Hiking and Roofing

Last weekend we thought we were going to have a nice slow weekend at home.  We made a plan to go hiking on Saturday morning--we have been biking quite a lot this summer, but my first love is hiking, so I requested that we do that instead.  Plus, I have planned since moving here 8 years ago to visit all the local County Conservation areas and so far I have visited...none of them.  We initially planned to go to one a little further away, but our friend Jake called requesting some help working on his roof, so we opted to go for a shorter hike.  

We went to the Quercus Wilderness Area.  Quercus is Latin for "oak," and there certainly were a lot of oak trees there!  It was a heavily forested area, and also had a lot of poison ivy, and many ripe wild raspberries...I wish I'd brought a container to collect them in!

We started with the stroller, but the paved portion only extended for about a quarter mile, so Laurel got to ride in the sling on my back instead.

Family photo

 We weren't exactly sure what Jake had planned, or how many people would be there working.  He lives out in the country, on gravel roads, about 20 minutes from town.  He is replacing his entire roof with a metal roof.  It ended up being Jake, his parent, and Scott working, while Laurel and I hung around, sometimes outside and sometimes inside.  I did clean his kitchen, so I wasn't totally lazy!  They had to remove two layers of shingles, and cleared part of the roof on each side.

Scott is helping to remove shingles.

They had to replace the bottom 2 feet of plywood, as there was some rot.  This was the most time consuming part of the job!  Jake lives in a berm house, so on the back of the house you can just step right from the grass onto the roof!

Laurel had a blast running around outside...I think she would happily be outside all day running, and never stop.  I did make her come inside for naps, and to prevent sunburn.

Jake's dogs were hanging around that day, and were very friendly.  Laurel knows the word dog, and makes a barking sound when you ask what the dog says, but has not had much hands on experience with dogs.  She was very excited to see them, and said "Hi!" and barked at them a lot.  But when they actually came up to her and licked or sniffed her face, she got a little nervous.

Installing the new plywood.

Laurel liked the dog's paws best of all.

 They worked until it got dark (and after!) on Saturday night.  They came to the realization that they would not be able to get any of the actual roof on, so they made sure they got as much underlayment installed as possible, and covered the rest of the exposed part with house wrap.  On Sunday, we came back after church to help make more progress.

Laurel is back to running in the yard!

This is the view from his front yard.  Some prairie, a ridge, and a couple lovely ponds.  Very peaceful and beautiful!

almost done installing all the underlayment on both sides, and about ready to start putting on the metal!

Jake screwing on a metal roofing piece.  He only had one drill for this, and each piece has numerous screws, so although the actual installation of the metal is pretty easy, it went slowly.  Elaina handed him the screws, and Scott and Jake's Mom helped hold things in place and supervised.  I sat in the grass and Laurel ran up and down the hill about a thousand times.

First piece is on!

We only got about 4 pieces of metal installed on Sunday.  Jake worked on it again all day on Monday.  Then on Tuesday night we had rain and thunderstorms, and his roof leaked...the part of the roof that still has the old shingles on it!  We're hoping he is able to get it finished soon.  Maybe a whole crew of roofing fairies will show up to complete the task?