Brrrrrrr!!!!!!! It’s freezing this morning and we want to get the membrane on the north roof but we’ll have to check that it’ll be safe to work up there as, from here, it looks frosted and might even be icy.
First we’ll put on some extra layers so that we won’t suffer too much working outside.
The roof is frosted but we’ve checked it thoroughly and it is safe to be up there as long as we take extra care. The greater problem is cold fingers and toes because it really is mega cold here today.
We have a bit of a planning meeting with Cristi and Mariano and devise a good system to stretch the strips of membrane along the roof and fix it temporarily with staples and tapes. Each of us has a clear role and it is going really well. Each strip of membrane goes up really neatly.
We’re done for the day and we have done well considering how cold and frosty it’s been. the membrane is fitted with the batons on and the first row of purlins.
We’ll head inside now and try and warm up a bit and cook some dinner.
Cristi and Mariano are quite snug in the attic of the mega-shed so we don’t need to worry about them too much. The caravan on the other hand is really freezing and the heating on just takes the chill off a bit.
Pete is out of bed to make the morning coffee, luckily Molly had put water in the coffee pot last night as she’d realised that our water might freeze. Sure enough the taps aren’t working and the water from the garden tap is also frozen so we have to go to the mega-shed to get water. It is -3º this morning and we need to try and fit the purlins.
Pete is back inside after checking out the roof, he thinks we should only work half a day because it is soooooo coooollllldddd out there. Everyone agrees.
Our first row of purlins takes us quite a while to get right because we now see that one of the timbers we fitted yesterday is really bent and we can’t use the spacers on this section. Some of the batons are a bit off and we are struggling to find the trusses on a couple of fixings but with careful measuring the second row is much straighter and more level.
We are off to Oban but we will visit Dalmally Railway Station to see if Liz the artist is home so Cristi and Mariano can meet her.
It’s Friday night so we are taking our guests to Portsonachan to join the Fun Ceilidh Dancing group.
There are only a few, very friendly, folk there so they are glad to have us make up the numbers a bit. It’s a nice introduction for Cristi and Mariano and we find out just how rusty we are.
It’s been an amazing but very cold week and we didn’t quite get the roof finished to the point we wanted but given just how cold it has been we are happy with the result.
We wanted the rain to stop as soon as we got the scaffolding up and it did, but we really didn’t expect the rain to be replaced by a deep chill.
We’re sure we’ll look back on this time with fondness when we are snug in our house next winter, remembering how amazing all our new friends have been and Cristi and Mariano working so hard inspite of the cold.
My hat of to the 4 of you. I am such a proud mum
Thank you. It was amazing the progress we made with extra hands on board and very special having our friends from Argentina staying with us.
Still in awe of your progress and the way you’re documenting it in such vibrant detail. I can feel the chill from here!! Keep yourselves snug in the downtime xx
Thank you. The ceilidh certainly helped us to warm up and was great fun.
What amazing work you have done and now to be hit by the freeze after all that rain!!! It is looking fantastic.
It’s so lovely to hear from you and thank you for your kind words. Today, after about 10 days of freezing weather we have a heap of snow. I think Argyll loves us 🤔
We miss you both and hopefully will see you up here some time when the weather improves.