Top plates & porch beam

The porch beam holds up the roof over the porch. Over the enclosed building, the studs hold up the rafters, but around the porch, the roof load is carried along porch beams to supports at the end. Here's the plan, with the beam pockets marked.

And the beam pocket as seen in my last post:

First I climbed up the ladder to cut back the sheathing around the beam pockets. I used my grand-father-in-law's jigsaw, since it fit in that small space and was light enough to use up on the ladder.

Hoist the beam in position. One end in the pocket, one end clamped to the porch post. Level & tack in place with a deck screw (3 1/2" #10) at each end.

One end of the beam rests on a jack stud in the wall, which is pretty secure. The other end is next to (not on top of) a porch post. How to carry the load securely in to the post? One option is lag screws or through-bolting, which works pretty well but is bit tedious up on a ladder, with all the predrilling, etc.

I decided to add a "jack stud" to the side of the post. It is attached to the side of the post, running from the underside of the porch beam to the deck beam below. A series of screws through the jack stud in to the post help stabilize things. 

We plumbed the posts (in 2 dimensions) and braced them to each other (at the proper spacing) and diagonally to the deck. Then some 1/4" timber screws through the beam in to post. The timber screws will help with uplift, if the wind tries to steal my roof.

Once the beams were up, we added the double top plates all the way around, including over the porch beam. That ties the porch beam in to the main wall nicely. I'll be adding some tie plates at the joints, as an extra measure.