Another Small Step To A Shelter

After surveying the location of the four corners of the shelter, our next step was to get the poles to our property.  This really sounds so easy, but has turned out to be hard.  

Or I should say hard for us.

The Shelter will have four poles in front (13 1/2', 3' in the ground) and four poles in back (12', 3' in the ground).  We decided we would get eight 14 foot poles and cut them to fit.  

Please don't ask me why we don't get four 14' poles and four 12' poles.  Apparently this isn't the way it is done.  The only problem is that no one carries 14 ft poles.  We finally found them in stock at Sparr Farm and Building Supply - more than 40 miles away from Tree Ring. 

I was pretty skeptical that our little truck with a 6 foot bed and a 2 foot tailgate would be able to handle one 14 foot pole, much less eight of them.

No Problem, Retro Man said.  Piece of cake, he said.  These trucks are lot stronger than you think.

They look so benign, don't they?  Almost like big toothpicks.  How heavy could they be?

The Yard man quickly pulled out 8 good looking, straight enough poles.

He put straps around them to hold them together.

Using this cool thingy.

Then he and another Yard man pushed them in.

Just before the Yard man was about to lower the poles fully onto the bed of the truck, he asked, one last time.  Are you sure you want to do this?

Retro Man looked at the logs and then at the tailgate chain.

And he decided to have them delivered.  

There was no suspension and the tailgate looked like it had a big headache.  The Yard man said he's seen 8 tailgates break off trucks this year.

Hopefully next week we will be able to figure out how to get the logs delivered to Tree Ring, which has no known street address.  I wonder if delivery trucks have a GPS?