In the absence of a big industrial crane or TLB, we had to make do with building our own cranes as already described in post 13.
Once we attached a sling around the log on either end, hoisting it with the chain blocks was relatively easy. Initially the hoisting was very slow, but as Siya and Dumisane got the hang of handling the hoisting chain, gaining altitude went remarkably swiftly.
As the number of layers increased, the hoisting did however, become more tricky as the passes of the logs often stood in the way of a smooth gentle horizontal hoist. To overcome this we did one of two things (or a combination of the two). We would hoist the one end of the log first, and then rest it on a pass, then hoist the other end and rest that on a pass, and so on. Alternatively we built ramps from one pass to another and hoisted logs up these ramps. At times the logs needed some human support and assistance. This often involved impressive acrobatic balancing acts on Simon’s part.
Once we hoisted the log to the appropriate level and manoeuvered it into place, we had to secure it in position in order to drill the holes for the pegs. To do this we would often make use of our log frogs that Simon had made. These were like very efficient wedges with very sharp edges.
