A small TimberHomes LLC crew and a large group of campers, parents, and community members worked through sunshine and rain last weekend to put up the timber frame for the new crafts barn at Farm & Wilderness Camp in Plymouth, Vermont. Raised entirely by hand power (we par-buckled the plates, a clever old technique developed before the advent of cranes), the barn features king post trusses allowing for clear spans in two of the bents, pine harvested from the camp property, hand riven ash pegs and a generous porch wrapping two sides. With the bents assembled on Friday, volunteers showed up for F&W’s harvest weekend on Saturday morning. Starting at 9:30, we had all four bents raised by lunchtime with a couple of plate sections set on the western wall as well. After lunch we finished setting the plates as the rains came in earnest, then moved on to assembling the king posts with their upper chords and finally lifting the three scarfed sections of the 44′ long ridge beam. Under somewhat brighter skies and with a fine sense of accomplishment we took a shot of the whole gang under the front truss, standing on what will be the future stage for performances, and headed for dinner with nary a finger pinched!
Gnomes with Moves
