Sep 6, 2009

working hard this week...but satisfying :-)


I've been enjoying lots, building a roof for the washing dishes station... something I'd like to be done almost a year ago...Tim and his group came from Scotland to build the floor and we were supposed to finish it...but it never happened till now :-)
...mainly because people wanted to do many other things, and the one who said he could take charge of it, never really did... anyway... that's how things went... I really wanna focus this winter to finish all the things we have started since I move here...making things nice and a bit more stable... by the way, I'm really thankful for a donation I already got to buy building materials... that's gonna help!!!
Not going far from our main center of activity, I really wanna work on the basics : the kitchen, the bath-house, compost toilet and prayer shelter...

So, I started to put the 2 back posts that were missing (the Scottish group forgot about that :-)...it happens!!!)...they should have been inside the concrete floor, so I had to make a stone pile around it to hold it well (I hope so :-)... )...That was hard!!! lots of carrying stone and making cement (not that I like the material, but fo r the purpose I guess it was the best option, and also what I already had (no need to buy)...

Then the wood structure that needed to be strong to hold the roof... I used some eucalyptus and Mimosa that we had already dried and was the straightest I found...

The rest, as I needed flat wood, I used some nice pine boards and beams that a guy left here...he made a "5 star" floor under an almost rotting yurt...what happened was that the guy left, the yurt end up rotting and almost falling apart, till the guys who stayed here last winter nicely took it away and piled the wood to prevent more damage... But still, it was a bit left under the rain and sun, so I thought the best would be to use it... (not everything that people leave behind is useless :-)...)
I took the nails away, chose the best ones, carry them down,
measured them and

cut them all the size I needed... (thank God for the Japanese technology...as Ricardo told me, they are years ahead of us...he left this saw here when he came for the prayer week...thanks Ricardo...it's really great !!! )


The hardest work was done... now the fun to lay board by board...
I haven't finished and I'm taking a day off today...
On monday I'll have to buy some straight thin boards (must have a name in english) to support the clay tiles...

So, I'll let you know next time how it end up...I hope nice and secure :-)... It's the first time I've done something like this... but hey, we can learn so much just by trying and doing it :-)... And I do love carpentry !!!