Is it almost over? Are we there yet?
Snookered once again by winter weather, the barn raising efforts have again been halted. Cog expected snow and periodic high winds to commence when we decided to begin building our little barn now, rather than waiting for Spring. But this has been overkill.
We hurried to pour the concrete piers because soon after the delivery of the building materials the weather forecast changed to low freezing temps. We wrapped insulation around the concrete filled tubes so the water in the concrete mix wouldn't freeze before setting and waited days for the worst of the cold to pass.
Finally it warmed up a bit and the skids and floor joists were cut and assembled. We then hurried to cover the floor panels when they said Nature was suddenly ushering in snow. We dashed down the mountain to do a French toast run (milk, eggs and bread) and waited for the terrible storm to come.
It never did.
Living on the edge of the mountain, where our back yard ends with a drop off extending down a quarter mile, we get rather wonky alterations to our weather. Even our neighbors half a mile away often have dramatically different conditions than our little homestead. Sometimes intensely worse; sometimes, like earlier this season, miraculously shielded from the worst. The thermal air currents rising up the mountain in our little pocket of the world are the spontaneous gift that just keeps on giving.
The Snowzilla storm cleared up quickly here. Although, the teen Cog unit suffered some cabin fever (literally) when schools were out much longer than seemed necessary. Meanwhile we hurried to get back to our efforts of the barn raising.
As Cog was halfway through constructing the trusses for the barn’s gambrel roof, the extended forecast changed to a rapid cooling and more snow. So once again the drill was to hurry up and secure the job site, then wait for a storm.......which once again underwhelmed. This is quickly becoming our regular routine.
This past week, we washed, rinsed and repeated the process for the Valentine’s weekend snow and ice storm, the worst of which largely scooted past our corner of the enchanted forest.
At this point I am vacillating between being incredibly thankful for getting the light version of these weather fronts and looking up at the sky and shouting, “Come on! It’s just a little barn. We only need about ten good days to get this thing finished!”
I have a whole new appreciation for the community efforts of an old fashioned Amish barn raising. :-)
The beginning of another winter storm.
Cog used the completed first floor deck to cut and layout each gambrel roof truss before partially assembling them, then setting them aside. It is much easier to do so at this point than 9 feet higher on the second floor deck.
Here are the 30 gambrel roof truss sections (left and right) for the 15 gambrel roof trusses. Cog covered the angled section with a tarp because he wanted to protect the plywood truss plates which connect the two sections from the rain and snow. These trusses are the last component to be placed on the barn and therefore will be exposed to the weather the longest. Better safe than sorry.
