8 of 8 main bents are raised!

Whew, the last main bent is finally up. This last bent is the one directly above the black section of the crane boomin the photograph. I designed it to mimick the proportions of the adjacent hammer beam, but like the opposite gable end of our "hall," this bent has four posts that go from the ground to the rafters. This four post design is almost universal in the tobacco and livestock barns in our area (including 5 barns on our farm). The two central posts keep the middle of the rafters from sagging, and also tend to balance the loads to reduce the tendency of the rafter feet to spread.

In this picture of the last main bent, you can see 4 open mortises on the east faces of the four posts. After we finish drying-in the house, we'll go back and connect four "porch" purlins to this bent. 3x6 white oak porch rafters will rest on these purlin, and form the roof of the porch... but that's a long time from now. We've yet to pour (or lay up) the piers for the porch posts, since they would be in the way of the crane at this point.

Only the tower frame remains before we can start boxing in the frame and roofing it! The tower will be centered on the bay directly above the crane hook in this picture. The mortises, eager for the tower connectors, are visible in this picture.