.. I would start today by showing you where I got up to last night.

Three sheets of plywood in position and tacked down ready to be properly fastened. to the chevrons

So first job this morning was to remove the rest of the temporary roofing, put two more chevrons on the roof and fit another sheet of plywood. Then I had to fit two chevrons at the near end either side of the wall, and fill in between them with concrete.

“Concrete in early January in the Auvergne?” I hear you say.

Yes indeed – you can see what the weather was like, and I was sweating while I was doing it too.

While the concrete was setting, I cut down the chevrons to 3650mm with my new saw which is ever so impressive – almost as impressive in fact as my galvanised steel dustbin.

I’m fed up of having nothing but rubbish around here so in the UK the other week I bought an expensive thick-bladed rough-cut saw and it went through those chevrons like a knife through butter. Should have bought one like this ages ago.

And why 3650mm of chevrons?

Well, the width of the lean-to on the slant is 3400, the sheets are 2440 by 1220 and so one sheet lengthways and one sheet sideways makes 3660 – enough to cover the lean-to with sufficient overhang without having to cut anything (and wielding a circular saw up a ladder is not an ideal solution for anything).

There’s sufficient room to put a barge board and fascia panel and to fit some guttering.

A good overhang is important too because they don’t do damp course around here. if the base of the wall is too exposed, the rain that falls at its foot will soak up in the stone and mortar. Apart from the issues of damp, there will be cracking the former and dislodging the latter from its position in winter by the “freeze-thaw” process. When water freezes, its volume is greater so water soaked up into the pores of stone or cement expands in the cold and cracks the stone or forces the cement. the force is so powerful that it was recognised as an established stone-breaking process thousands of years ago

Anyway, when the chevrons had been cut I mauled up another sheet (and they aren’t half heavy doing it like that) and manoeuvred it into position sideways across the ends of the far two sheets that are on there lengthwise, and then screwed it down.

After lunch I had to move the old scaffolding that was there (the one that I’d liberated from a skip in the dechetterie at Commentry in 2000), and seeing as how it had been there since 2001 that wasn’t easy either. It involved cutting down a few trees that had grown into the way (so there’s the firewood for next winter and isn’t this new saw really good?), clearing the ground away and removing all kinds of bits and pieces.

Once I’d done that, I then had to erect the new kwikstage scaffolding that I had brought back from the UK the other week.

That took ages, and I don’t know why, and then I just about had enough time to lift up another sheet of plywood and screw it across the bottom of the other two sheets before it went dark.

And you can see where my concreting from this morning went.

18:10 when I finished and I was shattered. But it wasn’t being shattered that stopped me – it was the losss of light. I’d still be there now if there was light enough to work.

But I have a feeling that I’m going to pay for all of this tomorrow. I’m not as young as I was.

And so tomorrow I need to cut three pieces to make the covering for the final part of the roof, climb all over the roof screwing all the sheets down properly, and then cover it with a layer or two that breathable plastic membrane to keep out the damp (a good buy, that industrial hammer-stapler).

If I can get that done tomorrow that will be where I want to be. And then I can start nailing down the plastic slates.

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