Today was my day to add the second top plate to the north and south walls. I planned to construct each top plate out of two scarfed 14-foot 2x4s.
The boards were too long for me to make the scarf joints on my table saw by myself. I decided to make them using the circular saw instead. First, I used my pipe clamps to set up the boards so I could make the cuts to all the boards at once.
Since I have plenty of cinder blocks :-) I used some to hold the boards.
With the circular saw, I made tons of cuts.
I used a hammer and chisel to smooth out the joints.
Then, I got really lucky; Dale came over to help. Going up and down the ladder a gazillion times and hefting those long boards up onto the walls would have taken me days. Having another set of hands helped tremendously. I stopped taking photos (sorry) but we got the job done quickly. See? Second top plate installed.
For your added enjoyment, I took photos of some of the mushrooms growing in my yard at the moment. With all the rain we've had, I have a bumper crop this year.
People tell me on a regular basis that it would be nice if I was in more of the photos. Since I'm both the primary builder and the photographer, that is a hard request to grant. I tried an experiment today: I set the timer on my camera, grabbed Bear, and tried to get into position... Oops! Didn't quite go as planned...
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