Floor Joists Going Up

It has been just about a month since we have been able to get out to our property and work on the house. Today we had John and Rose hammering chinking nails, Anna home with the little ones until lunch time, and Brian and Julianne hoisting 4x10 floor joists up to the 2nd floor girders via block and tackle. We got a pretty good system worked out here. The block and tackle hung from a perlin. The rope that wound around the joist and hooked onto the B&T would slide along the beam so we had our son John tack on some 12” boards with a gap just big enough for the rope. Next, Brian pulled and Julianne used a long board to guide the joist into the right place. This long board had a nail tacked in that helped to get the rope off the joist from the floor instead of climbing a ladder each time. Then Brian would use the board to shift the joist down the log girder until it was in the right place. We had one slip off the girder on one side and come crashing down. That was frightful, so were extra careful after that to not let it happen again. We had pretty much used this same system to get the third floor joists up, which had to take place prior to the second floor, of coarse, the only difference was we had to have someone up on the third floor girder to help the joist into place. I am continually amazed at how beefy these joists are. T&G flooring is next, in fact, it is sitting right out the door waiting for us. We have to stain the undersides before installing, and will sand and stain the floors after they are all in. It will be so exciting to be able to walk around all the floors in the house and admire the views, plan the rooms, lay out the windows, and dream of how it will all look when it is DONE, which is: hopefully before Jesus returns, or possibly Christmas.