Surely You Joist, Things are Getting Batty Up Here!
But don't call me Shirley! Well, it's been another week of excessive heat. I won't go into the gory details, but I will mention that the heat index was over 120 degrees on Friday. Whew!

This week I was able to complete the walk-around deck and begin building the support joists for the second floor. 9 out of the 16 sides will have a second floor. The remaining sides will be open to the first floor. The joists are made up of 2 x 6's spaced 16" on center. I debated over what size floor joists to use. 2 x 6's will support the short spans between the girders, so there's structural integrity. I could of gone with a full 2 x 10 but thought that was a lot of overkill and it would close up the ceiling. I'd like to show a little relief between the ceiling and girders in the rooms. This will also allow me to add some duct work up there for the likelihood that I want to run central air conditioning.

I finished the week, with getting 4 out of the 9 sides done. And I couldn't have gotten that much done unless I used my trusty, rusty old Bobcat. The roof of the Bobcat makes an excellent portable platform to work from. (Kids, please don't try this at home.) So, I built a platform out of dirt and drove the Bobcat inside the house. (Hey, what can I say? It really makes my life a lot easier!)

I would also like to comment that there are no need for Beanie Babies up here. I have all of the natural beanie babies you can think of. Besides the kittens in the pole barn, there's my friend the bat that keeps dropping down from the pole barn door every time I open it. The first time around, it scared the cordwood out of me, but now I open the door slowly in the morning. Here's a picture of "Batty". Don't worry, he's not dead, just a little stunned from his rude awakening.