A barn-raising is one of the oldest acts of rural community, and in this day and age a rare occurrence. Jon Sumner held a barn-raising at Windfield Farm in Elmira yesterday.
“We’ve had this farm for just over six years. We named it Windfield right after we bought it because the wind never stops blowing here.”
The wind is heavy, and so is the rain. I’ve never witnessed a barn raising until yesterday, but the group of men helping Jon raise the barn are in pleasant spirits and aren’t complaining about the rain at all.
Barn raising is an old community tradition that dates back to the 18th century. When a farmer needed a barn, fellow community members would come to help him build it and the project would get done quickly. All capable members of the community (typically men) were expected to help. One day you may need help raising a barn of your own, beyond that it was just considered the right thing to do for your neighbor and your community.
Jon has several other barns at Windfield Farms. He has one built for wedding ceremonies that has romantic lights and chandeliers strung from the wood beams, as well as a barn that can be used for event space. The designated event space has a stage for music, a bar, a commercial kitchen and plenty of space.
“We do family reunions, banquet parties, wedding receptions. We’ve had about every party you could think of in the last year. Most people don’t even know about us.”
Beyond the clustering of Barnes Jon’s wife has an antique store, Rusty Rooster, at the farm as well.
With so many barns why is Jon adding another one? To get back to his roots. Jon’s great great great grandfather moved to Northern Michigan from Vermont in 1827 after completing a blacksmith apprenticeship. He had a particular flair for making sleds, an in demand item for kids of any age in Northern Michigan. Blacksmith skills have been in the family blood for generations and Jon plans on dedicating more time to it.
“I’ve had six strokes in the last three years. Working with your hands is like therapy and having a blacksmith shop has always been a dream of mine, now that we got this farm and different events going on wouldn’t it be great to have one here?”
When Jon realized he wanted to have a barn dedicated to blacksmithing he reached out to the community through Facebook. Blacksmithing requires tools that Jon didn’t have and building a barn alone is a long and tedious task.
“About three weeks ago I put out a little thing on Facebook saying that it was my dream to build an 1800s blacksmith shop. I needed a forge, I needed coal, I needed blacksmithing tools, I needed a blacksmithing vice. I didn’t have any of that stuff. All of the sudden my Facebook blew up.”
The community came through. Jon’s post sparked a firestorm of supportive and helpful comments. People had a father-in-law or a brother who would sell him tools he needed for cheap. Friends gave him other items to get started.
“We were able to outfit the whole blacksmith shop in like, a week.”
Beyond coming through on helping him supply his shop, the community came through to assist him in building the barn.
As I drove to Elmira I had to pull off at a gas station and wait for some of the rain to let up. The heavy sheets of rain kept me from seeing the car in front of me at some points, and these dedicated men spent their Sunday afternoon performing hard labor in it in the name of being decent folk. One young man was even spending his birthday there, despite not personally knowing Jon.
“I know his nephew Sawyer,” Christopher Coleman said. “They asked me to help and I didn’t have anything else going on today.”
There was a group of about six helping Jon. Measuring and cutting wood, lifting and bolting the pieces together. The skeleton of the barn-to-be was established by the time I had arrived. Christopher told me that even if it wasn’t done today, he’d come back to help finish it tomorrow.
Jon wants to make Windfield Farms a place people want to visit.
“We want to make a destination for people to come to. They can come here and shop the antique store, they’ll be able to come here and see blacksmithing demonstrations, we do different parties.”
With the community he loves backing him, Jon is making his dreams come true at Windfield Farms.
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