First job was to cut our way back into the areas near the house where we will be working. Lisa wielded clippers and saw while I raked debris into the small hand cart. This was relatively minor, with only three cart-loads of stuff, but it made enough room so that we could get the ladders and other equipment where we need it. Stuff grows very vigorously here, and keeping it trimmed back is a never-ending task.
Lisa used the big mower to tow the still-inoperable lawn tractor (with me steering) over to the old house. The two pieces of equipment are the anchors for the long rope that Lisa hoisted over the roof using the lighter line that we leave up there for this purpose. After securing the rope, we raised a ladder to the edge of the roof. (We've left a ladder on the roof semi-permanently as well.) We then had lunch and took a short walk, after which I found myself suddenly very tired. Lisa encouraged me to go take a nap while she went to work on other things not in the direct sun.
About 7 PM, with the worst of the heat of the day behind us, Lisa woke me up and said it was time for her to go up on the roof. My job here, as usual, is pretty simple: act as ground spotter and go fetch things for her when required. Lisa kitted up in her safety harness and went up on the roof. There she tied loops in the rope to which she can attach the safety lines. She also carried with her the wire brushes, small and large, and set to scraping away on some of the patches of moss that were mostly dried out and thus not as difficult as usual to knock off the roof. I did not take pictures, but she did clear several square meters of roof this way.
After about 45 minutes of this, she declared the initial reconnaissance of the roof completed, left the wire brushes on the roof, and came back down. Even that late in the day, the heat was wearing. But we're trying not to complain about the heat too much because we need warm, dry weather to do this job.
Because I'm here for three weeks, and because the forecast is for more weather like this, we're trying not to break ourselves by working too long at once. Monday afternoon's task, after I'm done with Day Jobbery, is for Lisa to go up with the leaf blower and try to blow away all loose debris, such as pine needles and dead moss. If we're really lucky, she may be able to apply the first layer of Gray Goo, that being my name for the first coat of roofing sealant. Since we have errands in Stayton Tuesday afternoon (such as taking my van to be diagnosed for its two different problems), getting the roof goop in place would give it a full day to dry before the next step of the multi-stage process.
I can understand why the roofers wanted $15,000 to repair the roof.