Fiddling On the Roof

We have a steep pitched roof.  It is a 12/12.  That means that it rises 12 inches vertically for every 12 inches of horizontal run.  There are some advantages to this: There is more attic space and headroom that allows you to deck and have great storage.  The pitch allows the hot air to move up in the summer and not sit directly on top of you and that gives energy efficiency.  Finally, the steep pitch allows for rain to get off your roof quickly.

There's one problem, though.  In the spring when the live oaks tassel, they fall in thick mats.  Even on a steep roof, sometimes they stay in the valleys and pile up.  They catch leaves and sticks and before you know it, you have a bunch of debris on your roof and that's not good.  The steep pitch makes the roof impossible to walk on.  So how do I get the debris cleared?  Well, with a little redneck engineering, I've devised a method that works.

I wish I would've taken a photo of all the leaves, sticks and tassels before I started, but I was so focused I forgot to.  The photos that follow shows when I'm just about done, but you'll get the idea.  You can see some debris remaining and the remnants in the valley in the photo below.   I'll show you how we cleaned things up.

You can see several joints of PVC pipe I've fitted together and am pulling the debris off the roof.

Almost got the last bit off.  There was a LOT up there.  I was worried that if I left it any longer, it would damage the roof.  Even torrential rainfall has not knocked it down.

In the end of the 1/2 PVC pipe, I jammed a hand garden tool and taped it securely with a little duct tape.  I push the pvc pipe up the valley past the obstruction with the forks pointed upward so it slides.  Once I have it past the debris, I flip the pvc pipe over and now the prongs of the garden tool bite into the mat of debris.  Then, I pull downward.  Soon, after doing this task repeatedly, all of the stuff is cleared from the roof.

I do have to wait for an opportune time to do this task every year - When it is raining!  Why?  Because there is a colony of honeybees that live in the hollow fiberglass column that is mere feet from were I need to be on top of a ladder to execute this job.  I don't want to get attacked by angry bees when I'm standing atop an 8 foot ladder.  That's a long way down.  During rainfall, bees don't fly.  This afternoon, in a rainstorm, I quickly executed my plan, and it worked to perfection.

Here's a look at the finished product.  Once we get a nice rain, like I think I can hear as I'm typing this, it will clean the remaining leaves off the roof.

Fiddling on the Roof.  It's become an annual "Tradition!"

After Four Long Months and One Week!

As you know in late August we were visited by Hurricane Laura - the first of two hurricanes to drop by this summer.  Russ' home had a large water oak tree that fell on top of it, puncturing his roof in many places.  The day after the storm, we arrived and began freeing his house from the grips of the tree.  It was hard work.

Midway through the afternoon allowed us to visibly assess the damage.  Large limbs not only fell through the roof and fell onto the floor inside, but they broke rafters.  Russ was discouraged.  We kept encouraging him, telling him that this is exactly what you buy homeowner's insurance for.  The adjuster was called, contractors sought out, and then the waiting commenced.

And waiting continued.  Trouble is, EVERYONE needed contractors.  Everyone needed roofing materials.  Shortages in supply.  Increases in price.  We put up some blue tarps to try to protect the interior from rain.  Large holes in the roof exposed two bedrooms and two bathrooms inside to rainwater.  

Prior to the second hurricane (Delta) rolling through, we put down more tarps and fastened them down with more nails.  Continued rains caused rainwater to come into the house.  Russ had rooms filled with 5 gallon buckets and pots and pans to collect rainwater.  He had a dehumidifier to try to dry things out after each rain, and he sprayed things down to discourage mold growth.

On Christmas Eve we found a gift of sorts in his driveway.  A pallet of shingles and other roofing materials were delivered to his house!  

And this afternoon on my way back home, I stopped in and saw the roofers put the finishing touches on Russ' new roof!  Lookin' good!

Four months and one week later, Russ has a brand spanking new roof.  No more holes.  No more leaks.  No more raindrops falling on his head inside his house.  What a nice way to start off the New Year!

Pointing Toward Heaven

During Hurricane Laura, strong south winds pushed our church steeple, breaking two of the four anchor bolts out of the roof, allowing the steeple to bend over sideways.  The resulting rainfall swept through the holes in the roof and flood through the ceiling over the baptistry, significantly damaging the church in the process.  But that is why you diligently pay insurance premiums each year, for storms or mayhem.

First things first, a blue tarp was put over the roof to protect the church from further damage.  Then it was determined that a new roof needed to be installed.  We contacted roofers, received a favorable quote and ordered materials.  Prior to roofing, however, the steeple needed to come down.  This was no small task.  We arranged for a crane to lift it off the roof.  I arrived early to unbolt the two remaining bolts from the roof.

The Piddler on the Roof

Some steeples serve as bell towers and have a bell in them that rings as a Call to Worship.  Ours does not.  There is an entryway - a door that can be unscrewed to allow entry.

Once I gained entry, I climbed inside and got to work loosening nuts off of the rusty bolts that had held the steeple in place since 1981.

Just as I got them loose, I heard the crane drive up.  The crane company was not sending any riggers - only a crane operator.  The operator quickly got his piece of equipment ready and instructed me on how to properly attach the slings and clevices so the steeple could be safely lifted without toppling over.

He extended his boom and pointed directions to me as we worked beneath a beautiful blue sky.

In no time at all we had the steeple snugly secured and we were ready for lift-off.

I backed away as the steeple was lifted.  It teetered for a minute, but was quickly stabilized as the crane operator expertly did his job.

He swung it around and laid it on its side in the grass.  The steeple does have some damage and we'll have to show it to the adjuster to see if repairs can be made to it.  What a sad ending for the steeple?  After seeing it pointing toward Heaven, it now lies on its side, broken on the grass.  An inglorious end, one might say.

I read a little about the history of church steeples.  In Europe church steeples were grand, towering over the countryside.  When the settlers came to the new world, they wanted their churches to be like the churches in Europe.  The architects designed the churches to have steeples that would be the highest thing in town.  Places of worship would be easily recognizable from all around due to the high visibility of the church steeples.  The steeples would point the way to Christ, His Word, His Worship.

That is why it is so tragic to see the photo above.  But take heart!  The Church is much more than the physical building.  The Body of Christ is the Believers.  Despite the condition of our steeples, it is the Believer's job to point the way to Christ.  Metaphorically, we should not be lying in the grass, broken and on our side.  We should be lifting up Jesus and pointing the way to the Son.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

When I was a kid in Sunday School, we learned the song, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock."

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

And the rains came tumbling down!

The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down and the floods came up,

And the house on the rock stood firm.

Of course the song was about building your life, your hopes, your dreams, your eternity on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Many people build their "houses" on the shifting sands of success, money, recognition, fame, and the like.  When storms come, their houses are decimated.  When eternity comes calling, well, those that don't know the Lord will be tragically separated from God.

In today's post, I'll show a few more storm damage photos.  As we drove down the road, the first thing we came to was our church.  We noticed that our sign had blown over and that many shingles were missing, but the main thing was that the high winds had blown our steeple over.

Superficial damage, mainly.  There was some ceiling damage to the church along with other minor issues, but really not much compared to many other people nearby.

We drove on to Welsh, Louisiana, a town 10 miles to our west where our son, Russ, lives.  Hurricane Laura moved in to the coast about 40 miles south and west of us.  The closer you move west, the more destruction.  We were saddened when we drove up to Russ' home.  His neighbors had a large water oak tree that fell over his house and onto his roof, puncturing the roof in numerous places.

You can see in the photo below that the tree was hollowed out and weak and should have been cut down prior to the storm.

While we were sad for a minute, we began to work to clear the tree from his house.  The whole family pitched in to work.  It was hot, but we pressed on.  

We pulled limbs to the side of the road, building a big windrow that blocked off the view of the road.  The town crews will come to pick up the limbs.  They've got their work cut out for them (pardon the pun.)

Slowly, we made headway.  Inch by inch, it's a cinch!  

As more and more of the tree was removed, we could clearly see the extent of the damage.  When the tree fell through the roof, it damaged the house structurally and it rained in the house, causing more damage.

Thankfully, Russ has insurance and the adjuster has already come to inspect the damage.  We pray that Russ will be made whole.  

When we finished, we realized that the larger parts of the tree would have to be removed by professionals.  The large parts of the trunk leaned against the house and threatened additional damage.

The goal was to remove the tree and put up a tarp to prevent further damage by rainfall.

At the end of the day, I think we accomplished that.  Although Russ is sad, so many people lost so much more.  We are truly blessed and grateful.

Piddler On the Roof

On the eastern side of our barn, there is a walkway right past a gate that runs between our barn and the goat barn.  It is a low area, to be sure, but what exacerbates the problem is that when cows walk through a narrow, low spot, it becomes a boggy mess.  It became so muddy that the cows (and their humans) hate walking through here.  This swampy mudhole has claimed our rubber boots on more than one occasion, causing us to step out of our boots and insert a socked foot into the mud.  Not good.  Something must be done.  We moved in fill dirt, but water stayed and the clay became sticky and even more muddy.  If you notice on the right side below, 4x4's have been cemented in the ground.

The south side of the barn looked exactly like that muddy mess before we put wings on both sides of the barn and brought in some fill dirt.  Now the animals lounge high and dry in relaxed comfort in the shade.  We were hoping to establish those same amenities on the east side.

Time to get busy.  I get off of work between 4:30 and 5 and have roughly an hour commute home (give or take).  That leaves a skinny minute or two before the sun goes down, so my wife and I screwed the header into the barn, put the 2x4's across the 4x4 frame and screwed the rafter supports into the header.  It was not an ideal place to work with all the mud.

Then we cut notches into the rafters and began screwing them down.  This canopy is approximately 16 feet long by 8 feet wide.

Then 1x4's were screwed across the top on the rafters.  These will serve as supports for the corrugated tin roof.

Finally, this afternoon I climbed up on top of the new roof support structure and installed the tin roof and screwed everything down tight.  I am not a skilled carpenter, so I was a little concerned that it wouldn't hold me up - but it did!

We'll add some additional dirt and perhaps some wood chips to the walkway beneath the new roofed in barn addition.  Pretty soon this walkway will be nice and dry.  Oreo the goat is already checking things out, giving us her seal of approval.  Mission accomplished.

Barn Expansion - Mostly Completed

This Saturday at 7 am we started working feverishly to finish up our barn expansion project.  Last Saturday we put up a lean-to on the north side.  This Saturday our goal was to finish up the lean-to on the south side.  As the photo below evidences, there is a very good reason we are putting up additional roof area!  It is a mud-fest back by the barn.  Yes, we will move some additional dirt in to lift the elevation a little bit, but the roof expansion will help as well.

Inside the barn it is nice and dry, but just one square inch outside and you are immediately in ankle deep mud.  The goats absolutely hate walking in the water and mud and the cows literally have to be dragged out after milking.  Tricia actually fell into the mud Saturday morning as her boots got stuck in the mud and she stepped out of them.

We took our measurements and made out cuts and quickly put the header and rafters up.  With the experience gained last Saturday, we were moving faster and more efficiently this week. 

By noon we had the tin fastened down on the roof and the cows were already checking out the new construction.

We were almost done.  Believe it our not, my calculations were off by one sheet on tin.  I'll have to get one more sheet of tin in order to finish it up.  It is kind of disappointing to not be "really" finished, but we're close enough.

We still have a few "punch list" items. The tin is all used material that came off of an old combine shed at the farm.  The tin has nail holes where it was fastened to the other barn.  I will need to get some caulk and patch all of the nail holes so that we don't have a leaky roof when it rains.

Here is a profile shot of the new, improved barn.  As you can see, we doubled up on our square footage under roof.  This will make the animals happy during rainy, cold weather as they'll be able to take shelter.  We can put up temporary walls, if we wish and store hay or other items in the new areas.

We're ecstatic to have this project completed.  As soon as we get a few days without rain, we will get a load or two of dirt moved in to build up the area around the barn.  The extended roof on either side of the barn has made it considerably darker inside the barn and as we only have 3 light bulb fixtures currently, we may have to look at additional lighting. 

"I compare myself to a good barn. You can have a good barn, and if you paint it, it looks a little better. But if you take the paint off, it's still a good barn."-Dolly Parton

The Proof is on the Roof

Or perhaps it is now OFF the roof...  Here's what greeted me in the backyard when I got home from work two days ago:

Poof!  Blown right off the roof

Those would be exactly 9 architectural shingles of Atlas Pinnacle roofing material. Discouraging?  Yes. Unexpected? No, not really.  This post recounts the sad story of a construction disaster we're having at our house, but in the end, it ties in quite nicely to an agricultural story with a nice moral.  Grab a glass of sweet tea as I tell you about the Shingle Shenanigans.

We didn't have abnormally high winds that dislodged the shingles from the roof.  In fact, the reason I said that it wasn't unexpected that the shingles blew off is that you can almost count on them to fall just as you can count on the sun to come up in the East every morning.  We built our home back in 2001 and every so often for the past 10 years, we'll see roofing shingles in the yard or in the flower beds after minimal winds or rains.

The shingles you see littering the ground actually came from the West side of the house.  In the photo below you can see a large area from whence they came.  Only the tar paper remains protecting the plywood that covers the rafters.  If you look closely to the left of that spot, you can see a large section of shingles that are lighter colored and that would be the location of a large portion of the roof we had repaired last year when those shingles blew off.

The Goof on the roof

But it isn't just that side of the roof.  They are coming down on almost every side. You can see some about to fall to the left of the dormer window.

And some are coming off on the eastern side as evidenced below:

The roof is a 35 year roof.  Well, I didn't get a third of that time out of it.  I've had another roofer come and repair it several times, but finally a couple of months ago I called the insurance company and had two roofers and an insurance adjuster come look at it.  Independently, they all told me the same sad story:  The problems that I'm having with the roof is due to shoddy workmanship, not roofing materials, and thus the claim was denied.

The roofer that put up my roof 13 years ago did not do a quality job.  They used only 3 nails per shingle instead of the 4 to 6 that most roofers recommend.  The nails that they did put in were nailed much too high and not where they should have been nailed.  Finally, it appears that they had the pressure adjustment set way too high on the nail gun and many of the nails were driven completely through the shingle.  This created the perfect storm, if you will, that led up to this sad tale of woe.  My contractor no longer builds homes and the roofer no longer is in business and I'll have to put a new roof on my home about 20 years earlier than I was planning on it.

Although this is a pitiful story, it is not a story to attempt to solicit pity or sympathy. There are some valuable lessons to learn here and I don't want to miss them.  I've carefully placed those lessons from the Good Book below in a font color that appropriately matches the color of my missing shingles: 

Colossians 3:23 tells us, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the LORD, rather than for men..."

And:

 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.  Ephesians 6: 7-8

This is an important lesson about doing a good job.  My Dad and grandfathers told me, "Son, a job worth doing is a job worth doing right."  They were right, you know. Doing a job halfway, taking shortcuts, reveals something about your character. Doing things 'just to get by' often looks great temporarily, and you might be able to hide it for a little while, but shoddy workmanship won't stand the test of time.  Once the winds begin to blow, things begin to fall, and often the innocent parties are left to deal with the consequences.  

I wish I could tell you that I've never taken shortcuts.  I can't tell you that. I have, but my intention is to give my LORD, my wife, my kids, my family, my friends, and my employer my very best.  Our roof is Exhibit A that reinforces the lesson that my Dad and grandpa's taught me. Do a quality job - one you can be proud of - one that will stand the test of time.  As I think about it, this lesson is also applicable in an agricultural setting and underscores why it is important to shop locally and purchase your food from local farmers.  

Purchasing food locally from farmers who grew it allows you to look them in the eye. You can size them up, assess their character, know them by name.  Their kids know yours.  You might go to church with them or see them at the Post Office or feed store in town.  They'll be here tomorrow and the next day and 14 years from now.  They are proud of their products, their craftsmanship, their artistry.  The last thing they would ever want to do is give you something that is second-rate, because they want you to come back again and again.  They take their vocation seriously and if and when "the winds blow," they'll make it right.