15th June CASTELO BRANCO

We were at Mark and Glen’s for nine hours and almost got one joist in! It wasn’t all physical work, a lot of the time was spent discussing the logistics of manoeuvring and lifting the joists; even though Mark had already planned how he wanted it done, everyone had an opinion, including me.  And more time was spent building ’A’ frames to support the joists whilst they were being lifted.

The problem with replacing joists is that they are longer than the gaps they are spanning (initially joists are put in place as the walls are built up); so, to put these in, a hole had to be made for each joist, going through the wall, so that they can be fed through from outside the building across the room into a gap in the opposite wall. Next problem; alongside the outside wall the joists were being fed through is a below ground level water tank (precisely where beams, structures, people etc need to be).

1st joist lifted to hole

Joist poking through hole into house

The highlight of the day, for me, was when Brett, Mark and Glen were carrying the first joist into position ready for lifting up to the hole (8 or 9 foot high); Brett lifted the joist, Mark fell over and Glen was shouting “don’t push me in the tank” – you had to be there!

The worst thing was that they don’t stop for lunch!!! Well they did today, at 3.00, (and that was only because I commented on being hungry).

It looks like we’re going to be spending another couple of days there; which is all good – it’s favours ‘in the bank’.

I’ve found this really nice rose wine (12%), at 1€15 a bottle (so it’s quite expensive!); it’s quite dry and slightly fizzy – I like it.