Eugene straining every muscle he had, and little Oz too, they could not lift it enough.
"We figger that out later," said Eugene finally, his big chest heaving from the failed
effort.
He and Cotton laid out the first wall on the ground and started to hammer. Halfway
through they ran out of nails. They collected all the scrap metal they could find and
Eugene made a roaring coal fire for his forge. Then, using his smithy hammer, tongs, and
shoeing anvil, he fashioned as many rough nails from the scrap as he could.
"Good thing iron doesn't burn," remarked Cotton, as he watched Eugene working away
on the anvil, which still stood in the middle of what used to be the barn.
All of Eugene's hard work netted them enough nails to finish another third of the first
wall, and that was all.
They had been at this for many cold days now, and all they had to show for it was one
hole and a single finished corner post and no way to allow either to meet, and a wall
without enough nails to hold it together.
They collected early one morning around the post and hole to mull this over, and all
agreed the situation did not look good. A hard winter was creeping ever closer and they
had no barn. And Sue, the cows, and even the mules were showing the ill effects of being
out in the freezing air all night. They could not afford to lose any more livestock.
And as bad as this plight was, it was really the least of their problems, for while Louisa
had regained consciousness from time to time, she had not spoken a word when awake,
and her eyes appeared dead. Travis Barnes was very worried, and fretted that he should
send her to Roanoke, but he was afraid she would still not survive the trip, and the fact
was, there wasn't much they could do for her there anyway. She had been able to drink
and eat a bit, and while it wasn't much, Lou took it as something to hold on to. It was as
much as her mother was able to do. At least they were both still alive.
Lou looked around their small, depressed group, then gazed at the naked trees on the
angled slopes and wished winter would magically dissolve to summer's warmth, and
Louisa would rise fine and healthy from her sickbed. The sounds of the wheels made
them all turn and stare. The line of approaching wagons pulled by mule, horse, and oxen
teams was a long one. They were filled with cut lumber, large padstones, kegs of nails,
ropes, ladders, block and tackle, augers, and all manners of other tools, that Lou
suspected came in part from McKenzie's Mercantile. Lou counted thirty men in all, all
from the mountain, all of them farmers. Strong, quiet, bearded, they wore coarse clothing
and wide-brimmed hats against a winter's sun, and all had large, thick hands severely
battered by both the mountain elements and a lifetime of hard work. With them were a
half dozen women. They unloaded their supplies. While the women laid out canvas and
blankets and used Louisa's cookstove and fireplace to start preparing the meals, the men
began to build a barn.
Under Eugene's direction, they constructed supports for the block and tackle. Forgoing
the route of post and mortar in hole, they opted to use the large, flat padstones for the
barn's foundation. They dug shallow footers, laid the stones, leveled them, and then
placed massive hewn timbers across the stones as the sill plates. These plates were
secured together all around the foundation. Additional timbers were run down the middle
of the barn floor and attached to the sill plates. Later, other posts would be placed here
and braced to support the roof framework and hayloft. Using the block and tackle, the
mule teams lifted the massive corner posts up and on top of the sill plates. Thick brace
timbers were nailed into the corner posts on either side, and then the braces themselves
were firmly attached to the plates.
With the barn's foundation set, the wall frames were built on the ground, and Eugene
measured and marked and called out instructions on placement. Ladders were put up
against the corner posts and holes augured into them. They used the block and tackle to
raise other timbers up to be used as the crossbeams. Holes had been hand-drilled through
these timbers, and they were attached to the corner posts with long metal bolts.
There was a shout as the first wall was run up, and each time after that as the remaining
walls were built and run up. They framed the roof, and then the hammering became
relentless as stud walls were further built out. Saws sliced through the air, cold breaths
crowded each other, sawdust swirled in the breeze, men held nails in their mouths, and
hands moved hammers with practiced motions.
Two meals were rung for, and the men dropped to the ground and ate hard each time. Lou
and Oz carried plates of warm food and pots filled with hot chicory coffee to the groups