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Archive for February 18th, 2022

Annex 58

Posted in Diary, tagged on February 18, 2022| 1 Comment »

Before the next section of roof can go up, we need to run a steel header between two uprights at the north end of the deck. And because we had planned to do a ramp on that side anyhow, I decided to put those posts on the outside so the roof would cover the ramp and landing as well.  But of course, the easiest way to do that was to simply build the ramp first, so that’s what I did.  It was clear and warm this past weekend, so on Saturday I drove into town to buy the wood I’d need.  I knew that thanks to the current and previous US presidents having an 18th-century understanding of economics, lumber is being heavily taxed and is therefore more expensive (in comparison with other things) than I’ve ever seen it; however, I don’t have the luxury of just waiting around for someone in Washington to figure out why tariffs are such a bad idea, so I bought the absolute minimum I could and also used some treated lumber we still had left over from two years ago (which is why some of the boards in the picture below are green; we’ll pressure-wash it later).  $200 was all I could justify spending at this extortionate rate, but with the old boards it was enough to finish the ramp proper, though not the landing.  Luckily, we had plenty of 4×4 sections left from the previous work, so at least I didn’t need to spend money on those.  Anyway, after I got back from town Grace taught me how to use the auger, and I was able to set the posts in concrete; on Sunday I built what you see here.  Now we’ll attach sections of pipe to the two ramp-support posts, in much the same way as the support you can see around the middle of this picture, and then we can get started on the next section of roof.  And the landing can wait for me to find some wood that isn’t twice as costly as it has any right to be.

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