Chapter 21

The field behind where the auction had been held looked considerably different in the daylight five and a half months later. The corn stubble that had poked out of the ground was long gone, and had been replaced with the stubble of harvested oats poking up through the green of clover. There was a bright blue sky dotted with clouds overhead, and green on the trees, although to the practiced eye the leaves were starting to look a little aged. Soon they would be falling as another winter came to the Michigan countryside, but no one wanted to think about that, not on this of all days.

Although most who were there that morning appreciated the nice weather, there were few comments about the rest of nature's scene. There were other things to draw the eye -- mostly the black of a hundred or more Amish buggies scattered around, horses idly grazing on the clover of the field. There were probably several hundred Amish present, ranging from babies in cradles to elders barely able to get around with canes, and all ages in between. This was something that didn't happen very often even among the Amish, and there were people who had driven their teams for a couple days to be there for the rare event of a combined house and barn raising.

While there were a few cars and trucks of English friends parked toward one side of the gathering, right in the middle of all the activity was an incongruous sight that was about all that kept the scene from being one from a century before: a tan and white 30-foot 1996 Itasca motor home that had come the farthest of anyone to be present at this day of days. The generator behind one of the rear wheels was roaring to keep up with the demand for power that Roger and Catalina were putting on it with a pair of Skil saws. There was no way they could keep up with all the sawing needing to be done; there was plenty of work being done with hammers and handsaws, which they could hear occasionally when both the power saws were quiet, which wasn't often.

Once again, David was marking cuts for them just like he'd done down in Pass Christian the winter before. If anything he was even more careful than ever before, because it was his house and barn that were being built. And it was just in time; his wife Sarah, who'd also worked with them in Pass Christian, a sweet girl with a sweet face, was, as they say in the Bible, great with child. David didn't plan on going down south this winter as there was going to be plenty to do around their new farm. Any spare time he might have had would be spent with Michael's logging crew, felling trees back in the woods and helping haul them out to the road.

Though they hadn't yet had the chance to look around very much, Roger and Catalina were happy to be here. They'd been alerted to this event in a letter they'd received at Cedar Breaks National Monument a month before, and they'd agreed instantly there was no way they were going to miss it. Still, it had taken four days of leisurely driving to get back to Wychbold from Utah, dragging the Geo Tracker behind them, of course. Once Roger had gotten over his snit about Fords or nothing, he agreed it made pretty reasonable sense, and he figured he might as well let Catalina win one once in a while. They'd taken a couple days to unload some of the summer gear from the new motor home, and load some carpentry tools, although Roger doubted much would be needed besides the power tools.

The Amish women had spent much of the morning preparing a great noon meal, and around the time the sun was high work gradually ceased as people drifted over to eat. There was still work to be done on the house and barn, but it was coming along nicely; from what he could see, Roger thought there was a good chance it would be wrapped up by the end of the day.

"Might's well go see what's for lunch," David said finally, and added, "Don't eat yourself full. There's work to be done yet, and supper likely will be even better."

"Good enough for me," Catalina said. "I'm ready for a break."

"Me, too," Roger agreed. "But things sure seem to be going well."

"Yah, they are," David said as he led them over to the tables that had been set up a ways away from the activity.

Before too long Roger and Catalina had found a place at a long table with Aaron and Michael, who invited the couple to join them.

"So," Aaron said. "From what little I've heard you've had a good summer."

"We did," Catalina said. "The place is magnificent, really beautiful, and about as far from around here as can be imagined. The job was a little dull in a way, although we got to meet a lot of interesting people."

"It must have been different indeed," Aaron said. "As different as Pass Christian is from here."

"Oh, much more than that," Catalina told him. "We were way up in the mountains there, and it never got really hot. I can't imagine what it would be like down there in Pass Christian this time of year."

"It was very hot when we were down there this time of year last year," Michael told her. "Hot enough to think about taking off a shirt sometimes, even though it wouldn't have been proper."