Day 2 House Assembly

Helping the Truck

Day 2 (Thursday 1/4/18)

A major winter storm blew in last night, Jan 2-3, 2018. Temps were around 25F all day and the wind started at about 15-20 knots but soon built to 20-35kts (34kts is gale force wind). There was 1-2 inches of snow but since the ground was quite cold from the past week of low temperatures, it all stuck and wasn't going to melt. The good thing is that it was easy to sweep off the house decking and panels. The third truck arrived this morning and quickly became stuck on a neighbor's driveway. There was just enough slope and enough snow that it couldn't get traction to back up the hill. A four-wheel pickup connected to the trailer with straps was enough to solve the problem, but it did take almost an hour to get the truck backed to the construction site where we could unload it.

First Panel Today
We were able to set three panels before the wind made us stop. The second panel had to be lifted over the garage and it swung around in the air a good bit. We routed the third panel around the garage, but the wind caught it at one point and pushed three of us around. It was a panel with a big sliding door hole in the middle. A complete panel (no holes) would not have been controllable. It was not safe lifting panels over the garage and moving them down low created its own set of hazards. The high winds brought our operation to a halt at lunch time.

There are five panels in place. The wind is supposed to be strong all day tomorrow, so we may not get much done tomorrow either. The current forecast (which has been changing) shows relatively calm winds after tomorrow (Friday). We're looking at working Saturday and Sunday to make up time.
Second Panel Today

Moving the Third Panel Down Low (supposedly out of the wind)



The time lapse video of today's work is below. The video is shaky because the wind was blowing the camera mounting pole around. I will improve the mount to reduce the vibration in the wind for future time lapse videos.


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