Ajijaakwe: Stage 1, Step 2: Moving the Gallery

Well before the day got underway, we received a visitation from Hawk.

He was here yesterday, too, circling over the peaks as the first load of fill was delivered, but with this day's dawn, he got right up close and personal. I had just finished morning prayers and was returning to the "house," when I felt as much as heard a gigantic whoosh of of powerful wings behind me. He had apparently been on the ground by the head of the drive, waiting for me to finish; as I walked away, he swooped up, low to the ground, then rose gently to come to rest upon a fencepost to the east.

He waited for me to retrieve my camera and get a photo, although he was not willing to afford me one of him in flight. Still, it seemed like a good omen for the day's coming task.

The crane operator was due to arrive at 8:30, so about a half-hour prior, I walked up to the gate to open it. Father Sun was not yet fully awake, just beginning to peer around the edge of the peaks. He was kind enough to give me a whole series of mystical images, but those are for another day. It seemed another good omen.

Daniel and his son, Estevan arrived shortly thereafter to help. The crane and its operator showed up at 8:45.

Then, we discovered that we had a problem.

It is the age-old problem of talking at cross-purposes. At one time, when Wings first contacted the Gil, the crane operator, he was planning to move the building atop our old deck. We had not gotten our heads around the notion of being able to build, much less of having no choice but to make it happen, and so this was the original plan.

When he contacted him a few days ago, he explained the new plan, but Gil somehow missed it.

Now, what to do? The crane truck itself, of course, could not drive the building over to the new site; the weight dangling from the boom would cause it to tip over. It really required a massive flatbed trailer, but we have only an ordinary-sized one.

But where there's a will (and desperation) . . . .

They decided to try to make the flatbed work. Keep in mind that the usual method of transporting these buildings is on an oversized trailer — you know, the kind with the front and rear escorts and flashing lights and snail's pace that bottleneck traffic for miles and piss you off because there's no getting around them.

Our trailer is very average-sized.

This meant that the building would have to sit on the rails along the side, rails that are somewhat wider in the middle to cover the wheel wells, but still narrow.

And the straps — many straps — would be needed.

Daniel climbed up on top of the building to begin affixing them.

The guys had to fasten the straps to one side initially, then jump down and brace it underneath with cinder blocks so that there would be support, in the event of a drop, while the other side was strapped and raised. Estevan took care of the second side, roof tilt and all.

This is probably a good time to note that both Daniel and Estevan are incredibly agile and extremely adept at roof-and-ladder work. I don't do well with that sort of thing, so watching them was an exercise in cringing admiration.

Straps fastened and centered, and we have lift-off. Daniel is just barely visible in the background to the right, cranking on a strap being used as a guy wire, to provide counterbalance while the crane slowly shifts the building from directly above its former site, across the bed of the crane truck, to center it directly above the flatbed.

Here it is being lowered onto the flatbed, all three guys working to guide it while Gil operates the boom. It's remarkably slow and steady, considering, but its weight still functions as a pendulum, which means that the building swings and sways somewhat in the air. We were blessed this morning to have virtually no breeze at all, so the only movement came from the physics of the operation.

Once Gil had the building centered directly above the flatbed, so that either side would rest directly atop the extended rails over the wheel wells, he set it down gently. Estevan then climbed up to remove the straps from the boom's hook.

It looks like nothing, but in actuality, he was up there a good long while. They had to tighten the straps and interlace them with a horizontal one around the width of the building, then tie it all down to the flatbed itself.

Wings, Daniel, and Estevan worked on tying it down again while Gil retracted the boom. Then Gil drove out, straight ahead toward the camera and then veering off to the right to circle around through the yard onto the driveway, and thence to the spot directly in front of the fill that was dropped and leveled yesterday.

Meanwhile, Wings got ready to try to drive the building over to the same area and line it up next to the crane.

I say "try," because it was no sure thing. A steady stream of prayers and invocations later, and I still couldn't quite believe that we made it work. The truck is, after all, more than forty years old — 1972, to be exact — and it has a commensurately older, less powerful engine with the expected drop-off in compression. We have difficulty hauling too many bales of hay at once, requiring us to load and stack many more times than would be needed with a newer, more powerful vehicle. Gil estimated the weight of this little building (a little over 10' X 12 ') at six thousand pounds. That's three tons. I honestly didn't think it would work.

I was delighted to be proven wrong, so wrong, utterly, completely wrong.

Wings had originally planned to follow Gil's route around to the right, but given the weight, he elected instead to back it up in a K-turn, and then drive straight forward the few yards between the barns and the new site. Once he pulled up next to the crane, the entire operation began again in reverse.

While Gil raised the boom, Daniel went back up to take care of the straps, fastening them once again to the hook. It took, of course, a great deal longer than the pictures seem to indicate, but by now, the guys had the routine down, and it went far more rapidly than i would have expected.

Once the straps were attached and centered properly again, Gil lifted the building straight up off the truck, again sending it over and past his own truck preparatory to placing it on the new fill site.

You'll notice the guys holding the corners again. Part of that is simple guidance, keeping it from swaying too much. But part of it is more deliberate, as they get ready to help from the ground with the process of turning it. Coming off the truck, the door is facing southwest, and we wanted the doorway facing southeast. While it's suspended high in the air, Gil turns it accordingly, with a little guiding help from the guys on the ground below.

And here it is, slowly being lowered, in the proper position, onto the new fill site. At first glance, it looks here as thought it's already on the ground, but it's not: It's suspended a few feet above the site, while the guys ready cinder blocks to bolster and stabilize it as both sides are placed and the straps removed (i.e., the reverse of the earlier process).

This time around, though, it's not merely a temporary support. Here, Wings and Daniel are placing stacked cinder blocks beneath where the edges will sit, and topping them with pressure-treated four-by-fours. Over time, the weight of the building will cause it to settle, and this will help keep the frame from sinking into the dirt and becoming warped from any resulting unevenness.

Once the cinder blocks and four-by-fours have been placed, Gil sets the building down gently upon them. The process is mostly done; all that remains now is to remove the straps.

Well, and write the check.

Paid in full, Gil pulls out of the driveway at 10:15 AM. The entire process has taken exactly an hour and a half. It went off, literally, like clockwork. Good omens.

We have a gallery in place.

We also have a clear house site.

The fill for the house site is being delivered on Friday.

At 7:30 in the morning.

Ajijaakwe

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Stage 1, Step 2: Moving the Gallery

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