Well, for most people a long weekend is a chance to relax and put your feet up, go camping, or catch up on jobs around the house. That was my intention as well, but the onset of winter storms changed all that.

On the Friday night we spent most of the night cleaning up a large tree that had fallen on a Volvo and was blocking a driveway. Then throughout Saturday and Sunday various fallen trees and roof jobs had to be attended to, including pulling down a TV aerial on a 3m tower which was threatening to come crashing down in the wind at any moment.

The highlight here was a three storey block of flats that had had a large tree fall down on the roof. The tree had been removed by arborists, but the gaping holes in the roof remained. At first we thought we would need a cherry-picker to place a tarp on the roof, but looking at the access to the property, this option was soon ruled out. Then we came up with the idea of laying the tarp from inside the roof. We gained access from the manhole in the ceiling and set about rearranging the tiles so we only had one or two big holes to cover. Running a safety line along the ridge capping and anchoring it back through the holes in the roof, I was able to safely move around on the roof and roughly position the tarpaulin. Once the guy lines were thrown down to my team mates on the ground, it could be move into a more ideal position. As the last corner went into place I crawled back under the tarp, and back into the roof cavity. Read the rest of this entry »