The slate is here!

Our slate arrived from Camara Slate in Vermont and it looked awesome right off of the truck. (Thank Shawn Camara!) We ordered a 50/50 mix of Unfading Green and Unfading Gray slate, as well as a 50/50 mix of 18" and 20" slates... all in random widths. I was anxious to get going on the slate, so I figured out how many of each type slate they had sent us, and I came up with a ratio of different slates to use for each course. (to keep things looking random, without running out of any particular size or color of slate before the roof was done.) My wife and my daughter helped by handing the slates out on the roof to me, and this is what we accomplished this weekend! All of the 1x4" oak battens were cut on my sawmill and edger, and we ran them through a Dewalt planer to get the thicknesses consistent. Although the slates are 18 and 20" long, each one only covers 7.5" of roof, so the oak battens are on 7.5" centers. We used stainless steel nails because I was doubtful that copper nails would go into the semi-dried oak. The ridges are capped with copper. More on this later....