July 2nd to 5th - 100 Mile

July 2nd – Sat
We got the rest of the trusses up today and of course nothing can be easy. As I said before, the shed is being added to the side of the existing hay barn. The top of the side of the barn had metal siding which we removed so there is no consistent place to secure the trusses. We had to be quite innovative to get them up. After lunch we put up some knee braces and figured out where the boards had to go to reuse the metal siding and put screws in the same holes. I ran the tractor a couple of times and haven’t knocked Terry off the scaffold yet!
We had to quit early in the afternoon as Marg was going to a party and had to prepare snacks. Terry & I headed to town with a varied to-do list – return unused cement, buy fasteners for the outside of the trusses, get paint for Dad, hit the liquor store & grocery store, refill prescriptions for Dad, return carpet samples (store closed for the weekend), pick up Marg’s mail (post office closed!) and get wheat for the chickens. I had a roast in the crock pot so we enjoyed a drink while I made the rest of dinner.
After dinner, I asked Terry to bring Marg’s motor home to the house so we could plug it in and cool the fridge as she is leaving tomorrow to volunteer at the Merritt Mountain Music Fest. First we had to assemble a hitch stinger with the right size ball as Marg is dropping off Rick & Pat’s utility trailer on the way to Merritt. Same thing, nothing is easy!!

July 3rd – Sun
I helped Marg a bit loading up her motor home and we took a tour on the ATV to decide where the sheep would pasture next. Terry & I couldn’t get the strapping on the shed roof as we need more lumber and can’t get it until tomorrow. But we got some boards on the side that will be below the siding, put up some bracing in the trusses and figured out exactly how many boards we need and what size. This was all while hiding from rain showers.

July 4th – Mon
We hooked up Ralph’s trailer (still parked here waiting for Ralph to pick it up) and went to buy lumber. We got rough cut boards and fascia boards at one place and 2x4s & nails at another. After unloading, we decided to have an early lunch rather than working for a short time and then stopping for lunch.
We got the bottom fascia board up and almost finished the strapping before Terry ran out of steam. He had to climb over the trusses and walk on the bracing to nail the boards so he was working hard. I was happy to be the gofer & board trimmer rather than the monkey & nailer.

July 5th – Tues
OK – Terry was right and can say “I told you so” as I didn’t buy enough nails yesterday so we had to go shopping again. But we also returned the carpet samples, picked up the mail, filled gas & diesel containers and got suet blocks for the birds.
We finished putting up the strapping and cut off the boards on one end before lunch. After lunch, we recut most of the boards (oops!), put on the fascia board, put up 2 sheets of metal roofing and put up 4 boards for the siding on the side wall. Again, Terry had to work hard to climb on the trusses and use a heavy drill for the screws in the roofing. The rechargeable drill doesn’t last very long and our electric drill – which we thought we could use - is not powerful enough for the roofing screws.
We quit early, loaded up all the garbage and made a trip to the dump. Then Terry got a burst of energy and cut down a dead tree that Dad kept saying was spoiling his view. He cut it into stove lengths but we left the cleanup until we have the right attachment on the tractor loader.
Dad has been in a painting mode – deck chairs and anything else that doesn’t move. Terry said he was going to hide the truck so it didn’t get painted!