I was up at 5.00 am and watching the weather radar on the Perth Weather web site.

We had been warned about destructive storms first thing Saturday morning - so I was unsure whether it was even worth getting out of bed today.

It looked like Mandurah was copping the brunt of the storm and we were just catching the edge.

I spent an hour packing the utility between showers and making all my usual preparations.

Tanguy and I left shortly after 7.00am and drove in to increasing showers on the way to Wooroloo.

I had in my mind a quick 10 minute plan to tie tarpaulins over the top side steel so that Tanguy could apply the enamel coat and I could install the diagonal beam.

As part of this plan I wanted to clamp some 100 mm C purlins to the very top to keep the flapping tarpaulins off the paint work.

What I had forgotten about was the irregular protruding timber bracing appearing above the steel beam.

This gave me an excuse to use my latest toy (I mean tool) - a reciprocating multipurpose cutter.

I set Tanguy to work trimming all the projections to below 100 mm while I dragged up various pieces of C purlin and timber to fill in the top profile.

This was very slow work as we kept having to dodge the showers.

I had taken up the large sun umbrella to act as an island of shelter but this was not completely waterproof and on a few occasions we had to retreat off the roof.

Eventually we were ready to rig the tarpaulins.

We had three in storage. We sorted through them to find the largest one and this we installed to mainly cover the back corner - this would allow me to work on the back diagonal beam.

There was a fair amount of running up and down to the roof, hammering star pickets in to the ground, tying ropes and making adjustments.

After the large tarpaulin we also ran a long, thinner one to let Tanguy work on the top side beam.

From previous experience I set up the tension in the ropes so that the canopy could billow up and down in the wind - this reduces the chance of the eyelets ripping out.

Of course, the minute that we finished the tarpaulins blue sky and bright sunlight broke through the cloud and the rain.

It remained dry for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day I left the tarpaulins in position - so I hope they are not ripped to shreds by the time we return next weekend and that we can get some use out of them.

By now it was 12.30 and I could finally make a start on installing the diagonal beam and Tanguy could get on with his painting.

First off, I wrestled the large base steel off the work bench and trollied it away to storage.

Next I dragged the hoist in to position.

The little hard machine wheels are not really intended for soft damp sand it took me an hour to wrestle it in to position - this involved using levers and rolling it over thin metal sheets.

I then cranked it up and down a few times to judge how much extra packing it would need on top to reach the desired height.

I used a few large calsil bricks and timber packers to pad it up.

I then used the trolley to move the prepared diagonal beam in to approximate position and Tanguy gave me a hand to position it precisely.

We then spent half an hour performing a trial fit and I found I had to grind a few surfaces before tack welding it in to place.

As per usual, welding took me quite a few hours and I found myself packing up in the twilight.

Meanwhile Tanguy had finished his painting (a long thankless jobs) and worked on lowering all the scaffolding to a new height more suitable to working on installing the back veranda purlins.

This was a substantial, demanding job and I am very grateful for all the effort he put in to it.

We packed up at 5.30 and headed home to a lamb stew dinner that Linda had made for us.