Raising A Roof

9/98
It has been a good weekend. You might wonder if I went to a
county fair or took Gin fishing, or maybe you think I went out on
Saturday night for some drinking and dancing. The last thing you'd
expect me to do and enjoy it would be to work, but that's what I did.


I helped a friend put a roof on a garage he has been building
for two months in his spare time. We had other helpers, it
was almost like an old fashioned barn raising. The owner, Dave had
bought just enough lumber for the rafters and overlays, thinking
that would take all weekend. We could have finished it on Saturday
but quit after only six hours. The next day we finished the
rafters and installed some siding while waiting for Dave and
his brother-in-law to debate the pros and cons of steel roofing
versus plywood and shingles. Dave wanted steel but after
comparing costs decided to think about some more. He said he'd
e-mail when they made a decision.


I got the e-mail two weeks later, he'd bought steel roofing.

Gin and I got there early and had half the perlons on when the
others arrived. Dave's brother-in-law was amazed that Gin was
helping me on the roof. She laughed and told him she didn't
mind climbing up there but hated getting back down.


Dave's brother-in-law is called Big Bird for some unexplained
reason and he climbed up to help us finish the perlons. Before
we completed this task the other helpers arrived, two of them
were members of the OFCC, the old farmer's coffee club.
We finished nailing down the 1x4's that spanned the rafters then
took a coffee break to chat with the rest of the crew and to plan
our strategy. The newbies (oldbies?) would cut the steel
panels to length and mark the places to fasten them, then pass
them up to Big Bird, Gin and I. We would screw them down using
cordless drills. We all took our places and went back to work.


I was the least afraid of heights so I was enlisted to finish
off the final pieces of steel roofing and install the ridge caps.
A rope was fastened to a truck bumper below and I held it with
one hand while screwing the steel down. It wasn't fun anymore, my
back ached, my legs hurt, and sweat ran into my eyes. When the
last screw was in place I slid the screw gun into my apron and let
myself down the roof hand over hand to the eves where a ladder
waited. When my feet hit the ground I gave a silent thank you to
God and told the crew I was heading home; it was chore time.