Gary Weeks was at the highest point of the scaffolding, sighting down the roof ridge after the rafters went up. “ Not too bad for a bunch of volunteer country folk.” he said to Frank. Gary is an understated man, but this was the understatement of the day. The barn was perfect, and he had seen to it that it was. Gary had designed the barn, and had been working on the plans for months, and it had all come together without a hitch. We had a barn.

For over a year, we had been planning to build some sort of new farm market. Running as an undercurrent to that, Pamela had always said she wanted a structure big enough to hold dances in. (We love to polka.) Well, back in February, Frank toured the Pennsylvania countryside after the PASA conference and came back all fired up to build a barn. “How did farmers afford to build those incredible barns a hundred years ago? Why can’t we do that now?” We figured the only way we could do it was to hold a barn raising.

So we ran the idea past two friends who are both fine furniture builders. Gary Weeks and his family build incredible handmade rocking chairs; we own two of them (www.garyweeks.com). We ran the idea of a barn raising past Gary and he said he would take the project on. We went to Gary with the idea to design the barn like the old local German Agricultural Society halls built around 100 years ago. The defining feature of these halls is the laminated, arched trusses that give a high roof and a clear span inside. We based the barn on nearby Fischer Hall, a hall built around 1900. Coincidentally, another woodworker friend, Phillip Sell (selldesigngroup.com) told us a while back that if we ever built a barn, he’d like to do the trusses just like Fischer Hall. Here was his chance and we took him up on it. We all met at Fischer one cold night last February, took measurements and photos, and decided to go for it.

So we threw a barn raising party. On Sept. 23, more than 200 people showed up at our farm to help out. Gary had labored over the plans for months. We had truckloads of lumber waiting on site. There were pallets of nails, screws and hardware, and stacks of roofing tin. Everything had to be thought out in advance and all contingencies had to be planned for. We had built the trusses a week before in a warehouse in Wimberley and brought them to the site. People showed up at dawn, and Pamela had an army of cooks ready, and started the day serving New Orleans style beignets (doughnuts), coffee, and then a full breakfast.

We soon realized that this event was not just about a barn, but about people. This sort of thing hadn’t happened in our area for decades and folks came from everywhere and from all walks of life. People we had never met before showed up with hammers, power tools, food and musical instruments. A group of local musicians kept bluegrass music going all day and into the night. The kitchen crew fed everyone three square meals of home-cooked food. That evening we had a celebration. The most amazing, and humbling, part of the day was that people kept coming up to us and thanking us for letting them be part of the event. Wow! We owed everything to their generosity, but they felt it was an honor to be included.

At the end of the first day, the walls were up, but we had a lot more to go. But people weren’t ready to quit. Over the next two weekends we had a crew of about 50 diehards who helped us get the roof up and the siding on. Pamela kept the kitchen running at full capacity. All in all, it took five working days to get the barn up. After that we hired a couple of local carpenters to tie up all the little loose ends.

The barn is framed with 2 x 6 yellow pine. The siding is redwood (not old growth) and, incredibly, Gary Weeks made custom windows from sustainably grown mahogany. He just couldn’t find any he liked, so he made his own. The trusses are three laminated 1 x 8 pine boards top and bottom, trimmed down to 6 inches wide and blocked with 2 x 6 pine. The entire building is a work of art, and we realized that these two furniture builders approached this project as a giant piece of furniture.

The project became exactly what we had hoped for, an example of cooperation, community and celebration. We will use the barn for our weekend market, but it will also be available for community potlucks, get-togethers and events. A lot of people put a lot of work into the barn, and we owe it back to the community. Everyone has a stake in the barn. But, as Gary pointed out, there is one drawback to having 200 volunteers build a barn. He says “Now you have 200 people who own this thing.” This is a great thing, until it comes time to choose a paint color. We had 200 strong opinions. So we finally had to pull rank, and we chose blue—morning glory blue. We are in the business of color, after all.