The beam on the left is the one that Gavin made and the one of the left is the huge ancient oak truss which was holding the barn up in the beginning. And the other picture shows the metal 'shoes' we had made locally to fix the beams in place. All very successfully at the end of the day. We did have to wait much longer for the 'shoes' to be made than we thought we would, but they were eventually delivered the day before Christmas!! Which was why Gavin was keen to do at least some work on Christmas Day. He just had to go and try and see if the system he had devised would work!! And it did!!