9/11 Anniversary -- almost fitting
I am posting this on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This past week wasn’t that disastrous, although there were more near-misses than we should have had, as noted below. Progress was considerable, as all the SIP panels for the roof are on site, the steel for the roof is on site, and Mark arrived and has immediately contributed. Scott also stopped by, helped more than he would like to admit, and it was great to spend an evening with both brothers.
All the SIP panels are now on site. Three trips were required, including the impressive first trip when we brought up 8 panels without issue… until we stacked them. I was climbing on top of the stack to remove some 2 by 4s we had screwed on top when something seemed to move. I dived off, the stack of panels dumped over, and we felt pretty stupid. No injuries and the panels were only slightly damaged. First of many mishaps for the week.
On the last of our three loads from Bozeman, we also brought up the steel for the roof. On the drive up the load shifted enough to cut one of the straps like a knife (left photo). We stopped immediately and didn’t lose any of the load, but we certainly could have built our wood corners that were supposed to prevent this better. Later, while moving the I-beams for the SIPS, the strap shifted on the forks of the telehandler and cut another strap, resulting in dropping the I-beams. This could have been bad, but we dodged a bullet. I think we’ve gotten a little tired and careless — we should learn from these incidents!
We again had multiple small rain showers that provided us with some nice rainbows, similar to what we saw earlier.
Mark has joined us for a week (and more if I can talk him into it). He immediately contributed by displaying the Swanson work stance. Note the variation to the standard Swanson work stance in the left photo, along with the standard Swanson work stance in the right photo. I was so jealous of his variation that I rolled a log onto this toe, which was another near-miss for this week.
Scott stopped by and spent the night so all three Swanson brothers were together for an evening.
By Sunday night we had the 5th row of logs up for all four walls plus had placed the tie log for a truss on the walls in preparation for scribing. We also identified and labeled all the remaining logs (except some short ones for posts and rafters). If our measurements are correct, we have half a chance of getting the support structure square for the roof. Mark and Logan stayed up at the camp and will continue with the logs and I will join them again on Wednesday.