in the region. (I've never quite figured out what Jonathan and Martha actually grow so there you'd probably need to ask someone familiar with Kansas agriculture.) What's currently stored in barns, meaning equipment or produce, will definitely vary according to the season, i.e. whether that crop is currently being grown or in storage. But remember, fundamentally a barn and even a stable is nothing more than a large storage building so just about ANYTHING can find its way into one as needed, including those odd bales of hay or straw that might not fit into the stable loft.
Anyway, in an actual barn, an individual could be working on anything from servicing equipment to sorting out or storing produce. Or, if you're really talking about a stable situation, the individual could be feeding or generally caring for animals or cleaning tack or other livestock equipment. The list is pretty infinite and NONE of it is considered either man's or woman's work and hasn’t been for a long, long time. Think pioneer spirit and trust me on this. Farm work is usually a matter of whoever is around and knows how to do it WHEN it needs to be done. Crops and animals wait for no MAN, believe me.
More than you wanted to know, I know.
