The wind died down around around 4 pm and our (tall) neighbor helped lift up the 24 foot long panels up to the west side of the barn.
There was still no wind after our neighbor left, so we decided to seize the day and get all of the remaining sheets up. Kid 1 was gone performing in opening night of Beauty and the Beast, so that left Kid 2, my sweetie, and myself to do the east side.
The east side involved thirteen 10 ft x 3 ft panels and thirteen more 19 foot long panels. Kid 2 and I would raise up the panel from the ground as high as we could, while my sweetie stood on the roof and reached down to hoist it up and put it in place.
It turned dark very quickly and we had a light drizzle going about half the time we were working. Thank goodness for headlights and rubber-soled shoes!
We had a good little system going for the first nineteen panels. Then we started to struggle. Kid 2 and I had the same problem. The burning muscles in our shoulders and arms just couldn't lift any more! My poor sweetheart had to climb down the ladder, help us stand the panel up on end, then climb back up the ladder and drag the panel up onto the roof. Repeated...seven times.
We sent Kid 2 to bed around 10:30 pm, as soon as we had raised the last panel. My sweetie and I then worked till midnight, chalking lines (btw, chalk lines work best on dry surfaces) and putting in every other screw. Why every other screw? Because this project involves 3500 screws and we did want to get some sleep last night!
We still need to put the trim pieces around the edges of the roof and, of course we will need to go back and finish putting in the remaining screws, but we are so grateful that we got all the large sheet metal pieces up before the wind started to kick up again around 11:30 last night.
I was really looking forward to seeing our handiwork in daylight, but the newly fallen snow is hiding the roof this morning. Oh well. It will melt. Eventually.