Swallows, Cuckoos and Nearly A Roof

This week the weather has sprung the most wonderful surprise, it has been unseasonably warm, with sunshine from dawn until dusk. To our delight we've had the company of the swallows for the last couple of weeks, and as suburbanites its the sound you expect to hear on holiday, not every time you step out the door. Especially in the warmth of the evening.

By Friday Dave and crew had put up all of Paul's trusses, and suddenly the barn looks huge (especially from the A47, its great to see the barn now as you come down Wardley Hill, especially as the trees behind are now in leaf).

The only catch it seems is that whilst the lads have successfully put up all of Paul's trusses, (except two that are too heavy to manhandle) each one had an average weight of 27kg. Because we have chosen to have vaulted roofs our trusses are made from much larger timbers, with the single trusses weighing in at 87kg and the huge ones that edge the light-well nearly 300kg they are hardly safe to manhandle. When they arrived 7 of us had trouble moving the large ones around the yard. 'We'll need a crane' said Dave. At first I thought, 'more costs' but it looks like if we do get a crane in we can cut the erection time by a couple of days which is actually a nett saving of some £500 and more importantly for all of us buys us extra time in getting the roof ready for Troy to slate. I rang around all the nearest crane operators until I came across Malcolm who at £280 was by far the best value, and have booked him for Wednesday.

Further to this, as all my trusses sit on a plate and shoe system it means that I could spend the weekend working out the shoe positions and nailing them myself, which again helps to gain a little time toward getting ready for Troy next week.

The shoes went on quite successfully (but we'll have to see just how well when the crane turns up!) and it was great to spend a bank holiday weekend on the barn again. Come Tuesday the lads spent little time getting Tom's roof up and fixing all the strappings to the wall plate.