Wall #6 placed (and a disconsolate cow).

5/26/19

Building summary: Today I began by applying the top RO* board to Wall #6’s frame. This was followed by attempting to add in the side RO boards and discovering that I could not easily square them (or the frame) up until it was in its intended location. Padre commenced to help me move and pound the frame into place. 

Commentary: The frame for Wall #6 is now well-seated within Jacobhouse, and I will be the first to admit that it was not the most pleasant of processes to get it there. Not only did the morning get progressively warmer, one of the heifers in the neighboring lot was experiencing a different sort of heat and was being quite vociferous about it. At one point, Padre and I were attempting to have a simple conversation, and I could not hear some of the words he was uttering due to that creature’s incessant bellows.

Then, came the wall-frame’s movement and placement. At first, we thought the measurements I’d made were too exact, for the fit was extremely tight. We were forced to beat the construction in with a 3-pound hammer, alternating corners all the while, and at one point we were forced to use a spare 2×4 as a lever to lift the bottom corner up a tad so we could ‘squeak’ it by. In the end, it was Padre who got the frame all the way in, surprising me with the fact after I had gone to retrieve a metal prybar to use in place of the 2×4. He also revealed the reason why it had been such a tight fit. Apparently, I had measured behind a small lip that resides just behind the container’s original doors. Had we perhaps lifted the frame in diagonally to get past that lip first, it would have been a much easier task.

It’s all done now, though, and the frame ended up fitting nigh perfectly. Now, if I only I could get the echoes of that heifer out of my ears… Oh, and here’s a quote I was reminded of multiple times this morning (taken from Thoreau’s Walden):

“Late in the evening I heard the distant rumbling of wagons over bridges, –a sound heard farther than almost any other at night, –the baying of dogs, and sometimes again the lowing of some disconsolate** cow in a distant barn-yard.“

Final Note: Tomorrow I intend to attach Wall #6’s frame to Jacobhouse with self-tapping screws. This will likely be followed by my retrieving the sliding glass door frame, inserting it into Wall #6’s frame, squaring it up, adding the two side RO boards, and then attaching them while using the sliding glass door frame as a guide. Then, if I still have time, I’ll remove the glass-door frame, caulk up the bottom and sides, and then truly fasten the thing in with screws.

*Rough-opening. The boards in this case were 2x6s.

** A perfect word for that heifer.