3/10/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

I had to pick Andrew up from daycare on Tuesday, so this was another short week. I arrived at about 1:00 after the usual cinnamon roll. There was only an inch or so of new snow, so I didn't have to do any shoveling at all. After moving in, I started pulling log #125 up onto the building. The battery charger I use to power the 12-volt winch was under the workbench which was covered with a big avalanche of snow. In order to use it, I would have to do a lot of digging. Instead, I decided to hook two come-alongs in series in place of the winch. Then I used the crane in the normal way to lift the log. It was slower this way than using the winch, but it worked pretty well anyway. Once the log was up on top of the building, it wasn't much different because the crane can't reach back to the northeast wall anyway and I have to use come-alongs to get the logs into position. Before the end of the day, I got the log resting across the northeast wall and the grid B purlin.

Thursday was a beautiful sunny day. The pair of gray jays showed up for peanuts and bread and I fed them a dozen or so times. They even came inside the trailer and inside the privy to eat out of my hands. I hold my hands with peanuts just inside an open window. The jays land on the window ledge and then hop onto my hands to get the food. It's kind of neat.

I notched log #125 where it meets the grid C1 RPSL and then maneuvered it into position. This is a fairly stout log; it is 12" in diameter on the small end and 14.5" on the butt end. That is the reason it had to be notched.

Earl Landin stopped by for a visit during lunch, and after lunch, he climbed up the high scaffolds and inspected the work. We had a nice visit in the beautiful sunshine.

After he left, I hauled two barrels of yard waste from the pickup up to the compost pile. Then I dug through about 2 feet of compact snow to uncover the rebar that Sid Fadden had given me. I had to dig three pretty big holes before I found the rebar. Next, I cut 7 spikes from the rebar. These had to be extra long because the log is so fat. With that done, I went up and spiked log #125 into the northeast wall.

On Friday, it was overcast again, and it snowed lightly all morning. I scribed the ends of the new log for the taper and then measured for the length of the new log. I didn't cut the taper because I wanted to take advantage of the cold morning to harvest a log from #126. With the snow frozen, I can move a log over the top of the snow with a peavy; if I try to move it when the snow is soft, it would be a much harder job. The snow in the woods is from 4 to 6 feet deep, and when it is soft, you sink into it up to your crotch.

I dug out about 13 feet of log #126 from under about 4 feet of snow. Then I cut a 13 foot piece of it off with Mother Sow. I was so happy that the thing started right away and ran just fine. I got the log rolled about halfway to the gwizzing station before I quit for the week. I left for home at 1:30.

3/16-18/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:00 after the usual cinnamon roll. There was only a trace of new snow so I didn't have to do any shoveling. The weather was cold enough and the snow was hard enough so I was able to roll 13 foot piece of log #126 over the top of the snow and down to the gwizzing station with a peavy. This was after I used a come-along to pull it around and past a big hole in the snow under a tree.

I sharpened the gwiz blades using the bench grinder and then gwizzed log #126. At one point, when I was in the trailer, the gray jays came by looking for me. I was busy at the table so I opened a window and sat back down at the table to see if the birds would come all the way inside. One of them came right in and flew over to the table. After I gave him a few peanuts, he tried to fly back out but he headed for a window that doesn't open. He sort of panicked before he found the open window. Before the next bird came in, I pulled the curtains shut in front of all the closed windows. The next guy flew in, got his peanuts, and then flew back out without any panic.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day. I spent the whole day pulling log#126 from the gwizzing station up onto the building. I used come-alongs for the whole process. I left the log resting on the grid B purlin over night.

On Thursday morning it was snowing lightly. I made a new log clamp because I had used parts of the old one to make a scaffold brace. I used this clamp to hold the log once I got it in place on the northeast wall. I lashed it in place and quit for the week.

When I was back in the trailer having lunch, the gray jays came back for a handout. One of them was a lot more cautious about coming in the trailer than the other one. That must have been the one that had the problem getting out. I left for home at about 2:00.

3/20/99 Built a scaffold frame at home for the northeast gable.

3/23-25/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 11:45 after the customary cinnamon roll. There was no new snow, and the old snow had shrunk quite a bit since the last time. After moving in, I brought the new scaffold frame up to the building and installed it on the northeast wall. I shoveled the snow off a couple of ramps because the snow was soft enough that you could fall through it if you weren't right on top of the ramp. Since you couldn't be sure exactly where the ramp was, it was a little dangerous. I also shoveled off a ramp so I could get the plank out to use up on the new scaffold frame. After mounting the frame in the wrong place, and then moving it to the right place, I got the plank and handrail in place and the scaffold is ready to go.

The snow was shrinking and melting fast. When I was having dinner in the trailer, the snow bridge between the porch roof and the snowbank collapsed. This is a sure sign of spring.

On Wednesday, I climbed up on the new scaffold and spiked in log #126. Then I scribed the ends of the log for the taper, and used Mother Sow to taper the ends of the top two logs on the northeast wall. The saw started right up and ran fine. Maybe they fixed it after all. After that, I raised the cleat for the boom control rope higher on the mast.

Next, I dug a lot of snow searching for the butt end of log #127. After about an hour's digging and not finding it, I began to doubt that there was any of #127 left. I went back to the trailer and went over the records and the log. I became convinced that the log was down there somewhere. I went back to digging and finally found it. I dug it out and measured it. It was 10 feet long and I only need 8 feet for the last log on the walls. I used chains and a come-along and pulled the log out of the hole and up onto the snowbank. All during the process, I fed the two gray jays. They didn't show up at all the day before, but they were after me all day. They even came into the trailer through open windows and took peanuts off the table. They are getting pretty tame.

On Thursday, I planned to use a new screw extractor that I bought to extract the bottom part of a machine screw that I had twisted off in the gwizzard. But when I got ready to drill a hole in the screw, I discovered that it was gone. It had evidently vibrated out when I gwizzed the last log. I'm glad there was a heavy casting between the rotating head holding the screw, and me so I didn't get hit with it when it came flying out.

Next, I cut log #127 to length and then drawknifed most of the bark off. When I was trying to cut a tough knot off, I broke the drawknife in half. I didn't know I could do that. I finished removing the bark with the spud and then got ready to go home. I left at about 2:00.

3/30-4/1/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

After the usual cinnamon roll, I arrived at 12:30. There had been some new snow, but the weather was warm and the snow had melted down to about an inch on top of the old snow, and nothing on the driveway or the ramps or scaffolds. It was delightful weather to work in. After moving in, I dragged log #127 down to the building by hand. I got it into position with a peavy and then pulled it down the snow slope like a 400 lb. sled. Then using come-alongs, I pulled it through the door, and up onto the northeast wall. Earl Landin stopped by during the process and we had a nice chat about the current world situation.

On Wednesday, I positioned and spiked log #127 into the northeast wall. This is the last wall log in the building and it felt good to reach that milestone. In between feedings of the two gray jays, I scribed the ends of the log and then used Mother Sow to taper them. The saw worked fine to my great relief.

The first chipmunk I have seen this season showed up several times, and he came right up on my hand to get peanuts. Either this is one that got tame last year, or else he is hungry enough to overcome his fears.

Next, I went to work digging log #124 out of the snow. This will be the ridgepole and it was under about 3 feet of snow up in the drain field area. I had a surprise while I was digging out the last of the snow over the top end of the log. The snow was pretty stiff and I had to sort of chip out chunks of it with the shovel. The log was lying on top of two short logs and as the snow compacted and shrunk over the winter, it bent the ends of the log down a couple inches. I was standing on the log near the top end of it, chipping away at the snowbank, and all of a sudden, the log broke through the snow and straightened up. I was standing up at the time and my back and legs were pretty straight so the snap sort of shot me up like an arrow. I only went up 5 or 6 inches, but it snapped my jaw shut so my teeth really banged together. I'm glad my tongue wasn't in the way, or I think I would have bitten a hole in it.

After the log was dug out, I measured it and used Mother Sow to cut it to length for the ridgepole.

On Thursday, April Fool's Day, I had a breakfast disaster. I beat one egg and a cup of water, added some cornmeal, and then discovered that I only had about a third of a cup of pancake flour left. I decided to go ahead and make the batter and cook it anyway. It looked more like french toast batter so I added a bread crust, which was all the bread I had, and cooked the whole mess. It really wasn't too bad after I cooked all that water out of it, but it looked awful. I don't think I'll ever win any prizes as a cook.

Since the next log to go up is the ridgepole, I realized that I need some ceiling boards real soon. I plan to nail a run of ceiling boards along the top of each of the purlins and a double run along the top of the ridgepole. That way the rafters will sit on top of these boards instead of directly on the purlins. Then when I nail the rest of the ceiling boards on to the rafters, they will meet those that are already in place on the purlins and make it a lot easier and make a tighter fit. Otherwise, I would have to scribe the ceiling boards to fit on each side of each purlin, and even after doing that, they wouldn't make a very tight fit against the purlins.

After putting up the two high purlins, I realize now that the best time to nail those ceiling boards on would be when the purlin is still on the ground. I didn't do that, so now I have to figure out a way to get up there to do the job with nothing to stand on. At least I thought about the problem before I put the ridgepole up. I will buy some ceiling boards and nail them to the ridgepole before I raise it up onto the building.

I called Marson and Marson and got prices and descriptions of some potential ceiling boards. I decided on 1x8 pine paneling at 55 cents per lineal foot. This will be one of the biggest single item costs for material for the whole building, but it has to be done. I will go over to Marson and Marson next week to buy enough boards to cover all the purlins. So... I need to put the lumber rack on the pickup.

I dug the lumber rack out of the snowbank, rigged up a harness using my trusty Trapper Nelson backpack, and carried the lumber rack over the frozen snow down to the pickup. Just as I got there, Ed Smith stopped to chat, and he helped me get the rack up on the pickup box. After he left, I fastened the rack to the pickup, and then loaded the stanchion for the front of the pickup. I'll attach it to the front bumper at the lumber yard when I buy the boards.

I also loaded enough pieces of rebar to make the 4 anchor hooks for the ridgepole. When I was finished, I was standing by the pickup for a few minutes just thinking things through. It was real quiet and very pleasant standing there in the warm sun, and then I felt and heard something scratching at the cuff of my pants. I looked down and there was the little chipmunk back for more peanuts. I guess he follows me around as I work and whenever I stop and stay still for a while, he gets up the nerve to come over and beg. I fed him a handful of peanuts which he stuffed into his cheeks.

I went back up to the drain field and enlarged the ditch in the snowbank around the ridgepole so I will have room to scribe it and cut the bearing surfaces in it right where it is. When that was done, I packed up and left for home about 2:00.

4/5/99 Bought replacement motor for the winch.

4/6-8/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

After stopping at the 59er Diner for a cinnamon roll, I continued on to Leavenworth and bought 20 16 foot pine panel 1x8s. I ended up getting the best contractor price they give because I told them I was going to buy all the lumber for the house from them. They sold me the pine paneling for $.51 per lineal foot.

On the way to the property, I looked up at the load at one point and could see that the load had shifted a little. I knew that my ropes were no longer tight and I had to stop and check the load. There just happened to be a nice wide shoulder that ran for a long ways and was the perfect place to pull over. As I put on the brakes to stop, the boards started sliding off the front of the lumber rack. About half of the boards slid off onto the ground and a couple of them were doing cartwheels alongside the right side of the pickup. The rest of them slid off smoothly in front of me. They hit the ground about the same time that I came to a full stop. I felt really lucky that none of them landed on the highway, and that there were no other vehicles on that stretch of highway at the time, and that none of the boards or the pickup was damaged in any way. I loaded the boards back on the rack and tied them down a lot better than I had the first time. I drove from there to the property without further incident feeling very fortunate.

I planned to carry the boards up to the site by lashing a shovel handle across the top of my trusty Trapper Nelson backpack and then suspending a bundle of boards by a rope tied to each end of the shovel handle. I wasn't sure how many boards I could carry at once, so I decided to start with 8; four boards on each side. I tied a rope around the front of each bundle to keep the boards together, and then I loosely tied the two bundles together at the front so they formed a sort of V. I figured that would keep them from swinging out of control.

I was surprised at how heavy those 8 boards were. I could hardly stand up under the load. I also discovered that I had lashed the shovel handle on the wrong side of the pack frame, so as I stood up, the handle was banging me in the neck and I had to lean forward to give it room. Since I was all rigged up and was on my feet, I decided to go ahead and carry the load up. I made it over the unstable snow without seriously slipping or sinking in, but I was exhausted by the time I got up to the site.

I gave up on that method and just carried 3 boards at a time up the hill by hand. After two of these trips, I switched to just 2 boards at a time. So after 3 of these trips, I had all the boards up and stored away. Then I used the Trapper Nelson to carry the lumber rack back up to where I store it across from the trailer.

The weather was beautiful and sunny all day, and the snow was shrinking fast. When I went in for the night, I was surprised to find out that the FM reception was back to normal and the station I listen to came in crystal clear.

On Wednesday, I scribed and ripped the 2 slabs off log #124 to form the two rafter bearing surfaces at the ridge. In the process, I fed a chipmunk out of my hand on a few occasions and I also fed one of the gray jays. I never did see the pair of them and I suspect that either one of them got eaten by a hawk or something, or else the other one is sitting on a nest of eggs. I hope the latter is true.

Larry Copenhaver visited with me in the trailer during lunch, and he gave me a bag of cookies that Roberta had made. After lunch, I dug a long channel in the snowbank, and then rigged up and pulled the ridgepole out through the channel and almost to the gwizzing station. I used 3 come-alongs and pulled the log out by hand. Since the log was so far away, this seemed easier than rigging either of the winches up to do the job. It started raining about 4:00 and the weathermen said that it was going to snow up to six inches during the night. I made sure I had my scoop shovel parked near the trailer door when I went in for the night.

On Thursday morning, there was no new snow at all. I called Russ at Marson and Marson to set up an appointment to have him estimate the materials and write up an order. He wouldn't give me an exact time but said he would put me on a list. He said I could drop off my plans any time before that and I told him I would bring them in next Tuesday.

I put the winch back together, but I forgot to bring some of the wiring cable. So I got the mechanical part done, and I will do the electrical part next week. Next, I rigged back up and finished moving log #124 into the gwizzing station. Finally, I sprinkled a bag of chainsawdust on the snow in the driveway in the hopes that it will speed up the melting. Then I packed up and left for home at about 2:30.

4/13-15/99 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

After having a cinnamon roll, I continued right on to Leavenworth to deliver a copy of my building plans to Marson and Marson. As it turned out, I was able to sit down with Russ, their estimator and go over the plans for the roof. He wrote up a bill of materials and handed it off to John (JP) Carnes who will quote me a price on it later.

I am not in a rush for the price because I won't be ready for the material for about 3 weeks and my driveway probably won't be clear of snow for three or more weeks. Furthermore, there are probably weight restrictions on the White River Road that won't be lifted until the first of May. But the main reason is that the quoted price will only hold for 10 days and then will go up with the market. JP is giving me his best contractor price so I am not too worried about these timing considerations.

I got to the property at about 2:00. The weather was beautiful. I sharpened the gwiz blades, installed the missing machine bolts, and gwizzed about half of log #124.

On Wednesday, I finished gwizzing #124 and fed a single gray jay and a single chipmunk several times during the work. I measured the building to determine the locations of the bearing notches in the ridgepole. This took some time because it involved 3 long strings with plumb bobs hanging over the side of the building, and the breeze was fairly constant. It took a lot of patience to wait for the lulls in the breeze so the strings would settle down enough for me to get the measurements.

Next, I cut the three bearing notches in #124 and then treated it with Tim-bor. The log had already been invaded by a lot of boring insects and I was glad the temperature was above 40 degrees so I could treat it.

On Friday, I drilled 8 holes through the ridgepole and installed 4 anchor hooks. Then I finished putting the wiring for the winch back together and wound up the winch cable. It is now back in service and ready to lift the ridgepole. By the time I finished, it was noon and time to quit for the week, have lunch, and go home.

4/19/99 Called Tom Hammond and asked him a few questions. He said that I could use the TJI series 150 instead of the series 250 that were specified for the rafters. Even though I have a heavy snow load (95 Lb.) the rafters are so deep (11 7/8") in order to hold the roof insulation. The spans are so short that the rafters are plenty strong. Tom said that moment required is 1130 Lb.-ft. assuming 24 gauge roofing, and the series 150 will provide 3620 Lb.-ft. - more than three times the strength required.

Tom said he didn't know whether or not I can get R38 insulation in the 11 7/8" space. He also said he didn't have any experience or advice on using exposed screws on the metal roofing. He said he definitely agreed that it would be a good idea to provide vents to the outside at both gable peaks. I was beginning to have second thoughts about it because my design for the vents was starting to get complicated, and I was wondering if I should go to the trouble. He convinced me that I should.

He also recommended against using OSB instead of CDX plywood for the roof sheeting. But then he looked in his books and withdrew this recommendation. He was thinking about particle board and he wasn't familiar with OSB. I'll have to get the advice of some other people to see if OSB might be a problem. Tom said that if I use it, I should leave the thickness of a dime between sheets to allow for swelling. This means that I will be off the thickness of four dimes across the roof which is 5+ sheets across. I guess I'll be happy if I am that close.

4/20-23/99 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.

This week started on a high note and ended on a somewhat lower note. I had the customary cinnamon roll at the 59er Diner, but this time they put a candle in it in honor of my 59th birthday. They probably didn't realize it, but it was also Hitler's birthday, and about the time I was eating the cinnamon roll, the shooting was taking place in Littleton Colorado.

I arrived at the property at about 12:30 and started out by trying to plane the surfaces of the ridgepole with an 18" block plane I had bought at a garage sale, but never used before. I discovered it didn't work because the blade had been ground at the wrong angle and it plugged up the hole the blade goes through. I reground the blade to the proper angle and the plane worked great. I planed about 3/4 of the two surfaces before I quit for the day.

I wanted to get the surfaces fairly flat so that there would be a tight seal between the ceiling boards and the ridgepole. The ridge will be open for venting and if there weren't an ant-proof seal between the ceiling boards and the ridgepole, insects could find their way into the building. I didn't plane the surfaces completely flat, but I did knock off the high spots and left only shallow traces of the deepest chainsaw cut marks. It was pretty hard work that I wasn't used to.

On Wednesday, I finished planing the ridgepole. Then I cut rectangular holes in the ceiling boards to accommodate the clinched ends of the rebar anchor hooks. I used a hammer and chisel to make the cross grain cuts, and then I used Jack, the rip saw, to cut along the grain. This worked pretty well, but from now on, I am going to bring a saber saw with me to do this job.

Next, I caulked and nailed the 1x8 ceiling boards the full length of the ridgepole onto both rafter bearing surfaces. I used galvanized siding nails in two rows about every 6 inches. That ought to hold them.

On Thursday, I measured and marked both runs of ceiling boards on the ridgepole for the rafters. Once that ridgepole is up in the air, it would be hard to do this. I felt pretty proud of thinking of it this early. Too bad I didn't think about it in time for the two purlins that are up there now.

While I was stooping over the ridgepole marking the rafter locations, I began to feel my back getting sore. The previous two days of planing and nailing while stooping over the log was more stress than my back has been used to.

I called Tom Hammond with some follow-up questions. He said that I can frame a chimney opening using the series 150 TJI rafters without doubling them up, or using Parallelams. He also cleared up a little confusion I had about his spec on page 4 concerning hurricane ties on the porch eaves. He said that I could use two 20d nails in lieu of the hurricane ties. He cautioned that I need to pre-drill the nail holes in the TJI flange. He also said that it was OK to use TJI for the ‘continuous solid blocking' at the ridge and over the walls.

Next I went out and found an 8 foot log that was the butt-end remnant of one of my crane booms. I need to temporarily fasten this to the top of the C1 RPSL, in the way Skip taught us, so I have something to attach a block to in order to lift that end of the ridgepole up onto the RPSL. The 8 foot log still had the bark on, so I used the spud to scrape it off. This made my back feel a little worse.

I did a lot of thinking about the strategy for lifting the ridgepole. It is going to be tricky, and I need to decide on which side of the ridgepole to leave the crane boom. I have been thinking I would leave it on the east side, but the CBA is off center to the west, so I decided to leave the boom on the west side so I will be able to hang the hook over the ridge.

I used the rebuilt winch, which I have started calling "The wicked winch of the east", to lift the 8 foot log up alongside the C1 RPSL. It worked fine. Then I used two chains and two boomers to fasten the two logs together.

I measured the thickness of the ridgepole at the two end RPSL bearing notches, and with this information, measured the tops of the RPSLs. I marked the C3 RPSL where it needed to be cut, about 2 inches from the top, and removed the batterboard that was holding the peak-marking nail. It had served its last purpose. It made standing on the high scaffold seem a little different. That batterboard sticking up there provided something to look at and hang on to and it was a little more scary standing up there without it. I brought Mother Sow up there and cut the RPSL off to grade.

I measured the C1 RPSL and it was 2 ½ inches too short the way it was. I made a 2 ½ inch shim, removed the batterboard, treated the shim and the top of the RPSL with Tim-bor, and nailed the shim on top of the RPSL. In the process, I discovered an error that I hope won't cause me too much trouble. The temporary log I fastened to the RPSL was right up tight against the RPSL which is 9 inches in diameter at the top. The ridgepole, with the ceiling boards on it is wider than that, so it can't sit directly on top of the RPSL with that temporary log in the way. I will have to decide whether to re-fasten the temporary log so that it stands off from the RPSL, or whether to set the ridgepole up off-center, remove the temporary log, and then straighten up the ridgepole. This might be a little dangerous if it is very much off center. There will not be anything holding the ridgepole up except for the 2 RPSLs because I left out the top gable logs to provide a vent opening. I will have to give this more thought.

On Friday morning, I could hardly get out of bed, and I could hardly stand up when I did. I did about an hour of back stretching exercises before I got up and my back was plenty sore. I also lost considerable sleep worrying about the ridgepole lifting strategy and a worse problem: an off-center ridgepole.

I made a mistake, actually two mistakes, when I cut the rafter bearing surfaces in the ridgepole. Instead of sleeping, and for quite a bit of time since then, I have been thinking trying to figure out exactly how, when, and why I made those mistakes, and what I will do about them.

This is what I have figured out so far. Back on April 7, when I scribed the log for the bearing surfaces, I took the seminal shortcut. I should have made a dihedral gauge that was the exact angle of the ridge of the roof. I have been using two pitch gauges that I made months, or years, ago for making the purlins and the gables. I guess I figured that I would make the ridgepole just like I made the purlins, except that I would make a surface on each side of it instead of just one. If I had made a peak gauge, it would have cut down on the number of things I had to think about at once when I decided where to mark the log for cutting.

The thing I didn't get right when I marked the butt end of the log for that first cut, was in centering the ridge peak on the log. I made the first chord line on the butt end too deep. I didn't realize this until after I had completely scribed the full length of the log for both sides of the cut. I remember realizing the error, and then thinking about how to fix it. I could have (and should have) redone the scribing entirely. But instead, I thought of an easier solution. I would cut the other side deeper to match. This would make the ridgepole a little weaker because I would be cutting off more wood than I needed to, but this would be from the butt end which was about 14 inches in diameter and plenty strong.

So, taking the easy way out, I took Mother Sow and cut the first slab off the log. Then I made the second mistake. When I laid out the chord on the butt end for the second cut, I forgot to make it deeper like I had decided to do. I had so many other things to think about, I just forgot.

I could see that the surfaces were asymmetrical on the butt end but it only slowly dawned on me as the weeks went by what the implications of that are. At first I just thought it would look a little off center. But after I cut the RPSL bearing notches and measured the thickness of the log there, I realized that this was going to mean that the ridgepole would not be centered over the RPSL. The top of the C3 RPSL is only 8 inches in diameter, and being an inch or two out of alignment might compromise the strength.

These two alignment problems, one on each end of the ridgepole, weighed heavy on my mind at the same time my back was aching. I was feeling a little down. My options for the ridgepole, starting with the most drastic, were 1. Scrap the ridgepole, harvest or buy a new log and start over. 2. Remove all the ceiling boards from the ridgepole, cut a deeper surface on the log and put it back together. 3. Cut a deeper RPSL bearing notch on the butt end to provide more contact with the RPSL, or more correctly, with the shim that would be needed. Or 4. Use the ridgepole just the way it was.

I did some more measurements, looked things over, and decided on option 4. I didn't feel great about it, but I thought it would be strong enough, wouldn't look too funny, and wouldn't cause any other problems.

Moving slowly, I rigged the crane up to start pulling the ridgepole to the building. I moved it one cable-drum full, about 15 feet, before I quit for the week. I left for home about 2:15.

After talking with Ellen at home about the problem of the ridgepole, I have changed my mind. As I write this, I think I will go with option 2. I have written a reminder to bring a nail puller with me next week and I hope my back will feel better by then. I just realized that the rebar anchor hooks that are already installed are going to complicate this work.

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