Labour Weekend: Headers Up

I am late in reporting, nevertheless work was accomplished on the final day of Labour Weekend. Joel staunchly showed up despite barely having recovered from the stomach flu. He apologized for not being at 100%, but I'm quite sure he was a better work partner for Troy than I. Especially with what they were lifting.

Troy had the sections of the outside east wall in place and ready to receive the header for the garage door. They attached robust "legs" to the header so they could stand it up. It took some discussion, but in not too much time we had a course of action that we thought would work with minimal loss of life. We tied a few ropes around the header and to the bar of the front end loader on the tractor. Then while Troy and Joel lifted, I very deftly controlled the front end loader to bring the header up as high as they could reach. [Insert imaginary picture here: no one caught my masterful work on pixels.] Troy then dismissed me so he could take over.
The rest of us all stood a good ways back in case something popped, exploded, or otherwise went haywire. (This is part of Troy's "no bleeding" policy.)

And like a big juicy piece of cake, it was up:

Once in place, it was safe to return to close proximity. Joel is working on nailing the whole works in place while Troy is looking on admiringly:
One word for the next picture: ta-da!

Natalie wanted in on all the action, but her favourite piece of board was carried around like a treasured dolly. I think she felt very important and productive carrying it around. She was completely amusing.
This week, Troy has worked on some more plywood for the roof. He's got it pretty squared up (that would be yours truly who pulled the whole roof into alignment, by the by) and ready to just start slamming pieces up. The rain has slowed some of that down.

He has also built one section of the inner east wall and we bolted that into place tonight.

Troy is very much feeling the cool air of winter blowing on the back of his neck. Here was a conversation we had last night:

Troy: Boy, I'm going to be hard pressed to get this closed in by winter. I sure hope you like putting shingles down.
Christina: Oh yes! I've been looking forward to it!
Troy: No, seriously; you may have to do a lot more of it.
Christina: I know...I've been thinking about doing shingles...I can't wait.
Troy: (long look) You sure are a good liar, honey.

But really, I can throw shingles around a lot easier than a sheet of plywood (especially 3/4 inch plywood) and **bang! bang! bang!** a nailgun--what's not to like? Watch out, boys! Cause here I come.

But yes, fall is here or nearly here. I can no longer deny it. Gone is the infinite time and possibility of spring and the lazy timelessness of summer. This is fall, and not only has time slipped through your fingers, if you look down you can actually see it soaking into the ground. Time is short. So get going.

-christina