You can’t see it very well from the road, but a sturdy old concrete stave silo pokes skyward behind the farm home of Scott and Nancy Ritter near Sharon Center in Johnson County.

Although empty of silage since the mid-1950s, the 45-foot upright tube has been repurposed into something intriguing — an observation tower from which the Ritters can ponder the surrounding historic farmscape by day or toast a starry sky by night.

The farm has been in Nancy’s family for an astounding 159 years, homesteaded in 1863 by her great-grandfather after he emigrated from Prussia. When an older historic dairy barn collapsed after wind damage about eight years ago, it was Scott’s idea to build an elaborate wooden staircase inside the silo that still stood nearby.

“Many of the old buildings of farming are disappearing,” Nancy Ritter said. “I am grateful to Scott for achieving this dream of his and giving this old silo a new life.”

Scott Ritter spent more than a year framing up the 63 solid wooden steps, connected by platforms every 16 feet, which grace the smooth, rounded inside walls of the silo and give access to the top deck. It took considerable engineering and his acquired skills in carpentry.

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“I was just winging it,” he said with a grin. “I worked mostly when I had spare time or on weekends when it was warm enough. When I had an extra $100, I’d go buy some more lumber. At one point, I quit totaling up the expense. But really, it would be four times as much today.”

He purchased thick treated lumber, anchored the platforms inside with expanding rivets and used an electronic laser level to keep things plumb. A son who is a structural engineer approved his design, but the labor was Ritter’s solo endeavor.

“Most of the time I was working over my head,” he quipped, “but I never fell off a ladder. I just kept looking up and thinking, well, it’s getting closer.”

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Nancy said she never truly appreciated the work her husband was doing until she checked on him once late in the project and he suggested she could “grab a board and bring it up with you.”

“I could barely budge it,” she said, “and I realized he had to carry it up about 50 steps along a curve to get it to where he needed it for the next deck.”

Scott works as a surveyor for Hart-Frederick Consultants of Tiffin and Nancy is a retired special education teacher. She cherishes a happy childhood growing up on this farm, where her father milked Holsteins and later raised and showed Chester White hogs at the Iowa State Fair and other fairs. She and Scott moved back to the family home in 1993 and now rent out the farmable land.

She thinks the silo, which like most stave silos is wrapped in supporting wire on the outside, was probably built around 1940. After the collapse of the old barn, the couple moved its heavy foundation stones to an area near the house where they have created another peaceful spot for meditation — a goldfish pond with waterfall.

Views from the silo observation tower can put Nancy in a nostalgic mood, remembering how her father in his retirement years often mentioned the beauty of the land and what a treasure it was.

She quotes him as saying: “Look around you and see that, despite there being every color, everything blends without clashing into such a beautiful sight. How could anyone doubt the wonder of nature.”

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The Ritters report that on some mornings, when the light is right, the inside of their old farm silo can resemble a cathedral. The sun filters through the east openings and down through the wooden scaffolding Scott has fashioned. Some striking patterns emerge on the smooth, curved interior walls.

It’s almost an aura, they say, and a bonus benefit for Scott’s hard work in building a tower to the stars.