Smokehouse Spirituality~Raising Fences that Hold Community

Perhaps it is because my independent streak and self-sufficient sin makes this request feel like a handout, or dozens of hands out and asking for a gift of labor that feels like should be my sole responsibility. Much of what I am planning to lift with my friend and podcast partner, David “Buck” Nichols has to do with creating community and fighting the urge to be self-sufficient, while giving into the soul tending of being others-sufficient, meaning seeking neighborly involvement in work and fellowship.

I need help raising a fence around the twelve-acre pasture I call the Homeplace Pasture—the field closest to my parents’ house, just across the fence on the old homeplace. It feels right that this pasture be finished in the company of others, not in the solitude of me with hired labor I can only sometimes secure. But I believe something different could happen.

A few weeks ago, I floated the idea of a “fence raising” on Stillwater Farm in keeping with the spirit and practice of an Amish barn raising. Someone shared a typical notice to Amish communities in a 25 mile radius of the barn to be raised.

BARN RAISING NOTICE

With gratitude to God and in the spirit of Christian fellowship, the family of Daniel and Mary Fisher humbly invites the brethren and neighbors to a Barn Raising to be held:

Date: Tuesday, April 14

Time: Work begins at first light (6:30 a.m.)

Place: Fisher Homestead, 2 miles east of Mill Creek Road

The old barn having been lost to storm damage, we gather to raise a new one in its place. All able-bodied men and young men are asked to come prepared for lifting, framing, and roofing. Boys may assist as directed. The women and girls are warmly invited to join in preparing and serving the midday and evening meals.

Please bring:

• Work gloves

• Hammers and hand tools if you have them

• Ladders and sawhorses where possible

Dinner and supper will be provided for all who come to lend a hand.

May the Lord bless the work of many hands and the fellowship of neighbors.

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2

My call is a bit different, but with many of the same tenets and calls and lots of respect for the Amish:

FENCE RAISING NOTICE

With gratitude to God, who made the land before it was ever called a farm,

and to our Lord Jesus Christ, who calls us into neighborly love,

You are humbly invited, sisters and brothers alike to gather in Christian fellowship for a fence raising.

Date: Friday & Saturday, February 27–28

Time: Work begins at first light (7:30 a.m.)

Place: Stillwater Farm, two miles north of downtown Chandler

We are raising fence to create safe pasture on improved regenerative ground

for our Spanish Ibérico pigs, and to build the simple infrastructure needed to tend and work them well.

Women and men alike are encouraged to come and take part in the labor.

Children are welcome to come, play, and help as they are able under the watchful guidance of adults.

Please bring:

• Work gloves

• Hammers and any hand tools you reckon might come in handy

Dinner and supper will be provided for all who lend a hand.

There will be work to do, stories to tell, and fellowship to share.

May the Lord bless the work of many hands

and knit together the hearts of neighbors.

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

— Galatians 6:2

My notice is to anyone who would like to come to Chandler, Texas to the Stillwater Farm 14102 FM 2010, Dallas, Texas 75758. The work to be done is as follows:

There is about 1,000 feet of wire left to string.

• T-posts to be driven into the moist sandy loam soil,

• Staples to be hammered into posts

• Half a dozen gates waiting to be hung.

• A fence line that needs a careful pass with a propane torch to burn the grass away.

• Another fence that needs clearing and some brush cut away.

• Posts waiting for paint.

• A pen and corral longing to be finished and put into service.

• Lunch and supper to be prepared

Alone, or even with hired help if I could find it, this could stretch into a month of work. If I didn’t believe everyone who showed up would benefit greatly from fellowship, really good food, and the deep satisfaction of a job well done, I would keep wrestling this fence line alone and never mention a word. But the truth is, this feels like work meant for more than one pair of hands.

I believe that with twelve to fifteen willing souls each day—boots on the ground, hands on the tools—we could raise this fence and finish the work in two good days. Not hurried days. Honest days. Days marked by the rhythm of work and laughter, by the hum of stretched wire and the smell of beans simmering low and meat smoking in smokehouse. Days that end tired in the best possible way, with the kind of weariness that feels like gratitude.

This is not just about finishing a fence. It is about reviving an old rhythm of neighborly life. About proving to ourselves that work shared is lighter, and joy shared is greater. And I can promise this much: No one who comes will leave hungry. No one who comes will leave without a story. And no one who comes will leave without the quiet satisfaction of having helped raise something good and lasting. Because fences, when raised this way, can do more than hold animals. They can hold community.