Veja Du - 7

I grew up in the Thumb of Michigan. My Uncle has a farm that has been in his family for over 150 years. I spent a lot of summers out there, helping as free labor, bailing hay, chasing cattle & just being a boy. A few years ago, my Uncle had a fire in his barn and lost everything, including three horses, 5 head of cattle, some cats and even decades old horse tack. My Uncle was devastated.

My Aunt came up with an idea that would help rectify the family farm’s plight: hold an old-fashioned, Amish-style, barn raising. She secretly called extended family and even posted an ad in the local newspaper. Word of mouth spread the news and soon she had commitments from a lot of people with different backgrounds. If you could swing a hammer, or even lift a board, you were welcomed to participate.

The weekend of the barn raising, the farm started to look like a shanty town. Everybody came out to the middle of nowhere and pitched a tent, got out their tools and pitched in where they could. It was amazing. We had done the prep work the work before, making sure the foundation was secure to build upon and supplies were plenty. Once we started to build, it took off like a wild fire. It only took two days for us to build a whole barn. The only thing we did not finish was to hang the overhead, sliding doors and siding.

You might not associate this kind of labor with “play,” but to me it was something better. As I said, I half grew up on this farm and was very happy to be a part of the re-transforming a heartbreaking situation back into something positive. My Uncle is a very strong, Bible believing, country boy and does not show much emotion. It was very touching to hear his voice crack as he gave thanks to everybody during the first night’s blessing over dinner. It may have been work, but we all played in our own special way. Nobody was forced to be there and it was a beautiful thing to experience.

It has long since been completed and the new barn is full of horses, hay and tools. It may not have the same old ambiance of the old-style barn, but this one has made a lot of memories already.