Raising a roof

A neighbor is building a barn. For some time now, we've watched the progress from afar. Now it was time to lift things onto the posts.

This neighbor is a former general contractor, so he knows what he's doing. He had ratchets at the top of each upright, ready to hoist each corner of the roof-truss unit into the air.

He conscripted the assistance of three other men in the neighborhood, including Don, to turn the cranks on the ratchets. Manning the cranks took a cool head for heights – the trusses were being raised to 16 feet high, so the men were standing about 13 feet up the ladders.

Remember our older neighbor Bill? That's him on the right.

Our neighbor's wife's job and my job was to measure the progress to confirm the corners of the unit were being raised evenly. Here it's up by about two feet.

Slowly, crank by crank, the men lifted the roof trusses into the air. Every fifteen cranks or so, we women would measure to make sure the corners were at the same level.

That's Don on the right.

This is the roof-truss unit at its full height. Our neighbor will spend a few days securing the trusses in place. The second roof-truss unit is in back, and we'll help raise it in the next week or so.

Here's what the proto-barn looks like from a more distant location.

This neighbor has needed a barn since he and his wife moved in a few years ago. It's nice to see it coming to fruition ... especially if, as some reports predict, we're in for a hard winter. Now his livestock will have shelter.