I arrived Saturday morning after the trusses were already installed over the entryway, but in time to see the first sanctuary truss laid into place. There is a wide gap between the trusses in the entryway and those in the sanctuary. The firewall must go from the floor continuously to the roof decking, so this gap must exist to accommodate the firewall.
This picture shows the gap as it remains after all the sanctuary trusses are in place. All of the sanctuary trusses are two ply laminates except for the first on to the right of the gap which is a four ply job.
Installing that first, four ply truss, provided a lot of interest. It happened that the from where truck was placed, the boom on the crane was a wee bit too short to carry the truss exactly over its final resting place. Of course this is not known until the truss is being lowered into place, and was not known when this photo was snapped.
The undaunted trussers quickly worked out a winning strategy. The right end of the truss as we see it here, was swung in close to Sam and Brent. They quickly manufactured some long 2x4s and secured that end of the truss. Lars was similarly able to secure the center.
Pushing outward caused the left end of the truss to swing in.
Once in close, the left end gang was able to get their bracing boards nailed in. With the truss now controlled along the full length they guided it home.
The scene then rather resembled a group of fishermen standing on the pier, holding their rods while waiting for the fish to strike.
I understand that the truss weighed about 2,500 lbs. I thought this might be the heaviest one, but it seems that the girder from the previous Saturday weighed in at 4,800 lbs.
With the truss secured, Lars builds a sidewalk out to the member and starts to establish residency. Now that he has a four ply truss and a 2x10 plank he can get downright casual up there.
Mark is delivering bracing boards with the lift.
Contortionists on Site -
There are often interesting things to see on the construction site. Saturday Nate and Brent were both exploring new yoga positions, although I suspect neither of them found these in the yoga book.
I am not sure what Nate was up to here. Maybe there was a dime wedged up in the trusses. More likely he was sighting down the truss for probably a very good reason.
Maybe he saw Brent at the other end, who was either meditating a bit in this oddball position or maybe trying to find the least likely, and least promising position from which to drive a nail. By the look on his face, I don't think he was relaxing.
The Airborne Chronicler -
Mark offered to take me up in the flying quidditch machine. While my normal preference is to be firmly planted on mother earth, thinking about taking photos from on high made me as excited as dog in a butcher shop.
Here we are up close and personal with Lars as he secures a truss to a brace. I approve of the hammer technique.
Sam, Bob and Brent wait in turn to add their braces.
In addition to being a defender against the possibility of a truss tipping away from the truss walkers, Mark nails in bracing on the lower chord of the truss.
The ground forces as viewed from above. The next truss up must be secured to the cable. The truss on the top of the stack is slid a bit to allow the cable to be looped through the openings under the topmost chord of the truss. To assure that the cable does not slip off the hooks, the two cable threaders then keep some tension on the cable until all the weight of the truss is borne by the crane. Then the truss flies up, up and away.
Intense activity follows the trusses. While the ground crew is looping up the truss and it is floating up to the building, the airborne folks get a breather. Once the truss is landed the truss walkers get very busy positioning braces and pounding away.
Here we see the next truss winging its way in our direction. Up in the lift bucket there is not a lot of room to maneuver. A passenger is at the mercy of the operator to stay clear of high flying trusses.
"Mark! There really is not adequate space in this lift basket for the truss. We just don't have enough room for it. Now get it out of here."
Long 2x4s that span several trusses run (on the far left of side of the trusses) the full length of the building. The joints overlap a couple of trusses as can be seen in the center of the trusses. The short, temporary braces are removed. These long bracing strips are placed two feet apart all across the width of the top chord of the truss. These are called rat runs. While I might be tolerant of an innocent church mouse, deliberately building in rat runs is appalling.
Trimming a Truss -
What do you do when the truss is too long for the place reserved for it? You cut it off, naturally.
Sam and Brent team up to shorten the truss by, oh about five eighths of an inch. It seems to me like having paid for the whole thing we should use it. But the boss thinks otherwise so shorter it goes. I suppose it does have to fit in its appointed spot. Not very easy to nudge the wall out a bit at this point.
Bring on the Piggybacks -
The first piggyback truss gets attached to the gable end. The truss is first nailed to the vertical bracing on the outside of the building.
The last act for the crane before it departed, was to position the piggyback trusses on top of the large trusses. 
The piggybacks are nailed to the rat runs and braces are nailed to adjoining trusses. Sam and an unidentified person are intruding on the rat runs. I trust that the rats have not yet moved in. I am once again disappointed that no duct tape is used.
Once all the piggybacks are nailed in the roof boards can be nailed on. The sheeting adds a good deal of stability to the truss structure. I think the bosses will also order up some more lateral bracing since there are still 2x4s remaining.
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