Back to the Land

Photograph from a barn raising in DeKalb, New York in June of 1985. As described by Bryan Thompson:

"There had been a lot of preparation beforehand, myself and one other person had worked. First we did the lumbering, hauling logs out of the swamp, having the hemlocks trees cut to make them lumber and then we put together the pressure treated frame of the barn and then we had a work day for crew to put the roof on the barn. It’s a gambrel roof barn, so it’s a lot of work to get those trusses up there, but we had a crew to come together one day, one Saturday in June of 1985 and we put the roof on in one day, we put all the trusses up and the boards on the roof. Assembled all that and then from there I finished the barn myself. I did the initial work of setting up the frame and then when we needed the help a crew came in for a RLA workday and we set up the trusses and got the roof boards on and then I completed the barn and was able to put hay in that season, by mid July I was able to put hay in the barn."