LeArNiNg bY dOiNg - pArT 2

I just wanted to let you know how is the progress with the roof, if you're interested, and I also wanted to answer, or maybe leave a question to the anonymous person that made a comment on my last post...some other random thoughts came to my mind...

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 one and a half weeks is a lot for a roof that may last years. 

I'm also not only doing that during the day. I´m feeding the animals, watering the plants, shopping, visiting neighbours, praying  and blogging... Some hours of the day are just too hot to work on a roof, so I do other things, or I simply rest as one should... At the moment it´s 30-35 degrees (celsius) during the day...

I totally agree that we can learn with others, and I so wished I had others here to teach me... I did learn some things with my carpenter friends who did work here... I was not necessarily working with them as my function at the time was cleaning, cooking and hosting, but I learned a lot just observing how things were done...

One good way is to contract a builder who would allow you to help along, but I don´t have the money to pay any labour either, so I need to play with what I have.

Let me share the way I learned to learn since I'm a child : I was an extremely 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...

While building on my own I´ve had memories of my great-grandfather who was a carpenter...I got to know him and I still remember his workshop in the back of the big 2 story wooden house where all the family lived ... unfortunately it was destroyed some years ago and now is a block of new cement buildings... As a child I would play with wooden scraps to make little houses (there were not many toys or  computers at that time)... I used to make my toys out of wood ... I still remember a flipper "machine" I made with a wood board, nails, bottle corks, clothes pegs and rubber..

I must have been 10 years old or something...

I had wood crafts at school and built a little "Ukalele" (called "cavaquinho" in portuguese)... I must have been 12... so I learned some skills with wood with some teachers... I observed a lot because I liked it... And as I said before I also had professional carpenters here 3 years ago whom I observed a lot and learned a lot with... 

I'm now reading and studying with a book called "Building Green" because I'm willing to get more serious about building more permanent buildings here...and I'm learning a lot of theory too which is also important...

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... especially 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 would 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 to 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 ... he also explained to me that the ideal distance between the rafters would be 50cm and I left longer distances in the middle... it will still be ok since I covered the whole structure with the nice floor boards I salvaged...

Just to continue another thread from the previous post when I mentioned Jesus´ ways of training, he also gave a 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... Well, they were empowered by the Spirit, but they were alone, and I'm sure they made some mistakes, which is also a very good way to learn... 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 allowed 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, especially when we recognise them... and we can learn a lot through them...

Do you want to 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 round wood, but I can't afford to buy timber, so I use what I have ...it's not a big deal, it's just not as pretty...but with the other side I was more careful...

I also don´t have many tools yet... I was given a  japanese saw that I´m so grateful for, a machete that I use as a chisel, hammer and nails, and a battery powered screw driver I was also given... Obviously I have no experience with timber framing, so I find my own ways

much more "clean", after the first one that was not so "perfect"...

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 to secure it better...

I still want to put one between the beam and the stone wall... just to make sure it will not fly with the strong winds we sometimes have...and a tile roof carries a loooot of weight ...

It was really hard to get the structure straight using round wood, 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... one of my favourite portuguese saying goes like this : " If you don´t have a dog, you go hunting with a cat" ... 

Let´s say I hunt a lot with cats .

Anyway, I ended 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 , solved !

I was not so happy with the lack of straightness, but so far it hasn't been a problem laying the tiles...  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...

All this is training too, because there are many more roofs to be done... like this one, on the kitchen...

and,  at least for now, the bath house too...

This is all good training...step by step, I get more confident as there are quite a lot of structures on this land still to be built in order to host more people… therefore, either me or someone else who lives here needs to gain this precious skill.

I hope this was not a boring post, maybe I'm too excited about this roof and the potential of a new skill gained...