How I spent Memorial Day (and the rest of the week)
A couple of members here have been asking me what I've been up to lately. Unfortunately it hasn't been hunting or fishing. But let me start at the beginning...
Last week the weatherman said it was going to be well into the 90s with 100% humidity, so I called my two younger sons and said, "Hey let's tear off the roof on the old homestead and put on a new one!" And they, of course, said "Oh boy!"
Jeremy and Daniel:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof016.jpg
As you probably know, first the old roof has to come off - both layers
young backs are strong backs:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof009.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof008.jpg
notice how they are peeling it off in rows? it comes off easier that way. but we didn't figure that out right off the bat, oh no. we started by peeling it from top to bottom. much harder.
front of house partly peeled:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof003.jpg
After peeling, we had to fix a couple of rotten spots where the roof had been leaking.
I took this photo for my friend Duke, who sold me his prized 75th Anniversary Commemorative Limited Edition Milwaukee Sawzall when he moved his family to Ireland to become missionaries. It's still doing yeoman's work here in the states, Duke!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof006.jpg
Duke's Sawzall. Too bad because of the glare that you can't read the commemorative plaque on it. It's very impressive lol.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof013.jpg
Now comes tarpaper. If you keep it straight, it makes the shingling go quicker. These young men were all about quicker after a few days up on that blistering roof.
D & J setting a new course of felt:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof019.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof020.jpg
Water and Gatorade were drunk in abundance. Daniel said that he drank 7 liters of water one day; I'd say that was about average. We were soaked with sweat by 7:30 every morning and it literally poured off us till 7:30 or quarter to eight every night.
a quick water break
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof014.jpg
and a quick photo op of me with my middle son Daniel. He'll be 21 in a couple of weeks! Where does the time go?
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof018.jpg
After we got the front completely peeled, the neighbor stopped by and said, "Have you seen the radar?" So we turned around and said "Oh crap!!"
front of house completly peeled. those clouds may be somewhat ominous, but the approaching thunderstorm behind them was a real rip-snorter!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof005.jpg
this is the direction the thunderstorm came from. this photo was taken a couple of days later - obviously there was no time for me to fart around and take pictures with the lightning and thunder cracking all around!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof015.jpg
Well you never saw three guys tarpaper a roof so fast. We were completly soaked - it was actually hard to breathe it was coming down so hard; a real frog-choker - but it sure felt good after being fried in the unbearable heat all day.
Of course the next step is shingling - that's the fun part. It's really great to see the fruit of all your efforts. We've got about 1400 sq ft done so far, and plan on doing another 600 monday. I'll post photos when we're done. And I think that will be it for this year because I have run out of money (actually I'm over budget.) so the other 2000 sq ft will have to wait for a future week of scorching weather!
bye for now
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...in/roof012.jpg
Thanks for reading!
