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Elbow-Joints: Sermons! |
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| Jim
& Tamar's Barn Raising, 9/12/98: First of all, a great big ***THANK YOU*** to those folks who showed up to help raise the barn!!! While we didn't get as much done as we planned to do, we did manage to do all the big, important stuff that needed a backhoe and a crew. We got the four giant trusses up, and enough girts & purlins to stabilize the structure enough to dance inside 8-) We got off to a slow start because we had to do a *lot* of geeking and head-scratching to figure out just *how* to lift the trusses into place using the equipment & people on hand. Fortunately, there were enough rock-climbing geeks on hand who were able to rig ropes and stabilizers... but we were faced with the problem that Rosie's backhoe just didn't have the lift height needed to simplylift the trusses into place. Originally we thought we could just build the entire truss on the ground, and lift it into place just like an old-fashioned barn raising. Rosie didn't think she could do that, so bolted down two uprights and stabilized them, thinking we could lift the rafters into place. No good; her backhoe didn't have enough height. So we went back to plan A, with some refinements. After much geeking and experimenting, we hit on a three-part scheme which did the trick: We positioned the truss with its feet against the *bottom* of the concrete pillar it was going to rest on. First, Rosie tipped it up as high as she could with her front loader bucket. Then some people with poles pushed it up a little more and the people with ropes pulled it back so it was vertical. Perched precariously so, Rosie then positioned her bucket under a chain that was slung about 1/3 of the way up across the truss, and lifted. With four teams on ropes to stabilize it, one team at each end of the truss then wrestled it into place and set it on the bolts. After the first truss was set and braced, everyone was exhausted enough to break for lunch. Rounding up this mostly-elboid crowd to get back to work on Truss #2 was interesting, but we finally did it. Once #2 was up, we got a little bogged down trying to plumb them and put up girts & purlins... finally we had to call a halt to this so we could put up #3. By the time we were set to put up #4, the sun was setting and we had to push to finish. Due to space considerations, Rosie couldn't position herself to *push* up #4 like she did the rest, she had to *pull* it up on a chain. That, plus the fading light made this one more dangerous, but we did it. After that, folks started climbing all over the structure to put in more girts & purlins, as well as some diagonal bracing and whatnot, and it took a real effort to get them to knock off and eat dinner 8-) We strung up some lights in the barn frame, and when we started the generator and plugged them in, the whole thing lit up and made quite a sight against the night! Today, Tam and I spent sleeping in and doing *nothing* 8-) There's more work to do, though; we need to square up the frame, install the rest of the girts & purlins, put up the back wall, put up the sheathing, paint the roof sheathing, and put *that* up. Anyone who wants to is more than welcome to give us a hand 8-) Oh, and as an additional bribe, the Chinese restaurant in Leominster where Tam and I frequently go after a day of working on the land just opened up a sushi bar. Real GOOD sushi, too! 8-) Anyhow, once again a big *thank you* to all who helped make this possible! -- Jim Paradis jrp@jrp.tiac.net |
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