Unforeseen problems... Things actually seemed to be going fairly smoothly until we ran into a little snag. Unfortunately, this was to be the first of many delays along the way and put us back at least three or four days... I hadn't noticed it before, but I started digging and digging and realized the entire beam was rotted through. One of the smaller supporting beams above was also completely rotted out and would need to be replaced.
First task was to fashion a new piece to fit where the old one had been. Luckily, we just so happened to have some large pieces of aged oak beams that we had cut down the day before so I chiseled one up in a jiffy.
Then, new stone supporting walls had to be erected to hold up the support beam as well as below the main beam where the rotten wood had been.
