Today, I found some red oak borer larvae living in some of my pin oak rafter poles. At least one of my roundwood rafters has been lying in the grass (on some pretty measly sticks of wood to keep it off the ground) with all of its bark intact since perhaps April.
Needless to say, I wasn’t happy to encounter them tunneling through the wood. I’m not sure how serious this issue is (thankfully, the wood wasn’t completely riddled). I cursed their existence generally. But I think the pole is still good to go for the reciprocal roof construction.
This whole roof business has been a bit like walking blindly down an alley for me, since I have never worked with pole wood or built a roof (or even helped to build one). I have been quite uncertain about the whole process thus far: whether or not my poles are strong enough, whether or not they are long enough, whether or not they are seasoned enough (this I know is not the case: most of my poles were only cut in March, but I’m going for it anyway), etc.
Well, I guess I’ll know at least some of these answers on Wednesday when I have a roof raising party and get the reciprocal roof assembly built!