Setting up the Jin Pole

Jin Pole/tripod lashed together.

Lifting a 35 foot glulam into place was a bit of a challenge.  The carpenter (I'll call call him "X") who I intended to build the deck with, and who had ordered the lumber, backed out ten minutes after he arrived.  He saw that we had stained the rim joists and posts (with water soluble stain.)  He kept saying "Someone's gonna get killed on this job." Based on that, I think he was more concerned with lifting a 35' long 5.25"x9" glulam than he was with fumes from the stain. The delivery driver from the lumber yard claimed the glulam was just about too heavy for their forklift to load.  My calculations say it weighed about 600 pounds. When X arrived and saw the lumber he unloaded the jin poles and then said he was gonna leave -- with his block and tackle! It was obviously necessary for the operation. I called him an asshole  for leaving me in the lurch and  he told me he was going to pummel me. Wisely, Randall remained out of sight. X and I both managed to calm down. I apologized for calling him an asshole and promised to return the block and tackle the following day and he agreed. During the rest of that day, Randall and I lashed together a tripod, moved the glulam into place and set up the block and tackle and finished staining all the joists so we didn't need to mess with stain after building started.

Moving the glue-lam into place.

Ready to go on the morrow.