The Amish workers and I both broke for lunch around eleven. They were hungry and exhausted, and I was eager to post some photos (which I took back near the road and without showing any identifiable faces, as agreed).

I did edge forward once or twice but otherwise kept to my end of the bargain.  It was not easy. When I came back to the raising, there were between 60 and 70 people there; the pickups and cards filled the driveway and spilled out onto the street.

I had to park on the road and walk-up. More than half of the roof was on, and everyone was driving towards the finish. The focus was palpable; everyone seemed to know what to do, Eli kept a close watch on things, Moise was just one of the workers.

He is exhausted.  I asked him if he planned to take some time to rest. “Oh, sure, Johnie,” he said, “I rest every night when I go to bed.”

He was beaming, though. “Looks pretty good. He asked me, which for him was over the top bragging. The people-watching from the town seemed hypnotized. A lot of them were old farmers, just sitting and shaking their heads.

Several said they couldn’t believe a farm that big could go up so fast and be so solid.

There was really no question that the barn will be finished by the end of the day; some of the wagons were already headed out, looking to find connections home, or in some cases, making the horse buggy trips themselves.

I saw two buggies being driven by women; the men were nodding off or asleep in the back. I’ve never seen people work too long, so hard, so congenially. I did not hear one discordant not; there was no one visible irritation, no audible complaint, no tension that I could see or feel.

I’m heading back one last time today around 7 p.m. I share what I find. Sorry for the delay; our power went out around 3 and just came back on. I wasn’t able to blog.