We (and I must say “we”) just finished one of the most terrifying
parts of building this cottage, raising the most difficult, north gable wall. This wall raising was complicated by the fact there was a 10 foot drop-off right outside the wall, a hill sloping down to a wooded ditch. Therefore, there was no easy place, to set up my Defender to use its winch. I did use the winch, but the angle was so steep, that I could only use it for the final five feet of the rise. So, I had to rent a Genie “telehandle” to push it up.

I laid awake many nights pondering how on earth I could accomplish this task, raising a 19 foot tall, 1,000 pound wall, by myself. In the first attempt, last night, Denise helped me. I had cables, supporting beams for the cable to make its angle higher, and the telehandler. Well, my worst nightmare almost came true. The beam, which was redirecting the Land Rover Defender’s
winch’s cable to a higher approach snapped. Because it was attached to the standing side walls, the broken beam pulled them inward, which then squeezed the wall I was trying to raise, and it got stuck. It took a Herculean effort for Denise and me to free it up.

This morning my roofing panels came in from where they were manufactured in British Columbia. That was an ordeal itself as the forklift’s forks were too short, the big semi couldn’t get down our driveway, and for a while (with the semi blocking the road) the forklift would not start. So what was to be a 30 minute unloading of the 16 panels, it turned into a three-hour ordeal. But my
son, Tyler, who was a carpenter turned cabinet maker, came over and helped me, as did Denise. I wanted to do this cottage myself, as not to wear out my welcome with it. But Denise and Tyler were invaluable to me today as we got the panels unloaded AND finally the gable wall up. But I did realize that there is no way I will be able to put the roof panels on as the large ones weigh well
over two hundred pounds.

I’m taking a couple of weeks off from hard work on the cottage as my knee is still messed up and I and bone tired. But the cottage building is servicing its purpose well, giving the exercise I need, and giving me a reason for getting up each morning, keeping my brain engaged with a challenging task.

Mike (I have a short video below if you are interested)