Starting the frame

March 8 2006
Took a trip down to East Haddam this morning. Brendan Matthews, of The Barn Raisers, had called and said the timbers for the frame had come in and they were starting to cut.
The weather was starting to warm, finally. there was just a trace of lingering snow on the ground.
When I arrived, Brendan, Bob and Splint were each working on separate pieces of the frame. There were timbers stacked in neat piles around the "shop". As you can see in the photos, with the exception of a small shed covering some timbers, the whole Barn Raisers facility is "al fresco". I suppose when you build post and beam buildings, you don't need a shop. In fact, I'm not even sure they need electricity. In the photos, you can see the guys using hand tools and even the "drilling machine" to cut the mortises and tenons on the beams. (A mortise is a hole cut into a timber that a tenon fits into. These are then usually held together with wooden pegs.)

The wood for the frame is white pine with the exception of the timbers that come in contact with the foundation. These sills are made in oak which has a resistance to rot equivalent to pressure treated lumber.

It should take about a month to cut these. They will then be moved to Middlefield for a planned early April raising.