Barn roof blues

I've always had a hatred of rain. It's an evil necessity but it, like, messes up my hair and gets my socks wet. It's such a drag. Anyway, we've had a serious bout of rain over the past few weeks and all I can say is I'm glad I don't live along a flood plain. Easton, PA? Under water. Trenton, NJ? Under water. New Hope, PA? You guessed it: under water. From DC to upstate New York, there are a lot of people working like mad to try and save their property. Luckily we've fared pretty well.

The somewhat dilapidated slate roof of the house – which was painted with aluminum roof coating by the previous owner and has a lovely metallic sheen to it – held like a champ. The biggest bummer was that the leak in our barn roof is worse than I thought. One of the large support timbers has obviously taken a serious beating over the past few years as a result, and on last inspection I could poke my finger right through the thing at the lower edge. In a good steady rain the leak is just streaming water. We have a bunch of scrap tin catching and routing the water to a tub, but it's a pretty futile effort. It needs to be fixed.

The sucker is high, it's big, and it's gonna be a pain. The leak is right along a seam, where another section was added years ago. Someone at some point just slathered asphalt roof coating all over to try and stem the leak, but it obviously hasn't worked. Now that it's dry I'll need to get up there and determine whether it's something I can do myself or whether we'll need to call in the big guns.