The Building of a Barn (Part 3)

Remember this picture from this post?

Well, now it looks like this:

We (me and the little mouse in my pocket, apparently) got the trusses up this weekend! We didn't exactly have an old fashioned barn raising - but we had lots of help and they got all 16 trusses up in about 5 hours! For my non-farm people - that's amazing! Thanks to Ed, Jeremiah's dad, Nate, Kenny and Uncle Eddie! We were also able to use a lift that Nate had and it helped tremendously in raising the trusses. That's where the "not exactly old fashioned" came into play!

This is a little boy who wants to help REALLY badly!

They had a slight snag at the very beginning - the first truss cracked in half when they were raising it! But after putting 6 heads together to figure out the best way to repair it, they were able to do so and then they were off!

The remaining part of the weekend they were also able to get all of the rat runs in and started on the perlins (which is what the metal will attach to - also helps to secure the trusses from swaying). They ran into a few snags along the way with each of those, too, but nothing a little thinkin' and cipherin' couldn't fix.

Chris and Nate and Jeremiah have continued to work on finishing up the perlins every night this week, too. They're some tired guys, let me tell you. Each of them are working their regular jobs during the day and then working on the barn until dark each night (which around here is about 8:00).

Not to bore you too much with all the pictures but here's a few more from the weekend.

I just had to take (and share) this picture. My husband (who is scared of heights) standing on nothing but a 2 x 4 over 10 feet in the air! The top of those trusses is about 16 feet off the ground!

This next series of pictures is for all my non-farm friends. I thought you would like to see how the process works.

This is the final truss to be put up. They're bringing it over with the tractor.

Then they set it upside on the beams. One man on each side to steady it.

This is where the lift comes in. Nate and Kenny grabbed the top of the truss on their way up.

And up, up and away they go.

Then they lined it up to the marks they had already made and nailed her down.

Thanks for indulging me on the long, picture-thick post!