How to get 22 rafters up

One more job towards getting the roof on the scaffolding has been completed. It's the first time I actually feel that we will get this roof done before the winter really kicks in! It has taken a very long time since we started the scaffolding and the roof and we have lost our joy of working at the site because of it but now we have some joy back because it looks like we can do it after all. The rafters have been waiting on the ground ready for more than a month. And now they are all up and in place. 

This is what we needed:

- A babysitter for three days to have the kids out of the way

- One person (me) on the ground handling the rafters: making them ready to go up, lifting them up the length of myself and then going to the other end of the rope to pull. I have started to remember all kind of useful things from my sailing days.

- A good knot (that I won't name because I'm not sure of the name... Or the knot...)

- A pulley

- One person (Mick) on top helping pulling the rafter up, directing it to place and then nailing it into place, untying the knot, moving the pulley and throwing the rope down to the next rafter.

Job done!

During all of this there came snow, rain, hail and sleet from the sky. It has been between -10c° up to +1c°. Mick has these days a harness on because the planks are pure ice. He also found useful to have anti-slip's on his boots.

The snow

It came before we had the roof of the scaffolding on. But thats ok, it is gone already! So we had snow for a week. We didnt do much (work related) during that time but now that the snow is gone we will really go at it for this coming week and try to get as much as possible done before it snows again.

The King post trusses are up (the large A shape on the top). That we had done before the snow came. We prepared the trusses on the floor by making the joints and drilling the holes for the screws. So basically we put them together and then took them apart. Then we lifted the logs one by one up with a winch and Mick put the trusses back together again on the top. Then we lifted each king post truss up to the right position with ropes and winches and four persons. There goes a ridge beam on top of the trusses and there will come another one of them next week.