Relative Something

The holiday celebration last weekend put my wood shed project on hold, and I have been hoping to reclaim some momentum ever since. I was thinking I could get back to it, right after we got home from the lake, but other tasks won out. The cross-beams, with posts attached, were left lying on the ground for almost two weeks while I contemplated how we would stand them upright to get them assembled, with a limited number of helping hands.

The old treated fence posts we chose to use are very heavy, and tied together, I figured it might be a problem to lift and hold in position. One solution we were considering was to use the bucket on the diesel tractor. I imagined we could strap them up to be held in position with the bucket. However, with just the two of us, I would be up on the tractor, and that would leave Cyndie alone to guide the heavy posts. For that reason, I allowed some days to pass, while I thought the plan through some more.

Yesterday, when I got home from the day-job, Cyndie offered to help me figure out if we could get it done. I began gathering tools and things, in preparation for the attempt… Of course, I would eventually need the ladder out there. As I was carrying it toward the site, it struck me that we could just lean the first set of posts against the ladder when we got them upright, if we were able to lift them with just the two of us.

Sure enough, we lifted it. Cyndie and I proceeded to manage the whole process with just the two of us, a ladder, and no tractor.

Sometimes the solution is so easy, you overlook it, until it eventually become so obvious, you can’t miss. Maybe, as I do more and more projects like this, the obvious solutions will get easier to recognize, and appear to me sooner.

Next step: rafters…