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Stacks of cedar shakes ready to go on the roof. We split quite a few of these in advance so we'd be well supplied when the roofing started.
First, we had to make strips to nail the shingles to. Most of these were made of ash, which splits easily and is very strong.
It's hard to split the rods straight down the middle! Some of them were twisted too, so we could only use short sections.
The first framework, ready for shingles.
We put on the first shingles on September 18, 2005.
Working on the third row of shingles. We put a double layer on each row.
After looking into forging our own nails, we decided to buy period-correct cut nails from
the Tremont Nail Co., a nail mill in New England that's been making cut nails since 1819.
By the end of Summer 2005, we had about one quarter of the shingles up.
We added a few more shingles during the winter, trying to cover as much of the cabin as possible.
Working in the rain is not nearly as fun. November 2005.
By May 2006, the front side of the roof was almost covered.
By October 2006, the roof was three-quarters covered.
Joseph splitting shakes with a froe and wooden maul, May 2008.
After several years of hard service, this maul gave out on us!
Nailing on the last two rows of shingles. It was wonderful to finally see the whole roof covered!
We were able to do most of the roofing from the inside...
...but the last few shingles had to be nailed on from the outside, with the help of a long ladder.
Next step: Chinking the walls with mud