the skin

finally - all the struts in.

that took some time because, umm..., i dropped the air gun from the scaffolding and it took a couple weeks to get fixed. during those 2 weeks, we gained a much greater appreciation for people who wield a hammer. wow - no wonder my brother has popeye arms, as did my dad and uncle. i never felt my dad's presence so much as i did in those days of hammering. more often laughing his head off at me for fumbling around.

the next step - putting on the plywood skin. the plywood is all cut in triangles - there are 60 each for the hexagons and pentagons. dave came over to help us out again and we hired another guy to help him on the scaffolding. we knew we would not be able to get up on top to nail the plywood on. as it turned out, there was more than enough for ed and me to do on ground - cutting the wood. we hardly were able to keep up with dave and juan, who turned out to be a fantastic help. not only could he keep up with dave but he had no problem whatsoever climbing around on the gridwork of the dome. we'll most likely hire him again when it's time to shingle. they did the top pentagon and the top halves of the hexagons. ed and i have been plugging away with the bottom halves but, with school started back up now, dome work is relegated to weekends.

now, it this cool, or what?!