Alrighty now, we left off at setting the posts for the barn. Like I said, squaring the structure is probably the most important thing you can do for this project. Once the first line of poles are set, time to move to the other side. We had the tech tools to square the structure using a 90 degree right angle laser, but there are several ways to achieve this. I'll discuss the 3-4-5 method when we get to the roof trusses. Once the basic square is determined, you can check your square by measuring the distance between the corner poles diagonally. For a barn, one or two inches is close enough. Allow a full day for the cement to dry before proceeding. Now it's time to raise the barn. As you'll notice in the pics, we again started on one side, then the other before moving to the ends with the trusses. We used 16' Pressure treated 2X10s for the support system...a little overkill, but it does keep the carpenter bees from boring holes in the wood. Generally, anything not touching the ground is safe for regular "white wood". We attached the 2X10s on inside and outside of the poles using 6X6 block bracing in between the poles, overlapping the corner poles by an inch & a half for the end trusses. Nails are generally used for this, but due to constant strong winds through the holler, we used 3" coated screws for most of this construction. Now that the trusses are up, we used "scabs" on the poles for our cross bracing. these are simply pieces of 1X6s screwed to the poles to bridge the gap from the inside truss, the pic explains it best. The cross braces are cut on a 45 degree angle and start at the top of the truss and meet in the middle of the scab. Enough for today, we'll start on the roof trusses next time. As always, any comments or questions are greatly appreciated.

Peace,

Tony