October is rapidly vanishing and our roof is a way away still. Despite our best efforts this week progress seems slow. Lots of detailed cutting and fitting around each window will pay off later, but it takes time and more time now.

Here are the recent photos.

These pictures were taken on Wednesday 10-26-05. We have yet to get a full day in. Monday we had to quit early to take the pickup transmission for rebuild to a shop in Spokane. Tuesday we had to take some hours off in the morning to haul home Justin's van that had died in Spokane Sunday night with fuel pump problems. Can you believe they quote $385 for a fuel pump? On Wednesday I had to take a couple of hours to go to Spokane to retrieve the rebuilt pickup transmission. We keep pushing on the siding, but the going is slow. Each window gets trim, and then the panels get custom cut to match. We measure each cut twice and have someone check the work before cutting. So far, they have all fit, but it takes more time.

In this photo Justin uses our scissor lift to install the last full panel on the north side of the building about noon on Wednesday. It rained off and on Wednesday. The clay soil gets slick and sticky. The scissor lift gets stuck in the sand backfill next to the building, or slides on the wet clay. It's 2-wheel drive, with no suspension. It was advertised as "rough terrain" but not as rough as ours apparently. It does work, and goes up and down when asked to.

Here is a view of the north side panels. We're going to have to get used to going in and out the doors.

This is the view of the north side from southwest. You can see the inside R-10 insulation. We started the south wall this afternoon.

Thursday found us moving along slowly down the south wall. It's slow going. Each piece has to be measured, checked, cut, fit, screwed, and done before starting the next. Each window has trims to cut, fit, install and screw. Each two panels we have to roll, lift, hang, adjust, level, screw, and install insulation. This is the view of the south side from southwest at about noon Thursday

The "rough terrain" scissor lift has solid axles with no suspension. One rock or bump and a wheel comes off the ground and starts spinning. It doesn't like clay when wet, nor the sand we used for backfill around the foundation. Behind the little tree hill it got stuck and had to be moved by towing. That's what the Bronco in the photo is doing there.

On Friday it drizzled or rained most of the day, but we pushed on except for the hard rain periods. We actually got a lot done despite the rain and cold. Here is a Friday afternoon picture. We're just about done with the south wall. The end walls have fewer windows, which take most of the time. I spent the whole day with a tape measure, pencil, and square, measuring and cutting panels. We have completed 182 feet of sidewalls with 18 feet to go, plus 120 feet of end walls. We probably will do the roof after the west wall without waiting for the east end wall. By next week it should be dry inside.