Yesterday, work on Moise’s barn-raising began in earnest.

Horse and buggy carriages were riding up the road all day, and a number of Amish workers came by bus and train and had to be picked up and driven to the farm.

Moise and his sons had begun work, marking out the foundation, pouring concrete for the foundation and rear wall, hauling packages of concrete by horses to a gas-powered mixer.

The barn will rise close to the new house that will have its own raising later this year.

Moise invited me to come and watch as often as I like, he cautioned me that some of the people coming in from out of town don’t like to see cameras. I agreed not to bring one unless the site was empty.

The Amish sometimes call barn and house raisings a “frolic,” a work even that combines socializing with a practical and important goal.

Mutual aid is a sacred tenet of Amish worship.  Barn raising brings the community today and reinforces the idea that fellow church members will always come together to help when asked.

I often think of the Amish system as a mix between socialism and capitalism, in almost equal parts, with hard work at the center. These are not chores to these men and women, they are manifestations of joy and faith.

There is also a social component. The wives and daughters who come make quilts while the men are building the barn, there are large meals, singing, and some small children run freely playing games.

Today, when I visited the worksite, there were about a dozen small children crawling on the rock piles, ferrying cold water to the workers. It had the air of a  carnival as well as a worksite.

The men work steadily, sometimes talking, sometimes joking, but never stopping.

Over the next few days, as the frame is constructed (lumber is stacked up all along with the work site) the pace will pick up. Everything is planned, everything needed is there.

As always, no one is shouting orders, no one is grumbling about the work, no one is asking any questions.

Things will get more serious at the barn site, the air will be filled with the sound of a dozen or more men hammering at once. They will work hard and with few be breaks for hours in the sun.

The barn raising is part of the Amish mythology in the outside world, every movie ever made about the Amish features a barn raising. Barn raisings are becoming less frequent, as travel and cost become more of a factor.

I’m getting to see this one taking shape on the Miller farm up the road, I’m fortunate. Work began yesterday, the official day of the raising has been set for July 28.

There are all kinds of reasons for new Amish barns – fire, a new farmer, a married couple starting out,  natural disasters from lightning to floods. The Amish make a commitment to God to help one another and seeing them gather for a barn raising is dramatic evidence of that belief coming into practice.

Moise has been talking about the planning, and barn raisings are showcases of Amish planning, organization, and manual, not mechanized, labor. His entire family comes, so do people from his former community, so do total strangers.

Typically,  barn raisings are led by two master Amish “engineers” who lay out plans for the barn and make sure well in advance that all the needed materials are available.

Moise, an elder, is one engineer. His son-in-law Eli is another. The two have been getting ready for months.

One of those planning trips was to Glens Falls a couple of months ago. I drove Moise to a concrete supply company and he negotiated with the sales force for an hour or so until he got the price he thought was fair.

The concrete was delivered weeks ago and neatly stacked so it could e loaded onto horse-drawn carts and moved to the mixer.

Moise and John have been pouring and laying concrete for several days.

This gives the concrete time to set before other workers arrive.

Helpers will be arriving steadily until the barn is “raised,” and officially finished. Moise is building the barn using wood-peg construction. The biggest crowd will come when the frame is going up. Somehow, everyone gets the word.

It doesn’t take a single day, as in the movies, it might take a week or two from start to finish. It’s the wood-frame structure, says Moise, that usually goes up in a day.

Children are expected to help out, but not do the heavy carpentry.

For the Miller family, there is a lot of work and a lot of joy in the raisings. There is the social element – family and friends together –  but also the great pride Amish workers take in the efficient and well-organized way in which they do things.

And of course, the raisings are an ultimate celebration of the idea of Mutual Aid, the security that comes from knowing there is always help, and it will always come at no cost.

Moise’s daughters have been consulting with Maria all week on the quilts they plan to make and the patterns they hope to buy. We’ve been going online to order the patterns they want.

This morning, Maria met with them for a half-hour, helping them find the patterns they want to use online. These quilts will be prepared during the raising construction.

Moise says I can take all the pictures I want when everwork has stopped at the site. So there is more to come, and I see that he will really be able to use the took belt I’ve ordered for him as a birthday present. I think it will come tomorrow.