Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504030093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIS LENGTH: Long
With the sun hiding behind clouds and a cold wind whipping through the Blue Ridge, more than 50 volunteers came to Little Mountain Farm on Saturday to rebuild a barn roof destroyed by fire two months ago.
Many of the workers awoke before sunrise to drive to Floyd County from the outskirts of Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C. Others had a shorter drive from Martinsville to the farm eight miles southwest of Floyd on U.S. 221.
Beginning at 8 a.m., the roof over the cattle holding lot slowly reappeared, one 64-foot truss at a time. By dusk, the trusses were in place and the east side of the roof was done. The volunteers may return later to finish roofing the west side.
For the Friends Disaster Service, it marked the latest chapter in a 21-year history of helping people recover from floods, fires and other catastrophes.
For the three Harris brothers, the repair meant accomplishing in one day what otherwise would have taken much time and many dollars in labor.
The Quaker-affiliated group got involved when Eddie Clary, a member of Trinity Friends Church in Martinsville, read about the fire in the Roanoke Times & World-News. He serves as liaison between the Friends Disaster Service members in eastern Virginia and North Carolina.
"They had a meeting in Greensboro and I brought this up, and they said they'd be glad to help," Clary said.
Because the Harris brothers are busy building up their new cattle farming operation, they would have had to postpone the roofing project for months. Getting it done now gives them a place to vaccinate cattle and treat them when they first arrive at the farm, said Eddie Harris.
"That's a really big help," Gary Harris said.
Until the Feb. 3 fire, the Harris brothers operated Floyd County's largest dairy. Aside from destroying the holding-lot roof, the electrical fire gutted the 12-cow milking parlor and an equipment room at the heart of the operation. But volunteer firefighters managed to save the much larger attached loafing barn, from which dozens of cattle watched Saturday's repair.
The flames caused $93,000 in damage, Harris said. Insurance covered the cost of the roof repair but was insufficient to replace the milking equipment, he said.
The day of the fire, the Harrises and their friends and neighbors managed to disperse most of their 150 Holsteins to dairies in North Carolina, Floyd and Montgomery County for milking. But with the high cost of new equipment and low prices for milk, the brothers decided to end the dairy operation. They've sold the dairy cows and shifted to beef cattle. They have close to 400 head and hope to work that up to 500 to 600, Eddie Harris said.
Eddie and Gary Harris alternately watched and handed lumber up to the volunteers. Eddie's twin, Freddie, operated a crane to lift the trusses atop the concrete-block barn, where a dozen or so Friends Disaster Service volunteers positioned them, then nailed them in. After finishing the trusses, the volunteers began installing the metal roofing.
Most of Saturday's volunteers are members of the Religious Society of Friends, known informally as Quakers. But at least one worker was a Baptist. The Harris brothers are not Quakers.
The volunteers came from a variety of backgrounds, explained Allen Bates, as he eyed a truss from the uphill side of the barn to make sure it was properly aligned. Bates, a member of the Harmony Grove Friends in Yadkinville, N.C., came to Floyd in one of three vanloads of volunteers. He said he retired Friday after 30 years as an oil burner mechanic. Other workers included retired and current independent contractors, a cabinetmaker and a self-employed appliance repairman.
Wiley Shore, coordinator for the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, said 16 volunteers came from four churches in Yadkin County, located west of Winston-Salem. Others came from the Graham, N.C., area, east of Greensboro.
Many of the volunteers had been on earlier trips to rebuild homes after Hurricane Andrew in Florida and flooding in Georgia last year. Another work trip to Georgia is scheduled in June.
Though all the roof-repair workers were men, eight women from Martinsville chipped in with a spread of 125 submarine sandwiches and other lunch goodies. They prepared and transported the feast - parts of it donated by Martinsville merchants - between 8:30 Saturday and lunchtime. "We didn't stop for anything," Barbara Lusk said.
The work crew also got a chance to sing ``Happy Birthday'' to one of the Martinsville lunch bunch, Reva Harris, after her 38-year-old son, Harlie Ray Harris Jr., rubbed butter on her nose for good luck.
By evening, with the daylight and the stamina of crew members fading, the work trip ended. The North Carolina crew packed up its tool trailer to head back home. The Martinsville contingent may return soon to finish the job.
"It's good to know there's somebody that does stuff like this," Gary Harris said.
by CNB