SAWmonger Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 This summer my wife and I cut and raised a 24'x36' timber frame barn: We were joined by 40 friends and neighbors on raising day: In the old days we would have had 140 men come and raise the frame by hand, but these days it's all about having a BHC - "Big Honking Crane" Two days later, the completed frame is up: Shell shocked us during the first day, overwhelmed with gratitude for all the people that volunteered to work and sweat for two 12 hour days: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whisper_44 Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 Nice job there Monger, my GF's uncle owns a timber framing business in NH (drewsville) Saw mill and the works.. Looking like you all had some good fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAWmonger Posted December 21, 2005 Author Share Posted December 21, 2005 Nice job there Monger, my GF's uncle owns a timber framing business in NH (drewsville) Saw mill and the works.. Looking like you all had some good fun ← Yeah, we really did. Despite the hard work there were moments when I looked around and saw people just laughing and smiling. There were only a couple of us there that really knew what we were doing. Everyone else just dove in wherever they were needed. Our road is populated with a hugely diverse population and it was great to see everyone working for a common good. One of the people there said that differences don't matter when there's real work to be done. Interesting thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squad_e Posted December 21, 2005 Share Posted December 21, 2005 very nice indeed.. Keep it up.. I love the good ol' country side ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAWmonger Posted December 21, 2005 Author Share Posted December 21, 2005 We're in the process of getting the frame enclosed and buttoned up before winter (what am I talking about? It's 21 December and 20 F out there today with 8 inches of snow on the ground: it is winter. ) and then finishing in the spring. We wouldn't live anywhere else. City is not for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZJJ Posted December 21, 2005 Share Posted December 21, 2005 When you all are done with that I have a project you guys can work on here. It's great to still hear about barn raisings. How a community comes together and they don't expect payment, it's all about just helping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAWmonger Posted December 21, 2005 Author Share Posted December 21, 2005 The pride everyone has in "our" barn is outstanding. A couple of weeks after the raising one of the guys on our road brought some friends down one afternoon so he could show them what he had helped with. He reminded me of a kid showing his friends the cool thing he had been a part of. People said they wouldn't have missed the opportunity to experience at leisure what our ancestors did for survival. Incidentally, building a timber frame barn wasn't just for the challenge. We wanted a structure that mirrored our house which was built in 1790 and is built in the same way. Major difference being the house timbers were all shaped by hand. Some of our floor joists are tree trunks with one side flattened for the floorboards. They still have bark on them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 that's amazing! That is very interesting woodwork you have there. Did you use nails at all? Or is that the defenition of "timberframing?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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