Before we could move them down though, the site needed some clean up. The concrete pad of the workshop has been home to piles of foam and other building materials while the house was being built. Rob had also erected a small shelter on the pad, that housed firewood over the winter, and our small solar panel was mounted on it's roof, so it all had to be dismantled. The areas around the pad needed to be cleared of building materials as well, and a tall dying spruce needed to be felled.
Once the pad was cleaned and ready, I had visions of practising yoga there, maybe on a cool summer morning with the sound of the river as my music, but it never happened. As soon as the site was ready, Rob began to bring down the timbers, and got on with the assembly!
The workshop is angled slightly to point due south, in order to maximize the sun exposure on the solar panels that will be mounted on the workshop roof. This exposure also means that the site is in full sun for a lot of the day, which made for some hot working days. And on days when the humidex was in the upper 30's (Celsius) it was pretty brutal. Climbing up and down the scaffolding in the hot sun was hard work.
The workshop is smaller than the house, so at least there weren't as many timbers to put up! Once the lower timbers were in place, Rob was able to drape a tarp up, which provided a bit more shade during the day.
It's amazing the difference a bit of shade makes when taking a much needed break.
After a heavy rain though, we had to drain all the water that had accumulated on the tarp. As we keep moving in and out of drought conditions this summer, it probably would have been a good idea to try to use that water for watering the garden. But we didn't. At least we have a rain barrel set up near the house though, which fills beautifully when it rains.
The timbers went up pretty quickly. As soon as they were up, Rob set to work getting the roof trusses assembled, and we started calling around to find a crane company that could come in and lift them into place.
We would still need at least 3 other people to come help, so we needed to coordinate the arrival of the crane with the availability of our friends. While we waited for everything to fall into place, Rob worked on carving more oak pegs.
When we set the roof trusses up on the house itself, it was a pretty stressful experience. We had never assembled a frame before and because we could not pre-assemble the joints, there was the worry that they might not fit! It was also a much bigger building, and more complex due to the valley rafters. This time though we were both a lot more relaxed, as we had a better idea about what to expect and the building was much simpler. However, we were using a different crane company (the owner of the previous company had retired) so were hoping that we could find an operator as good as the first. We were also keeping an eye on the weather as we had a massive heat wave coming, and we were worrying that it would be too hot and humid to reasonably expect anyone to work outside. Rob had scaffolding in place, timbers and purlins marked and ready, and I was planning snacks and cold drinks for the work crew.
We had tentative plans for a Wednesday "roof raising", but when we called the crane company on the Monday morning, we found out that the crane was already at a job site just around the corner, and could be at our site in a few hours. We called our friends, and left frantic messages, hoping that they would be able to make it in time. I gathered up a cooler of water and a handful of granola bars and we headed over to wait for the crane. I grabbed my steel toe shoes too, as Rob told me that I might have to be the one attaching the straps to the timbers before they were raised up by the crane if our friends couldn't make it in time. Just before we headed out, our dear friend Bob called to say he had got our message and was on his way. So at least Rob would have help with getting the trusses and beams and purlins into place.
The crane arrived, and the driver was great (hurray!) and he quickly manoeuvred the crane into place. Rob gave him the rundown of how the timbers would be placed, and in what order to move them. Just then our wonderful friends Murray and Scott arrived, and I heaved an enormous sigh of relief as I was really worrying about having to work with the trusses alone. (Rob of course, had already figured out that he would probably have to help me, and was worrying about how many times he'd be going up and down that scaffolding !) Murray, Scott and Bob had all helped with the first roof (only Murray's nephew Simon was missing) so they just got at it right away, and before I knew it the first piece was going in .... I took the first photo from the upstairs of the new house. It was great to have a nice vantage point!
The first truss dropped into place pretty nicely, and the crane operator was doing a great job and keeping an eye on everyone too. The second truss was up in the air and on it's way in no time!
It went in fairly well, although it would need some adjustment later on to seat the foot.
A ridge beam was put in next to help stabilize the first two trusses (there was also a temporary brace used on the first truss). I couldn't get a clear shot, but Rob also had a corner brace tucked under his arm, that had to be inserted into both the truss and the ridge beam. It looked a bit tricky, but it seemed to just drop in pretty easily.
And then number three truss arrived! What an awesome team, they just kept going...
The second ridge beam was lifted and put in place. I started counting how many pieces were left, and realized that things were going pretty quickly. Rob shot me a grin and said "this is going really well!". Wish I had a photo of that grin...it was pretty wicked, and it made me relax too.
As soon as Rob and Bob had each piece in place, they would release the straps, and toss them down to Murray and Scott, who would take them over to the stack of timbers, and loop them around the next piece, and then the crane operator would start winching the timber up. Did I mention they were an awesome team?
The purlins pretty much went into place smoothly (the dovetails are not fitted tightly - they are wedged in place later but they pretty much lock the trusses together).
It really felt like a rather short period of time had passed, when the last piece got dropped into place, and everyone headed for some shade and some water.
The crane operator packed up and drove away, and our fabulous friends departed to carry on with whatever we had pulled them away from at such short notice. Words really can't describe how grateful Rob and I were that they came.
We could admire the frame forever I think, as it really is lovely to look at when it's all assembled. We wandered over a couple of times that night to look at it.
Somewhere in between getting the base frame up, and getting the roof on - we celebrated my birthday. Rob secretly built 2 benches for me as a gift. Knowing how much I love being by the river, he installed one at the river edge where I used to sit on a fallen log, positioning it securely on the rocks with some rocks in front for my feet to rest on. He showed me this one a few days before my birthday as he knew I'd discover it as soon as I visited the river edge on my day off. It's a lovely bench, made out of a cedar log from the property.
The second one he placed in another favourite spot, but I didn't see it until my birthday. When the river is low, there are stepping stones over to it. When the river is higher, I can splash through shallow water over to it. There are pollywogs and minnows in this area, and I can spend hours watching them. I put some more Tibetan flags up nearby as soon as I could too, to send more good karma out to the river and beyond.
Both benches are in the shade for part of the day, and I will often sit first on one, then make my way over later to the second one. Both locations offer wonderful views of the dragonflies, swooping above the river, and along the edges. And doing what dragonflies do.
Often they will pause and land on our knees or shoulders, or on the pages of my book, and give us a close up look at their beautiful wings and iridescent colours.
Of course, come fall we will have to pull the benches out, as the river will rise quite a bit then, and the winter ice would destroy them.
The weather this summer has been incredible. It may have been a slow start to summer, but the summer solstice arrived somewhat auspiciously perhaps, with the arrival of a sweet beautiful snapping turtle, looking for a nesting site in front of the house. We don't think she left any eggs in this spot, but we will be looking out for baby snappers in the area soon.
For the first time in three years we've had a real summer. Long hot sunny summer days that are more or less perfect for building. The last two years were really difficult for construction due to the constant rain.
Rob and I have had breakfast nearly every morning on the porch of the cabin, looking over the river, and watching the antics of the humming birds. We spend many an evening in the river, sitting in deckchairs with the cool river water soothing tired feet and legs, and spend most evenings sitting quietly on the porch again, waiting for the coolness of a summer night.
When we do get the occasional rain days, we use them to plan, catch up on paperwork and pick up hard-to get supplies in the city if we have to. When we needed to look at windows for the workshop we tried to do it on a rainy day. Absolutely no complaints, but it's also a rather dry summer, and rainy days have been few and far between!
We sure could have used this kind of weather when we were building the house. No point lamenting it though; we are just grateful to have it now. With the frame up, Rob began straightening and tightening it up and then anchoring it to the concrete and then installed the sills.
The sills are totally sealed to the concrete and this does cause some problems with water pooling inside the frame, but it isn't as bad as it was in the new house. Rob uses a giant squeegee to get the water away so that it doesn't stain the timbers.
While waiting for our lumber order to arrive, he made more pegs.
We did have some wood on hand so we also began to do some of the framing and there was a bit of insulation on the concrete that had to be finished.
When we heard that we couldn't get our order until after the weekend, Rob made a trip to pick up what he could so he could keep working until the remainder was delivered.
The rest arrived the following week, and he just kept on working. The area with the plywood will house our solar batteries, inverter and other services. For now, it provides some much needed shade, and is a good place to sit and relax with a cool drink of water!
If I am home while Rob is working, I try to bring cold drinks and snacks as often as I can. We are extremely lucky to have a Mennonite farm nearby that keeps us supplied with a bounty of fresh produce, as well as farm fresh eggs, maple syrup, honey and homemade pickles! We definitely eat well, and so far I've managed to keep Rob's energy levels up high enough for him to keep working! I've been happy to spend more time outside this summer than ever before, walking the property, and bringing my camera along to capture photos of the wildlife and plants, in the hopes of identifying some of them, and learning more about others.
I was pretty pleased to get a better look at a black and white warbler, as well as a photo. Usually they flit by the cabin, and I never get a good look at one.
While I'm out, I can also pick some wild raspberries.They are the most plentiful we've seen, and although we are in competition with the chipmunks, birds, wasps (and perhaps the family of foxes), there is more than enough to go around.
When it gets too hot I just head back down to the river, where I can sit near the cool water, on one of my fabulous benches.
So far the forecast for early August looks good. We'll try to continue with the framing of the workshop, and the installation of the plywood roof and walls, while we wait for the windows to arrive. Then the task of putting on the foam will begin again. It should go more quickly than the house, as the workshop is quite a bit smaller and less complex. Then it will be time to put on the metal roof, and the solar panels. We aren't sure how much we'll get done in the next month or so, but I guess we'll know more by the time I work on the next blog!
