Thank goodness for friends, neighbors and family! It was all hands on deck this weekend to get the heavy cross rails up onto the supports and it took 6 people in total to get it all done. We were praying that everything lined up properly and it did! Which is a good thing, because I certainly didn't want to dig up those heavy posts and reset them.
Each 51'4" cross rail consisted of two full pieces of 21' pipe and then 1/2 of a third. As you may remember from my last post, these pipes weight about 140 pounds each. J., his brother, and neighbor Dave made it look easy even when lifting these over their heads. We are SO grateful to have their help, as there is no way J. and I could have done that by ourselves.
Once the pipe was in place, there are giant U-bolts that hold the pipe on the post and keep it from rolling off and killing someone. As the guys lifted the pipes in place, my sister-in-law and I worked on getting the U-bolts tightened down. The pipes are threaded and needed to be screwed together and we quickly found that tightening one end down made the process a whole lot easier. And, folks, screwing two 3.5", 140-pound, 21-foot pipes together is NOT an easy thing. We got them as tight as we could by hand and then neighbor Bill came over and finished the job with two GIGANTIC pipe wrenches. I'm so glad we didn't have to go buy those wrenches because, according to Bill, they're about $200 for both of them.
All in all, the whole process took just a couple of hours and we got it done before the mugginess and heat of the day got really bad.
So that's it for the heavy stuff. Now we can start on the fun part, which is putting the panels up.
I hope everyone is well and enjoying this beautiful weather we're having. I'm looking forward to having this project done so that I can catch up on what everyone else has been up to!
I've shared this post with this week's Homestead Barn Hop. Go check out what other folks are up to!
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