Building of a Barn, Almost

By Robert W. Cluney

It was 1934, right in the middle of the great depression. I was 15 years old. We were broke, like a lot of other people. My dad had a job as a night watchman in a furniture factory. He made 40 cents an hour.

We had been talking one day about bills and money. Dad said he was tired of paying rent. He would like a place to call home. There was a piece of land for $1,000 no one seemed to want because it was shaped in a triangle. It also ran along side the railroad track. Dad borrowed the money and bought the land. At the same the N. Y. Central railroad was selling off refrigerator cars and buildings to the highest bidder. Dad bid $10 for two of the refrigerator cars and $25 for a machine shop building. We only had two weeks to move everything off the railroad land. We tore down the buildings and took apart the railroad cars. We haled the lumber home and dumped it in the garden area at home any way we could. Dad was trying go get by on three hours sleep. At the beginning of the week school started. After school I sorted lumber until it got dark. Dad was dead tired but we managed to move the lumber. He had to get some rest. After he rested for two weeks he said he was rested up and it was time to start our new house. We collected sand stone for the foundation. It was a beginning. We didn't have any power tools. All of it had to be done by hand. Finally the house was finished and we moved in.

We had a cow and three pigs. They needed shelter too. We built a pigpen and a temporary shelter for the cow. One morning at breakfast looked at me and said, "Son I think it is time you built a barn. My mother started at my father and her mouth dropped open. Then it snapped shut and she said, "He can't build a barn He's too young." Dad looked at me with a little grin and replied. "He can't learn any younger." My father was a quiet man but when he said something I knew he meant it. So I knew that I had just been given an order. My mother's objections made it a challenge. So that morning I picked up the tools and went out to build a barn. I was determined that I was going to build a barn.

The next day I laid out the plan for a garage, a place for a cow, a place for a brood sow and a workshop for myself. The foundation was sandstone; the sills were 8 X 10s, 20 feet long of solid oak. I had to use levers to get them into place. Since I was using the lumber left over from the house, I had to throw out the book on the building. That was a good thing because I didn't know when I broke the rules. My corner posts were 6 X 6s. Most of the 2 X 4 studding were also oak. You can believe it when I say that I bent many nails on that job. The sheeting was 1 X 6 and 1 X 4 pine. In the morning I would hang my saw on a nail and work all day without cutting a board. I would start at a corner, Nail on a board no mater where it ended. I would leave the last board sticking out. At the windows I would do the same, letting the board stick out into the window opening. After I had finished a wall all but the top board, I would take my handsaw and cut off all the unwanted ends. Then I would take the short boards and nail them on the inside of the wall where I had butted boards together. This building would have made a modern day building inspector die laughing or have a heart attack or both. One thing I did learn was how to use a handsaw. If you ever tried to cut an 8 X 10 oak beam by hand you would know what I mean. Well, I got four walls up and the roof rafters. Then I was stuck, so in the morning at breakfast I told dad we would have to buy lumber for the roof. In his quiet way of talking he leaned back in his seat and said, "Oh, I don't think so." Then he went out and took the lumber I threw back and put on the roof. In his own way he taught me a lesson I never forgot. You can do anything you want to do. If you don't have what you need, look around at what you have and see how you can apply it to your job. Some times this turns out to be a better way than your first plan.

I tell my grand children there is no such thing as trash. Trash is only things that no one has found a use for.