As a result, the next morning, I couldn't get myself going until 8.00 am

After a simple breakfast I started work at 8.30 am.

The work from last night carried over for a while and it wasn't until 10.00 am that I could start on the purlins.

During the week Linda had bought me some more Jif and a handle / pad system for using abrasive scouring pads.

This is pretty hard on my bad elbow and wrists so I washed down 6 more purlins first before looking at any other chores.

Cutting the raw end off veranda beam has been on my outstanding task list for a few weeks now so I finally tackled this job (needs to be done so that I can remove the temporary bracing purlin).

Once again I used a very fine 1 mm by 5 inch angle grinding disk as well as carefully marking up all cut lines. I ended up with a good result.

I paused to untangle and roll up a whole lot of loose rope and cords littering the site.

Behind me I heard a movement and turned around to see two ewes and two lambs contentedly chewing grass at the back of my property.

Another hour went calling my neighbour Tom and chasing them back to where they belong. I have to admit though - they do look rather cute.

I have been holding out trying to find some cheaper second hand C100 purlins (looking in ebay, gumtree and quokka) - the new price is $8.50 a metre as opposed to $5.00 a metre second hand.

However, I really wanted to tidy up the end of the veranda so on Friday I broke down and purchased a 6 metre length from Midalia steel. Cut in half this gives me two purlins.

I carefully hand fitted this purlin to the end of the beam (no cutting to standard length using my measuring gauge).

From previously cleaned and selected purlins I cut another 4 pieces to length, notched out the rebates, and drilled the mounting holes.

It was getting towards the end of the day but I had just enough time to prepare another 2 x 12mm holes in the 150 PFC. (I should be able to install these quickly on the Monday public holiday).

While I was at it I removed 2 of the temporary braces that are now no longer needed.

I'm working towards installing enough purlins so that all the bracing pieces can be removed - this will tidy up the steelworks a bit and give me some feeling of progress.

Monday

In the early afternoon I went out and installed 2 of the prepared purlins.

After releasing some of the temporary purlins from their task, I found one was a perfect length to use in the diagonal area (ie could be cut down to less that 3 metres to avoid a welded on section).

This allowed me to install a purlin in the diagonal section and then remove the last temporary bracing.