Well, good morning once again. I'm out here playing with my pole barn. I've been putting
up these supports, it's going to hold my trusses for my wings or my extensions.
A really pretty day. We've had a couple days of pretty heavy smoke, I guess from Canada smoke coming down,
but the skies are pretty blue today. We've got a little bit of a haze, but as a general rule, not too bad.
You just see, right on the horizon, we got that smoky haze.
So this west side is pretty much ready to go.
I've got all my braces in. I do have them screwed into the main post that's in the barn itself.
And I've screwed each layer in my main attachment that goes up clear to the top, and then these
double two by sixes, they're nailed and screwed, so I think we're pretty solid there.
On this east side as well, I have my supports,
because I have two trusses in the middle, and then two trusses
will sit on each outside wall and I'm going to be clear span.
I'm going to put up a railroad tie header.
Now I actually bought, not switch ties, but relay ties. They were the straightest,
best grade that they have. I'll put the joint on the center post and span out to the outside.
That'll give me good support for my trusses to come out and rest on. I've got two 14 foot
relay ties, and they're six and three quarter by eight and three quarter, basically seven by nine.
But I'll lay them on the flat, like so. Like I say, I'll put the joint right here. Now this
tie here, as I've measured it out, is about an inch and a half at the top leaning in.
The two outside ones, they're just right on the money, 18 feet out. The other side, as well, I have
that is 18 feet, so that's going to work well. This tie here leans out about three quarters of an inch,
but I can, I'm planning on putting a chain and come-a-long, and there's enough play in this,
I can bring that in and square it up. The other side's a little off, but it's workable.
So now, I guess the next step for me,
before I put my top tier coming out, I'd like to have this header tie in
place to know where that's going to come. I have a pretty good feel for where it's going to be but
no reason why I don't think I can put those ties up on top for my header.
I have a set of forks for my Bobcat,
but I don't think my Bobcat will reach quite high enough. I'm not quite sure. I know my
my loader on my M will, so I just chained this forklift attachment in my bucket and I'll use
it to lift up my ties and put those in place.
We're supposed to warm up to the low 90s today.
I was 56 when I came out this morning. It's warming up though.
Nice slight breeze from the southwest. That always helps.
On one end, I'm really not too bad for square.
I think I can live with that. I've got this little iron plate on here.
I don't know if I'll take it off or not,
but I need to be 163 and a half length, so I'll trim the other end.
This will give me a nice clean joint if I can cut it halfway square with my chainsaw.
I put a new blade on my 14 inch Makita, so it should cut pretty well.
I'll see how she goes.
I'm gonna put a couple of cleats on each side,
so as I put the second one up I don't bump it knock it off the post.
Now this second one is going to be a little trickier.
I squared off this end that will match the trimmed off end here,
so that's going to go over my post.
I'm going to leave the other end long,
because I may pull, or push, that end post. I'm not quite sure. it might just stay where it's at.
But I've got some stuff in the way here.
I've got a two bottom plow, that's kind of out of the way,
but I ended up setting my three-point backhoe right here, and I'm gonna have
to kind of hug that pretty close to get my tractor in there. Between my propane tank and
the wall, I've got about 25 feet. My tractor is roughly 20. So I can get in there, but I
think I'm gonna have to go way up, bring this beam up over the top, pull in and, keeping it
up high, and then try to back up straight to set it down.
That's what it looks like to me.
This is a handy little rascal. I use it a lot for fencing,
shaping these ties when I'm putting cross braces in. Works pretty handy for here too.
Well, as I checked my overall width at the barn, I'm 27 feet 2 inches. And I'm 27 two
and three quarters here, so this post leans out just the fuzz. I brought some ratchets,
I brought a come-a-long, and some straps and a chain. I'm gonna pull this to the bottom of
the opposite post. It's got enough flex that three quarters of an inch is not a big deal to pull out.
I doubt it's going to take a lot.
Better check first.
Oh, perfect. Right on the money.
How'd I get so lucky? My strap might be in the way for my corner.
I'll nail the top. I bet I can work that out of there.
Now, before I nail this, I better get my strap out first.
Well, It's not going to fall on anybody's head now.
The last couple steps.
Well, I think this is going to complete our walls.
Well, kind of another little milestone. I think we're ready for trusses. It ended up being, oh,
upper 80s. I don't know if we hit 90 today.
It's been a nice, kind of an east breeze, so it's been pretty pleasant.
So, through the week I might pick away at these trusses. I've got a open floor in our
building here that I can use for a pattern to lay them all out. I may do that approach,
instead of building them in place. we'll see. It's the question of whether I can get them
hoisted up when they're in one piece, or not.
Anyway, appreciate you following along.