Friday, August 20, 2010


GONE WORKIN'







Okay — I'll be here & away over the next few weeks as I rebuild an old roof

and put on long steel sheets for a new roof. Sweetheart's left the garden to take

a snapshot of the kid in his balancing act. Thirty years ago I put on the asphalt

shingles you can see I am strapping over with spruce. The country style method

of burying one style with another. Under every old household with a steel roof

in the country, it's a good bet it is hiding something. Or attempting to straighten

up something else. I have a roof line with a bad slump which isn't too bad for a

house raised timber-framed in 1790 — by farmers and sawmill workers. Go

across the road with me and I can show you the mossy stone foundation where

the mill was, abiding the river. They raised this house of chestnut and oak,

axe hewn, notched and pegged. We're going to do our best to save the old roof

frame and allow the steel to tighten up ridge-to-eave with anchoring screws.

Shed the softest snow. And tolerate whatever else, since whatever else always

comes.





photo © susan arnold