The Amish: Barn Raising Days | Full Movie | Burton Buller

[Music] two weeks ago an amish barn burned word has gone out that today a new one will be raised already in the pre-dawn darkness of a heavy morning fog the amish community is gathering earlier starts you get the better it goes we aim to be done with the racing's life at lunchtime i'm still amazed that this community if something like that happens a lot of people should welcome and there's a fire a whole neighborhood's there which i hope you don't lose everybody's there to help it requires the work of many men to raise the heavy timber walls into place we had so many people there was people lined up from here clear out to where they ate it was nail aprons to come in outward the amish raised the walls of a timber frame barn today the same way they have done so for centuries by hand men overseeing the work call out instructions in a dialect of german called pennsylvania dutch as the timbers are slowly and carefully lifted into place to remain faithful to their ordinance or the set of unwritten rules they live by the amish may not willingly agree to be photographed some are more ambivalent than others about this rule it is open to many interpretations some may ignore the camera if it is kept at a distance a few believe that even though a camera is present as long as they are not knowingly part of the photography process they have not violated the ordnance others make it clear that they do not approve of photography under any circumstance i was out back and bringing in another load of hay an amish farmer describes the day his barn burned then once i saw smoke and well it took a minute or so you know to really realize it's something that shouldn't there's smoke that shouldn't be there so i my we just had a five week old baby then so my niece was here helping out with uh she was a higher girl so she came up top of the hill and to get me and that was when i first and i didn't know it was the house or the barn until she came up and at that time the children were well this was uh 1 30 i think the children were i knew the children were went to bed after lunch so i didn't know it was the house or the barn so well you know it was a relief to see her here was a barn so you were really concerned at that point oh yeah well you didn't know what yeah it was a relief it was a barn first guy that knows it was a neighbor going the road he saw smoke coming out of the barn so he came in and got my wife and he called called in and he kind of took charge they were here 11 minutes after the call came in when the call came in it was about six foot diameter up on the barn floor and what what was it cause it has something with the elevator we don't know was it the motor was it a hot bearing we have no idea it was a tinder box it was so dry and it's we why we stood up on the barn floor and we could see it burned about a mile away the walls just collapsed were the people that came right away to help yeah they came out of the woodwork amish non-amish yeah everybody oh it doesn't matter here what you are not at a time like this as soon as it was cool off the next day they cleaned away the rubble probably the next thing we did was got a committee in to help me make plans how soon was that after the burning we met that evening and the committee would have been composed of who three neighbor men three farmers raided local here oh yeah well and that was a that was the first evening and then you know there's more neighbors got involved in you know there's a lot of responsibilities if you're thinking about building a barn in 12 days with two sundays in there the workload had to be distributed out when did the barn builder get involved how did that happen next morning we went over to talk with him the next morning and he brought his uh blueprint tape on everything over he was over here by 10 30 or 11 o'clock set everything up and started drawing new plans there's a lot involved before the active bar race the responsibility for designing a new barn falls to the barn builder you know the first thing you do is go out and decide what the size of the bar and how they want to turn and decide and then you got to figure out the beams and the choice and to figure out where your posts come to carry the weight from the barn then you start laying out the top to see what it takes the entire structures fit together without nails just with wooden pegs and that has all be marked and cut and everything ready all fitted ready to fit together [Applause] we talked about for two two and a half hours and his neighbor lee has a sawmill just maybe a mile and a half i said lee tomorrow morning i'll be down and you'll have a list to cut as soon as i know the foundation size i can usually get the top laid out pretty quick and i worked till about 10 11 o'clock that night got that whole list thread in went down the next morning gave it to him and he started cutting would you generally use oak in that post and bean most of them quite a real popular maple walnut cherry whatever they could find out in his woods we had 12 sawmills cutting for that trees are cut from local hardwood groves the logs are hauled to local sawmills some owned by the amish where they are cut into the heavy timbers that will become the structure of a post and beam barn mortises and tenons are hand cut into the timbers then holes drilled for the wooden pegs that will hold the entire structure together and then if the green timber then use a dry peg it absorbs the moisture from the green wood it comes very tight and then they dry down together it's just a perfectly tight fit will last for hundreds of years what goes into a decision about post and beam well it's probably the probably the sturdiest thing out there i think the barn these amish are building uses post and beam construction for the sidewalls but they are replacing traditional rafters with modern pre-manufactured trusses the amish willingly hire cranes to place the trusses on the taller parts of the barn there is no other practical way to lift these pre-manufactured trusses into place hiring a piece of modern equipment that they may not own does not violate their rules regarding use of technology besides amish who are in the business of building houses for the larger non-amish community have become accustomed to using such equipment it is necessary for even modest jobs when the owners of these new homes cannot supply the manpower necessary for a house or barn raising [Music] [Applause] on the lower walls trusses are hand carried and lifted into place by groups of men and boys barn raisings are quite rare in the amish community most amish may not experience more than a few in their entire lives so the barn raising itself becomes an event to be enjoyed by the entire amish community it has become symbolic not only for all of us but also for them of their strong commitment to a culture of community in this culture of community no one individual lives life in isolation but rather is part of a network of caring and concerned individuals that collectively provide an effective safety net when tragedy strikes children are welcome at any barn reason but they keep a safe distance from the potentially dangerous work of the adults much of what amish children learn about being amish they learn by observing by being present children absorb the core value expressed by a barn raising that they are part of a community a community that they can depend on in times of need barn raisings probably more than most social events allow youth to interact with their peers from nearby church districts here they may also meet non-amish youth from the neighborhood who sometimes introduce them to technology frowned upon by their own community these interactions with non-amish continue throughout their lives while choosing cultural isolation the amish are amazingly aware of technologies and social mores beyond their own world [Music] one does not find electric powered tools in the amish community circular saws are rather powered by gasoline engines or in some cases battery running a generator to recharge batteries is acceptable but plugging an electric power saw into the generator would cross the fine line that the amish have defined as being too much in touch with the modern world so much of what the amish do is informed by tradition and symbolism a visual connection to the impersonal power grid makes them uncomfortable but generating electricity by solar panels or by generator for charging batteries maintains the symbolic distance from the outside world a barn raising may look chaotic six or eight hundred men show up if you were watching all day you may or may not have been able to tell who was in charge the barn builder organizes the raising i appoint guys to two guys to engineer the one side of it and they take a group to them and make sure that side gets done and you just go around the barn like that and guys up on the roof and i got six boys on the ground two nephews before my own boys everyone looks to these men for instructions as to the order of the work the barn builder also places someone in charge of the steel siding and roofing these men know intuitively from past building experience when to activate the men for whom they are responsible the day of the barn reason the head carpenter stands back and watches as you said i slept nothing last night the day of the racing his work is done he just stands back and watched it unfold the barn raising is simply an extension of group work that the amish learn already in early childhood children work with each other and with their parents to plant a garden or milk the cows neighbors helping each other is a normal frequent activity volunteers showing up at a barn raising need little oversight they know from experience the rhythms that working together as a single unit requires [Music] long before the roof is finished the steel siding is already being attached to the outside walls some more seasoned with working with steel siding are responsible for cutting the openings for windows and doors measurements are called down to older men who cut pieces to fit younger men on ladders or cranes screw the steel to the wooden studs with battery-powered drills [Applause] roofing boards are attached to the trusses and trimmed to the correct length after they are in place [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] a layer of plastic is laid down stapled to the boards and steel roofing panels carried into position [Music] these interlocking panels form a tight-fitting waterproof roof that will last for generations the neighboring churches would bring in the noon meal a few women may make enough pies for several hundred men others bake fresh bread local businesses are often eager to donate the meat and vegetables like the churches my brothers and sisters are in a lot of those help with maybe one church pet cake or you know two churches had cake and couple had pie at this barn raising the meal is served by 11 11am working from before daybreak the volunteers are hungry the barn is already under cover and tables and benches can be set inside besides by noon many participants will start to drift away fewer men will be needed to finish the roof doors and windows benches normally used for church services stored and transported in a specially built enclosed wagon are set up inside the new barn amish worship services including singing are conducted in german the second song sung in all amish worship services is called the low bleed or praise song it begins with the words o god father we praise you and your goodness exult me [Music] after lunch hay either purchased or donated begins arriving by the end of the day the barn will be filled with feed for horses and cows and be fully operational by mid-afternoon the women leave and the men follow shortly thereafter their task finished small scraps of wood left behind fill a young amish boys toy truck [Music] here in a different amish community they are using more modern construction techniques good morning hey i have a quick question in the past the amish have been known for their post and beam construction i see a lot of these things are going up now with balloon construction what's the advantage disadvantage uh usually the person being they want to farm the back still the guys that are a good heavy tobacco farmer want to post some bean this guy is not a tobacco farmer that owns the farm and he wants open space with no post in the way that's the reason they go with it yeah that's the only reason well that makes sense i just wanted the clear stand yeah it's not it's not much cheaper not much cheaper no but it's just does it does it go up slower no no not much different it's just different people's options there's one got one id and another guy got another one rather than going to the forest to find their lumber for this barn lumber from the local lumber yard is used the construction style used is commonly referred to as stick built rather than wood being joined together with mortises and tenons it is nailed together stick built construction changes the order of a barn raising where once the building site would have been cleared and the foundations walls and floor completed before the barn raising now several things can happen at once the site is cleared of debris even while the concrete blocks are delivered and block walls built once the foundation and block walls are built the floor joists are laid a floor built and then construction of the walls begins to the public it appears to take longer this is only because by the time most of us see a post and beam barn raising there has been significant preparation and the raising takes only an impressive half day or so with stick built construction we see more of the entire process these amish have hired a van and driver to bring them and their building tools to the barn raising should everyone come by horse and buggy finding space feed and water for so many animals can be a problem here air power from a gasoline driven air compressor is used to run their saws older boys as well as older men are given jobs that are less strenuous usually boys are not allowed to be part of the crew that works on the barn itself until they are about 14 years old you know boys or boys mix the boys in with a man i mean don't let a group of boys be on one spot get him get him moving [Music] [Music] lumber must be cut to length generally this job is reserved for the older men the women are always in charge of the meal at this raising they leave the barn raising site early and assemble at a neighboring farm where the meal is being prepared [Music] when mealtime arrives wagons clear to their loads of wood become convenient taxis [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you [Music] walls are built on the floor and then raised into position but they are not built with the heavy timbers of a post and beam barn the amish do not depend on commercial insurance companies to cover the loss of a barn rather they have their own informal form of insurance it's the best insurance policies that we can have better than any insurance that we can buy frugality and their willingness to help each other during times of loss keeps costs low enough that self-insurance remains feasible you don't want to go out and spend a lot of money and all once you have a big bill yet here that our insurance or whatever you want to call it didn't take care of talk to me about that insurance what what kind of insurance well everybody has to take uh it has a valuation form in our church group and then we have a fund for example if the fund gets low everybody has to pay a dollar per thousand that you you're valued at and put that in the fund and that's there if something like this happens in our church area if everybody puts in a a dollar a thousand you're talking six hundred thousand dollars you know that covers some that's just storm fire and theft it's a non-profit thing nobody gets anything out of it every church has an appraiser and the appraisers check to see what the difference was in square footage and how much you got in per square foot you know that has a lot of weight on what they coming together that mutual aid is part of what it means to be opposition well it's the way we want to keep it we don't want to lose that you can you imagine how much labor went in this barn think about paying those guys fifteen twenty dollars an hour and with a commercial insurance company taking care of that you think we should lose it now as the burn racing day approaches to the outside you know we never hear when that day is do you people know ahead of that oh i would think so you know that that day is coming and they just normally say it a couple days in advance and how did the word spread just by mouth what were you doing that day watching oh there's als there's still small decisions to make and then there's a lot of people show up and want to talk with you and that's similar experiences you know how do you feel about that was it helpful oh yeah oh yeah it's kind of a kind of binds a little group together just like anything else if you have something in common you start talking and what gets you to appreciate other people more probably or what they do for you and you don't really have to do anything really major big to make an impact people just being there yeah just being there in their time so what does a family go through when barn burns well they're stressed out and you know the church group comes in and helps with everything the hardest part for them is to accept the help coming in i mean they can never pay it back and people don't want them to pay it back there's a lot of volunteer help coming in at david's barn region we had 700 or more people to help you know we've had barns burned from lightning and barns burned from lanterns accidentally and we've had arson now that's the toughest barns to build if you know it with larson because you don't know what's the guy going to do next it's sad that you've got guys out there setting fire like that and there's barns that we rebuilt that maybe small children was playing with matches we had one oh i think this boy was like six seven or eight years old and he really liked the play was a lighter and it finally happened in the barn the whole barn burn three high school kids were all drunk and they lit that barn and they lit a sawmill and they lit uh machinery i mean in a half hour's time they had them the law had since stick built construction does not require as many men to erect heavy beam walls men tend to arrive later in the morning at any given time far fewer men will be seen building the barn but it remains a group effort with a large part of the local community participating while accidents do happen they are rare now we've had accidents everybody's got to be careful i remember one bar when one guy fell down and broke his ankle and we had a hammer drop on somebody's head already that they had to go in how does it make you feel when the barn completed cool there must be a sense of satisfaction it is it is especially if nobody gets hurt [Music] have you would you say your life has changed since then you and your family's wife in any way um probably some but you just hear maura you just hear something like that happens yeah you know you hear it right away or you just you try to help out you probably try to help other people more than what you did before and it better be that way i think this ball no david's barn the masons they were supposed to measure in between the wall and this cows table and they hooked on the outside of the wall put this wall in i didn't know this and nelson he's the guy that put the stanchions in and he was working on it he started in the morning and he kept on going and then at around four o'clock he says come on down here i want to show you something and then he told me that wall is it's a foot over this way and i look that and i says now what are you doing nelson you're crowding everything together and they had just laid that wall today before and we was talking about that i said nelson if we built this barn and crowd everything for david now he'll never like his barn i says let's get that wall out of here and relay it and there was people standing around and emotional and i says take them walls off they looked at me i said i'm serious take them off and they just kind of stood back and i think they thought i'm crazy i just went over and got the bar and started pushing that wall over it says i'm gonna move it we're gonna move it so i got on the phone and called another contractor and i said steve i'm in trouble down here where they laid up that center wall it's gotta be moved west to fort he actually helped put it in i says can you come down right away this is already there in 15 minutes he showed up and that wall was out cleaned up they started laying block at five o'clock that evening they laid it all up and the next morning they could put them stanchions exactly where they needed to be i mean they used 90 of the block it wasn't cured that hard yet [Music] foreign barns such as the amish build were once a dominant feature of the rural american landscape [Music] changing agricultural practices and a diminishing rural population have caused most such barns to fall into disuse and disrepair [Music] barnes have become the nostalgic subject of artists and occasionally the target of preservationists like so many other features of past american life the amish have preserved the traditional barn for their own use diversified agriculture using horsepower that features livestock as well as grain and hay crops still make large barns a primary feature of amish farmsteads but changes are underway once more than 90 percent of the amish made their primary income from farm-related activities today in some amish communities nearly 90 percent depend on business related activities for their main income such amish families may have only one or two horses and no other livestock a rapidly increasing amish population has precipitated a housing boom in amish country new homesteads are now composed of a house with a small barn that often matches the architectural style and colors of the house it seems more closely related to a garage in many cases than a barn these small barns do not require barn raisings they are built by the same construction crews that erect the houses while the large traditional barns that are part of our collective memory of rural america will continue to exist in amish communities they are becoming less dominant today's barns are more architecturally acceptable in expanding suburban landscapes to which even the amish are contributing [Music] the amish recall for us a time before modernity when most in america live close to the soil when the lives of individuals closely intertwined with those of their neighbors [Music] a barn raising stands as a reminder that even today with all our technology and sophistication there is no substitute for a caring community in good times and bad but particularly in times of tragedy we still need each other [Music] songs [Music] [Music] yes me [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] me [Music]

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 905,016

Keywords: Christian Video, Christian Film, Christian Movie, Religious Movie, Film, Movie, Entertainment, Feature Film, Vision Video, The Amish: Barn Raising Days Movie, The Amish: Barn Raising Days Full Movie, The Amish: Barn Raising Days documentary, Amish documentary, Burton Buller documentary, Burton Buller

Id: vfKkuZmlx6U

Length: 42min 12sec (2532 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021

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[u/mustwarmudders]

Cool cooperation but that culture sucks ass, as do all religious cultures. Misogyny, ignorance, 'faith'. (the death of reason).

[u/NutmegLover]

setflair good ass praxis

[u/NutmegLover]

You kind of have to pay attention to how the Amish talk about their "insurance", it's a mutual aid society. And people work together on the barn without being asked to, they just show up when their neighbor needs them. They openly admit that they can't afford to buy a barn and their community just turns up and builds one within 12 days of the need arising.