More roof photographs

I actually got some decent looking photographs of the roof yesterday. This one happens to illustrate the chimney and a couple broken slates as well.


This is the area behind the gutter. Note the utter lack of paint. This appears to be the case all the way around the house. Note also that the gutters are soldered together at the seams, which will make removing them somewhat difficult. Ugh.


This illustrates why it is not a good idea to use aluminum for ridges on slate roofs. Copper or galvanized steel is sturdier.


Finally, here's something that I just don't understand at all. If you look at this picture, you'll see, in the first row of slates, two slates that have a wider gap than might normally be expected. In those gaps, you can see what appears to be a short slate. This does not make sense to me. Kurt? Anyone?


Here's a slightly better detail. It occurs in several spots on this, the west side of the roof, across several rows. I can't imagine that these are the result of broken slates being repaired, but I can't think of anything else that it might be, either. Surely there's something that I'm missing here.