Despite his religious aversion to alcohol, my friend Todd agreed to roof the distillery (he also did the roof at my house 12 years ago). Todd is such a good roofer that he was able to retire early and now mostly manages projects. Paul specified corrugated metal for the distillery. I like the modern look of corrugated and wanted to run it horizontally on the roof. Todd had never done it that way but didn't see any problems doing so. He was able to order panels that can span the length of the roof in two sheets. This reduces the number of seams and gives a cleaner look. It took a special flatbed truck to deliver the extra long panels. Todd's partner, Omark, who he calls "God's gift to roofing", was assigned to my roof. Omark is a mercurial character who's very picky with whom he works with. This pickiness resulted in him setting out to put the panels on the roof by himself. A seemingly impossible task but he slowly chipped away at it. Using an ingenious pulley system, he started putting the panels in to place The Rube Goldberg of roofing. 
Omark did have occasionally have a helper. His name was Brian and he wore a toque that I thought made him look like a gnome. After his second day helping Omark, Todd called me to say that Brian passed away in a car crash. While driving to work that day, I heard a CBC report about Brian on the radio. He was a renown sculpture who was responsible for many of the beautiful snow sculptures at Winterlude. I wish I got to spend more time with such a talented and kind person. You can read more about Brian in this CBC report. 
While Omark was putting up panels, we discovered Almonte is one of the windiest places in Ontario. The wind was so strong, that it lifted the 50' corrugated panels waiting to be installed. I got a call from my neighbor Matt telling me that panels were blowing into his yard. A couple of Merv's team were on site and they tried to stand on the panels to keep them down but were blown right off. Omark quickly arrived on site and secured the panels with large straps. Seven panels were damaged and had to be replaced. A lesson learned. The wind in Almonte is strong.
Omark did have occasionally have a helper. His name was Brian and he wore a toque that I thought made him look like a gnome. After his second day helping Omark, Todd called me to say that Brian passed away in a car crash. While driving to work that day, I heard a CBC report about Brian on the radio. He was a renown sculpture who was responsible for many of the beautiful snow sculptures at Winterlude. I wish I got to spend more time with such a talented and kind person. You can read more about Brian in this CBC report. While Omark was putting up panels, we discovered Almonte is one of the windiest places in Ontario. The wind was so strong, that it lifted the 50' corrugated panels waiting to be installed. I got a call from my neighbor Matt telling me that panels were blowing into his yard. A couple of Merv's team were on site and they tried to stand on the panels to keep them down but were blown right off. Omark quickly arrived on site and secured the panels with large straps. Seven panels were damaged and had to be replaced. A lesson learned. The wind in Almonte is strong.
