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.

WHat a difference a day can make!

We should work on Sundays more often. If they work out like this.

There was a quiet sense of purpose at morning meeting. 'Father Rick' closing with inspiring closing words, that for a change had a backdrop of silence, with no other workers around.

Julien Croisier made the effort to join us for half a day and helped complete the roof framing.

The next time I got down from up there Jim, Barbara and Olga had surrounded the box frame with little rafters. Already our synagogue looked much closer to complete.

Meanwhile the ceiling crew is making steady progess.

A mighty puzzle of colorful pieces is stacked all around the frame

At this point giving no more than hints of animals and shapes.

Remember these pictures?

 Add a bit of this and this and this....

....and you end up with something to be proud of:

Jacob, who was working on the ridge most of the day noticed that there were five levels of people working on the frame: Alicia and Jim on the collar ties below him, Barbara and I on the tiebeam level below them, then the ceiling crew on scissor lifts and scaffolding and more people on the ground. 

The often hoped for TFG projects flywheel was powerfully humming yesterday.

 It left us only with the wish that we had been able to assemble it on an open field, where one can take a step back and revel at the size and shape of this beautiful building.

As Alicia predicted on our day off: we are Stayin Alive!