When the jet lag gets you it gets you

So you might as well put on some pants and go down to the lobby and make use of the internet while nobody else is online! It is 1h30 in the morning. Monday morning, already. It has been a short weekend. Saturday was a big day for us, because it marked the biggest crane hoist of the raising. That made for a full day, leaving but Sunday to sleep in and see Warsaw.

About that Saturday:

There is a truss that supports the ridge of the synagogue roof that runs down the center of the building. The only thing higher than the ridge are the very tops of the rafters, which will make the general shape of the roof. 

Our crane, at full extension is about equally matched by our frame. Alicia did the math and said it would work, weight wise and height wise. But that does little to take the excitement and tension out of the situation. It ain't up until it's up.

The nice thing about doing this lift on Saturday, ( other than that we were not ready Friday evening) is that there were no other contractors around. No steel workers banging on metal, no people installing doors where we need to get through a hundred times a day, no endless testing of the emergency evacuation message... no unnecessary spectators. Plenty of spectators nonetheless, all of whom similarly excited as us.

Preparations took longer than anticipated, but that could have been anticipated. When we were finally able to go to lunch it was three o clock. By then the crane had moved the truss three feet out over the edge of the box frame, re rigged and gently pulled it up by the ridge. At just about plumb a crew of six had to push on two by four bracing and pull on ropes to get it the last little bit.

Jacob got the job to climb the temporarily braced truss to re rig again, so that the crane could pick the truss just high enough to get the blocks out from underneath it. At the last minute we sneaked in two timbers that we had forgotten about, which would have been really hard to insert afterward, and set the truss down. Braced it off and went to lunch, and snowy daylight, much relieved.

There was more a sense of awe at the new height than a sense of celebration. There is still so much work left to do, that we went right back to it, yet staying close to the ground preparing for the hoist of the building on Monday...today...and tying up loose ends.

Remember that twisted plate that I labelled a 'project for another day'? 

Jacob and I went right to it, and man was that a challenge. Probably ten truck straps and eight clamps, a few whacks with a chisel and mallet and two long levers later we decided it was as good as it will get.

The time lapse camera I asked the photographer to install took 165 pictures at a rate of one every 60 seconds.... You do the math. We were there until after dark. Unfortunately that is too much to upload!

Anja, one of the two Polish students that has already been part of our efforts in Sanok invited the timber framers to her humble abode and served up delicious pierogi with borscht on a wood fired stove and capped the meal with apple pie and home made lemon infused and grapefruit infused vodka! Ahh this is Poland!

Now the battery is at 34% and I'm feeling much the same way. The alarm goes off at 6, work starts at 7h30.Time to get some sleep! Be well!