Work Day 20 - RG Project

I feel like I actually got something done. I got there a little early and Jim and a friend ran into town. So I went ahead and got things ready to go. I move the scaffolding to the west wall. Put the planks in place. Got the sawzall and put in the right blade and went up to cut the roofs eve. I just need to cut about two feet and start to remove the roof to expose the tail of the rafter. I pull the trigger........ nothing. Oh the cord was still unplugged from the weekend :-( darn.

So somewhere in there Jim had returned and had taken stuff in the house. So I waited.... OK maybe 3 minutes, so I get down and go get Jim. So Jim wasn't quite ready and a little while later we get out and we get started.

I am make cuts every 6 feet or so through the last few feet of the roofing. I rip off the boards until I can see where the joist, the top of the wall and the rafter meet. The joist is the 2x6 that is the ceiling. The rafter is the part that comes down at an angle and sticks over forming part of the soffet, and the roofing is nailed to it. Where they come together there is a 2x8 running along the top of the wall. It is called the sill plate. It is bolted into the top of the wall. They nail the joist and rafter into the sill plate. Now.... the rafter has a piece cut out of it called the birds mouth. The birds mouth is a triangle cut out of the bottom of the 2x6 so that it can sit squarely on the sill plate and stick over the edge. If you don't get it, Google it. ;-)

It is at the birds mouth that I want to cut the end of the rafter off. This cut is inline with the outside wall and the rafter is only about 2 inches thick, instead of 6, at that point. I get about 4 cut off and I have to go to the next section. I cut down the roof, remove the roofing and cut the tails off one at a time. This time there is a crash and the soffet, up to that point has fallen to the ground. It broke off and a seam in the soffet. I go through this process two more times and expect the soffet to once more break off and fall to the ground. It just hangs there. I continue down the edge and it continues to hang there.

Now I am to the last part of the roof. I could remove it. But we have left it to help keep to back wall and the roof steady. So instead of removing the last of the roofing, I get the air chisel and go to work on the end wall.

I start to remove block that has been cut to an angle to make the peak. I get down to a point that there are four more rows to be even with the east and west walls. It is stable and the back soffet is still hanging on.

Time to go and get the last of the soffet cut off. I go back and the last bottom five feet of roofing. I don't want the rafters to become too unstable so I still leave some roofing on. As I get all but one rafter cut it is still hanging there. It didn't move a bit. So I cut the last one and the whole thing goes crashing to the ground.

At this point we call it a day and we collect the tools and I grab the camera to take a few pictures. It is about 3:30 pm. BTW the pictures get bigger if you double click on them.

When I get home my dad have been working on the push mower and the rototiller. Both are running again, so I go and finish some mowing and use the clippings to mulch the asparagus bed and the Blue Berries. I test out the rototiller along the front fence. This is where I am going to plant 15 sun flowers and 15 Okra. It worked pretty good but I need to make some adjustments. But I have had enough fun for one day and I put everything away. It is now 6pm. Time for a shower.

Tomorrow we will see if I can get the east side soffet cut off and all the rafters down.

You might be wondering what is Jim doing all this time I'm on the roof? He is cleaning up the mess I am making. That's not easy because I keep on throwing stuff down. and some of the stuff is 35 pound block. If you look there isn't any block on the ground. He has collected and stacked it. Over 150 block so far.