LeArNiNg bY dOiNg - pArT 2

I just wanted to let you know how things are going with the roof...if you're interested...and I also wanted to answer, or maybe make a question to the anonymous person that made a comment on my last post...some other random thoughts came to my mind...
My question is : what if there is no supervisor available?!!! which is my situation at the moment...
I understand your concern...

and it would definitely be faster (if that is what you mean by "productivity") to build with another person who is more experienced...but hey, I'll hopefully finish today or tomorrow, so I don't think 1 and a half week is a lot for a roof... and I'm not only doing that, but also feeding the animals, watering the plants, shopping, visiting neighbours and bloging :-)...yes, cuz some hours of the day are just too hot...we still have around 30-35 degrees (celsius)...

I totally agree that we can learn with others... so, let me tell you the way I learned to learn since I'm a child :-)... I was a reeeealy shy and insecure girl, so I wouldn't dare to ask many questions about "why this or why that"...so, my way of learning stuff was listening and observing a lot... and then trying out on my own...these days have been reminding me of my great-grandfather who was a carpenter...I got to know him and I still remember his workshop in the back of the house...an old beautiful wooden house... unfortunately it was destroyed some years ago and now is a block of new buildings :-(...I would play with wooden scraps to make little houses (there were no computers on that time, eh, eh)... I used to make my toys out of wood ...eh, eh, I still remember a flipper "machine" I made with a wood board, nails, bottle coarks, clothes pegs and rubber..eh, eh, I must have been 10 or something...
I learned wood craft at school and built a little guitar (called "cavaquinho" in portuguese)...I must have been 10 or 11... so I learned some skills about wood... I observed a lot cuz I liked it... I also had professional carpenter here 3 years ago whom I observed a lot and learned a lot with... I'm studying now a book called "Building Green" cuz I'm planning to build a house I'm gonna live in...and I'm learning a lot of theory too...
So, all this to say that I do appreciate and value learning through other people with more skills... but I really learn by trying it out and doing it... specially craft stuff, you need to feel the material, hold the tools, get the feeling of it...
As for supervisors, if we do have one around, great... but also not everyone is a good supervisor... I remember a friend of mine who is very skilled in her craft, but so insecure because in her school the teachers were very demanding, not patient, and always shouting at her when she did something not quite perfectly right... so, between this kind of supervision, and no supervision, I rather be without any supervision...
It was really cool yesterday... as I was about to start with the tiles, a friend of mine who is actually a builder, came by and explained me the best way to start with the tiles :-)... it's nice to realise that when we do need a tip, someone comes your way :-)...

Speaking about Jesus again... as I said in the last post, he did give few tasks to his disciples while he was around them, but then he send them out in pairs to do what he was doing... with no supervisor...ok, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, but they were alone, and I'm sure they made some mistakes... or sometimes they felt helpless, like the time they were trying to cast out a demon and Jesus had to go there... when they were alone again after that, Jesus started to teach them... "you know, we can only cast out some evil spirits through prayer and fasting"... So, Jesus allow them to have the experience and fail, and then he taught them... I'm sure they understood much better than if they had had a whole course on casting out demons before going out to do it... do you see what I mean ?!!!

It's ok to make mistakes... but we can learn a lot through them...
Do you wanna see what I've learned so far ? with other people's experience and my mistakes :-) ?

I should have cut the space for this pole after I put the other side...it's not easy to work with crooked wood...it's not a big deal, it's just not as pretty...but with the other side I was more careful...

much more "clean"...

I learned through books and other people that triangles improve significantly the strength of a structure...so, that's what I did

you feel it as soon as you put it... that's learning by doing...
Oh, and I put a metal triangle on the connection between the pole and the beam..

I still wanna put one between the beam and the stone wall... just to make sure...a roof carries a loooot of weight :-)

It was really hard to get the structure straight using crooked poles, but hey, that was what I had ... actually, that 's a good thing about not having money...we learn a lot about improvising with what we have :-) eh, eh...
anyway, so I end up with this gap, but nothing that it cannot be solved... a little piece of pointed wood nailed in the gap and that's it !!!
Oh well,. I was not so happy with the not so exact straightness, but so far it hasn't been a problem... and my friend who is a builder said it's looking pretty good ... maybe he was just being nice and encouraging, but I think it's not so bad... I'm actually really happy and encouraged with what I achieved so far...
And all this is a training as well, cuz this winter I'm gonna be into roofs... this one, the kitchen...

and at least the bath house too...
SO, this is a good training preparation... I guess it's also like that... in little steps... we take one step...we get more confident to take a bigger one... :-)

I hope you're not bored of all this conversation :-) ... eh, eh, eh... maybe I'm too excited about this roof :-)
if it would be just for that it would be worth it already :-)