I was out on site at 6.30 am and spent about an hour unloading and readying for Elisa, the WOOFER.

I had slept very badly the previous night, and with a 5.00 am start I was already very tired.

As soon as all my preparations were complete I had about half an hours nap on the floor, drank some coffee and read the newspapers.

After this I felt a bit sharper and started work installing the 2nd column for the 8m garage span.

Ross had rung during the week to tell me that he had welded the new screw cap on securely after my tack welding.

Elisa arrived.

She had experienced some bad luck with her vehicle so we needed to spend some time making repairs.

Mid morning we set her working on all the myriad tasks that need doing.

So far she has:

(1) Completed the last of the reticulation.

(2) Completed the last of the brush cutting

(3) Cut up all the piping and cleaned the frames to allow me to build some more timber racks.

(4) Tidied up all the tools and materials in the garage area.

(5) Collected up many wheel barrow loads of fallen branches.

(6) Processed most of the wood pile.

Two other jobs she might make a start on are:

(1) Build a shelving unit with castors on the base - to tidy away tools and materials.

(2) Repair the brick paving at the back door.

So lots of productive work by Elisa - many thanks for the help.

Meanwhile I set up the jig for the last tall column.

This was positioned awkwardly and took quite some time to complete.

I also needed to make several adjustments to achieve the right column spacing.

The physical column length from off the jig and the theoretical column length from laser level measurements did not agree well and it took several attempts to bring them in to reconciliation.

By dusk I had cut the column and installed it under the jig.

However, there was too much rain to allow me weld safely.

I eventually left around 6.30 pm.

Sunday morning I was not out on site until 11.00 am.

Elisa had already done a very good job of tidying away all the tools and materials so that there was room to build the shelving unit.

It took me another 3 hours to finalise the positioning of the column, tack weld, brace with diagonal timbers and take down the jig.

Elisa in the meantime gathered up many wheelbarrow loads of fallen branches and twigs and processed them in to neat piles near the wood pile.

To work on the two remaining, short columns on the front veranda I needed access to two very awkward positions on the existing PFC 150.

In the end I had to spend more than an hour errecting a primitive scaffolding to allow me to reach some places safely.

I also needed to grind out two very annoying pieces of flashing that were blocking the positioning of the jig arms.

The first set of measurments did not yield a squarely oriented jig.

At this point I felt very tired and decided to revisit this next Saturday when I was fresh.

I packed away all the tools and left at 6.00 pm.

Monday - Tuesday

Elisa stayed on at the house and built the shelving unit and relaid the bricks at the back door.