Pride and Joy

it is done

thank you to all

This spaceship is ready for blast off

On the morning of the last day I am writing about the second to last day. 

For the first time I had the thought/feeling/realization that this synagogue is going to be complete. Somehow, this go around there as been this background sense of impossibility about the work. All the labor and love that went into it from all the people over all the weeks and months and years, all that is now put together. With a few more things on the punch list. 

The pendentive boards (the triangle shaped parts of the eight sided big dome went in yesterday and Witek and I followed the ceiling crew on the outside to scribe the ribs to the boards. It is not the first thing in this frame to be built backwards.

The subtlest clue for this are the paint drips, as Matt in his quiet observing ways pointed out.

So here a selection of pictures from the outside and the inside. 

Both have their beauty, but one of them takes the cake.

I'm a timber framer. So I put the brown side first. 

There are somewhere around 320 pieces of wood in the frame, not counting the ceiling.

 

The small curve is the Zodiac level. Above it the Lantern. 

Leading up to the Zodiac is the main dome, the part of the ceiling with the most area.

Tying the four sides of the domes together are the pendentive triangles.

These boards got applied to the surface of the main dome boards.

The ribs produced in Sanok did not quite have the correct curve. It's complicated stuff.

So these ribs got put in place and scribed to the installed boards...

...reshaped by Witek with a sweet little swiss adze that Jacob had just bought...

...then screwed into place hugging the pendentive.

Here's the cake. With endless admiration.

Finicky fitting on the transition from the Main dome to the Zodiac level took all day.

All hands below deck for the last pieces. Here a clearly thrilled Jason Loik. Olga I'm sure was just caught in between smiles. A rare shot of her.

The staging slowly gets readjusted to lower levels to reveal the tent roof.

Off to the final day!

The selection of craft brews

Most of them if not all are non pasteurized. A couple of lager beers, one red and a dark beer as well as one with a surprising amount of honey in it. All very tasty and welcome!

The ceiling is coming together

The day started out with sweeping the frame. Having done all the high work we were taking advantage of the holes in the ceiling to drop our shavings.

Work continues on the Zodiak level.

Jacob and I install a blue, white and red ribbon of trim at the bottom of the ceiling, called the Ziggerot.

 

And we quickly get an appreciation for how tricky it is to install already painted boards.

And it takes quite a bit of help.

 The first of the pendentives is completed. Though there were no white ribbons between the panels. Everything was painted, so the next task is to see what needs to be done in order to put up a trim piece that has to be made and then painted, before it can be installed.

Big animals 

Little animals

After all this work we did manage to all go out together for a beer

And our favorite pizza place. There was much rejoicing!

The focus is shifting

As the timber framing crew is working on putting the last timbers onto the frame,

gable rafters and hips,

they find that they fit with minimal adjustments. What's better is that those can be achieved by hatchet.

Sprockets (?) for the outshot rafters and hips. By Anja and Olga.

 And we find ourselves glancing at the busy ceiling work more and more.

Jim has been "inside" the most of us and has been working out the tricky business of making the now painted boards fit into the frame, just as they had been back in Sanok. And as usual, there are never enough notes and markings as one would wish. So all the experience and creativity is called upon. All the while balancing patience and haste.

Jacob and Jason Loik of the ceiling crew took the time to climb to the ridge yesterday morning for the ceremony of the whetting bush. 

Anja provided the spruce branch from her home.

We also stray into other parts of the museum, that were always there...

...always stunning...

...always fantastic...

...and very much a good and worthy home for our frame.

Oh, the goods still to come!

Now the framers have to find a way to be useful to the ceiling crew, to make best use of the three remaining days.