The Standish Farm Restoration: February 2016

FILLING IN THE SPACES

Before I post the progress in the kitchen, I thought I'd show what came just before.

I had been redoing what was already redone last year on the barn; my shoring and jacking all went splayed again because I didn't finish properly securing the corners and rafter ties before the snow dumped on us.

So I took advantage of our warm December and January (did I just say that?) to do a better job, then decided not to remove the jacks until I was finished. I rebuilt the corner and girt by wrapping them with pressure-treated wood, then began to reinforce the scabbed rafters with full-length timbers I did not have last year. I used hemlock from cuttings made at work and began the replacement which is still going on.

Then I heard we were about to have a major snowstorm and took action on the old part of the barn. That roof, splayed and ready to go, needed some extra support before the heavy snow loads that might destroy it.

The snowstorm was a near miss (a near hit, you mean, thanx and a tippo of the old hat to Georgie Carlin), and we got that what was in the last post.

Check it out.

Newly jacked 1860s portion, two rafters added. Reinforced corner and girt, though the street side of the girt is unwrapped.

Eighteen foot oversized hemlock timbers shoring the rafters opposite the side that might move in a heavy snow. Only three, but that's the part that might move catastrophically.

Placed them on big flat rocks I found in the barn; more on that in a few months.

The stack of rafters waiting to be installed amongst the web of temporary supports.

The jacks (actually stifflegs; jacks can fail) stay in.

Then Friday, we got some real snow. This is for one of my two readers, that one in Arkysaw. I'll call your five inches and raise you eleven, my brother. Raise you eleven inches of heavy, wet snow. The first I've seen since moving back up heah. And it all came in sideways, just like the last storm.

But this time, I was ready. The house is in much better shape than this time last year, as am I. I'm healthy, the living room is complete and insulated, and we're both well wrapped.

The yew survived, though is a bit weighted down at sunrise.

Note that the dead hemlock is no longer there. It's there, just on the ground, thanks to the wet snow.

Strange snow packs the dog fence, along with a SpecklePup tail. The snow came from the southeast, but eddied onto the northwest side of the fence after a while. Typical of these storms. Start from one direction, then shift as the low pressure center moves off to the northeast.