Tennamast up!

Thanks to John for the help today (and my brother standing on the roof at the moment of fixing) I have at last put the mast up.

Yesterday I finished excavating the hole for it to rest its weight on, filled it with 20kg of cement, and luckily I found the edge of the soil pipe, so some carefully placed ply shuttering down the side has guaranteed I”ve missed it.

After having the parrot out for his hours exercise (box chewing) I gathered tools together and John arrived. I fixed the first wall bracket to the wall as high as I could get away with…only time will tell if it’s in the wrong place!  The second wall bracket was fixed about 18″ up from the base of the mast, then I took the base, John took the top and we walked it into position and heaved it up. Keith stood on the adjacent flat roof to hold it when it was upright and we clamped the mast to the top bracket. Marked the bottom holes, drilled and rawl bolted the bottom of the mast securely to the wall. Done.

After lunch I decided to put up the rotator and cage on a 3′ heavy duty alloy pole.

Nothing more I can do without the trees being pruned, so I might try to get hold of a scaffold tower maybe Thursday. Watch this space.

Here are some more pictures. The plan was to get the brackets as close into the corner as possible as this was the strongest point. Also to try and keep as far away from the window coin as possible- the weakest point. The top bracket needs to be high to cope with leverage from wind (looking at the mast you’re facing North. The wind nearly always blows Nor’Westerly here) but not too high as to crack or lift the top row of blocks. Boy it would’ve been easier to have had either a free standing mast or strapped it to a gable end, but nothing is ever so simple unless you are a very lucky chappie!