Peter and Natasha

Written by Peter, on 20-03-2009

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Today is the equinox, the day when the hours of day and night are equal. What better time to put up our almost identical feature poles. 

Yesterday Ivan and I spent the day cleaning up the poles and then cutting one of them to length. The check outs had to be made too, so after an initial pass with a circular saw we set about chiselling the checkouts to fit the beams that will soon slot in there. This is not a simple procedure as it was with the standard posts.

To get the checkouts right, we had to go from a line running from the centre of the top of the pole to the centre of the bottom of the pole. Because this is a tree trunk and not cut timber, there is a significant bend in the middle, which has changed the side that the lower beam will fit in. Once again, the house is dictating the course of action. It did not seem like a very scientific process to get everything straight but somehow, once raised into vertical position, it looks almost perfect.  The acid test will be when we fit the remaining ridge beams.

Today it was just me and I repeated the process with trunk number 2. It was a nice day, very light wind and quite hot. At the end of the day I went and picked up Natasha who had been working from home and we went to get the pole standing up. It's amazing how much lighter this wood becomes when nearly a metre is cut off the end. So I was quite able to lift it into position by myself. There was no way to keep it there however so I left Natasha holding it while I stood back to get a visual on it's straightness. We've decided to get it as close as is practical until we fit the beams and then we'll get it exact.

I left the site today with a real sense of achievement, it is different to look at and I know how close we are to having a complete roofline to admire. The stage of posts and beams is drawing to a close. 

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