April 9th 2014 Daily Report
Barn Raising crew report:
Monday was spent mostly waiting for materials and studying the plans for the barn. The materials were for a pole barn and were a package from the lumber yard. The city, however, would not allow the standard method of construction for a pole barn where the poles are set in the ground. They required instead a concrete foundation with the building built on top of that. We needed to study the plans and figure out how to adapt to the new method. We ended up with a bottom wall plate and cut the poles to length and attached them to the plate and built up from there. By end of day on monday all that got done on the building was cutting and attaching the wall plates.
Wall Plates Installed
Tuesday was a much more productive day. We were able to get the walls completely framed. There were a few times that we would get something done, and then figure out that something needed to be done a little differently, usually due to the change from the way the pole barn is planned and how we had to build it. We would then need to take something loose and re-do it a little differently, but ended the day with a feeling of accomplishment with the walls all up.
Building The Walls
Walls Up
Wednesday morning we started some prep work on the trusses while waiting for some scaffolding to be delivered. It arrived fairly early in the morning so we were able to start putting the trusses up onto the building. For those of you not familiar with construction, a truss is a prebuilt roofing section. It is a triangular structure that for this building is 24 feet long and weighs about 300 pounds. With the scaffolding in place we had two of our crew on the scaffolding. They became affectionately refered to as the monkeys. One end of the truss would be lifted to the top of one wall, which is 10 feet tall. Then the other end is lifted up onto the top of the other wall, still upside down, and then we would swing it up to the upright position. Someone on a ladder would secure each end to the wall and then we would need to brace it so that it would stay upright while we moved on to the next truss. By the end of the day we had the trusses all up, and all of the wood for the roof in place.
Raising The Trusses
Kitchen crew report:
With such a large number of volunteers (21) the decision was made to create a seperate kitchen crew for the first time. Usually volunteers take turns preparing meals, but this time the cooking required much more planning, food purchasing, and preparing. Two of the women volunteered for this crew and have worked full time from early morning until late in the evening to make sure that we have great meals. For example this morning they rose at 5:00 am and prepared pancakes and bacon, coffee juice and fruit. They also laid out lunch materials and snacks for everyone to pick up and take to the job site. This evening they prepared spaghetti and meat sauce, salad, garlic bread and a lemon cake and ice cream for desert. We all appreciate their work as we come back from the work sites tired and hungry, and don't have to prepare food ourselves.
Kitchen Crew