| EARTH ART AND FOODS |
| The other end of the tier beams have a half inch notch that lock into the front porch wall. I used 3 nails to fasten each beam to the porch wall. |
| There; wall two is up and with two more to go. |
| Once the front porch was secured, the main wall was partially erected and the tier beams were inserted into the notches, The front wall was then moved to a right angle with the tier beams secured-in with dowels. Here Peggy is making the notches for the knee braces that tie the front wall posts to the tier beams. |
| Here the actual first wall of the two story building is being raised. Again, the initial challenge here is to raise the top plate to 40 or more degrees before using comealongs and cables to erect it straight. Using cement blocks to support the plate we were able to jack up the wall to about 25-30 degrees. |
| Next the cable work had to be done. It is not a comforting thought to climb a ladder that is sitting on a 5/8" cable but after a while you'll get used to it. Personally, I don't enjoy heights even though I have been a mountain climber all my life. Having learned to deal with hight anxiety, I was able to perform these various tasks . |
| As it can be seen 14'- 2X6's were utilized to aid the comealongs to erect the wall in position. It seems odd to add additional weight to the wall by placing the ladder against the opposing pull. But it had to be done for safety reasons; the weight of this wall can easily crush a person should things go wrong. |
| The first shop wall is kept almost at an 80 degree angle to prevent it from falling forward. While at this angle, the resistance on the cable is very low and wall can be easily manipulated back and forth. The tier beam tenons in this picture are being tailored into the receiving mortises. |
| As it can be seen, there are two opposing forces that are holding this wall up. The first is the steel cable that aided in the erection of the wall and the second is the yellow rope that is preventing the wall from falling forward. As mentioned before, at near 90 degrees there is very little resistance to either the cable or the rope. |