Our Race With Water

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We installed the largest fir trunks we had—most of them 6 inches in diameter at the small end—plus two center uprights of milled lumber (one 6 X 8, the other 6 X 10) in the above holes. All were set with a plumb line, as nearly perpendicular as possible. If the whole batch of uprights had been lumberyard stock we could have done the job more quickly and easily with the help of a 6-foot level . . . but small curves in the fir trunks made this impossible, and a certain amount of estimating went into getting the supports straight.

Next came the plates (horizontal pieces on top of the uprights which support the rafters). We chose milled lumber for this purpose, on the theory that it would be easier to notch the roof beams to fit their rectangular surfaces.

Plates for the long walls were made of 2 X 4's and 2 X 6's, nailed together as shown in Fig. 2 to provide a seat for the joists. The end walls were topped with doubled 2 X 6's. This type of construction meant a number of splices in each beam (how many 30-foot-long 2 X 6's have you ever seen?) and we took care to make the joints fall directly above vertical poles. The plates were nailed together on the ground, then lifted onto the uprights and toenailed in place.

Next came joists, the horizontal timbers which reach from one long wall to the other. These provide support for a second floor, and—more important—hold the walls together when the weight of snow on the roof tends to force them apart. Since most of our milled lumber was under 10 feet long, we substituted poles placed 3 or 4 feet apart. Every 5 feet we installed a set of "lockers" . . . timbers which are notched into each plate and into each other (Fig. 3). This strengthening system more or less assures that the walls will stay in place unless the joists literally break in two.

Then the fun started: We began work on the roof. The first step was to install a massive ridge board (more than 4 X 6, and probably much larger than it really needed to be). This was done by running uprights to ridge level from the center plate (directly above the posts set in the ground), cutting 2 X 5's to match the distances between supports, and splicing them on each side with 2 X 4's the entire length of the house.

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