PLAN A: TRUDGING ON THE ROOF

There's not much to see here I know, but a lot of hard work and sweat and anxiety went into getting it even this far!

The beginning of what will hopefully be a substantial pile of cedar.

Rubbish pile to be sorted, filed, and disposed of one way or another.

Indeed. 

Trudging right along on the path, that's me.

The east half of the roof, almost up to the south dormer, is cleared and sealed, waiting for shingles, so I AM making progress! 

More importantly, there are no drippy spots at ALL, which is a quite very good thing.  Gramps gave me some tar for the seam areas which I duly smeared on the appropriate places and it seems to be working quite well so a sincere thank you and a big hug to Gramps.

Also a sincere thank you to the uncles who brought over my mom's big scaffolding which affords a great deal more security than my small though efficient smaller version. 

I've been using brute strength and my little hand saw to remove the tree branches that get in my way more than they help as I have advanced to the top of the roof.  I break off the ones I can (brute strength, LOL) and saw off the others.  As I get the shingles into place I'll cut them further and further back.  Meanwhile, I'm still using them to steady myself up there from time to time.  There's one big branch resting on the dormer.  It will have to come all the way off, but I'm planning to tackle it in small increments beginning with its smaller branches that are at the top of the roof, my next work area.  When I get to the really big parts I'll have to fire up my chain saw, sigh. 

I'm managing to salvage some of the cedar shakes to use for art projects, but most of them will go into my chiminea or the wood stove in my old kitchen for kindling.  I'm bundling the ones that are full length, to neaten up the work area in my courtyard and for convenience when it's time for me to use them. 

Recent weeks have been slow on the financial side of things which has slowed my progress quite a bit when it comes to roof work, but it's getting there.  Slow but sure - and when it's done I won't have to worry about it ever again!