Hi All
The next recap: My project in Minden, Germany.
I was given two weeks to build a dual purpose shelter for the school yard of the Waldorf school in Minden. My friend Nicole's son just completed the third grade there, and the last three weeks of hte school year are dedicated to a building project of sorts.
This fit wonderfully well into my schedule. This way I wouldn't have to bum around Europe without purpose, but was supervised by a group of Mom's that didn't want their ten year olds to get hurt.
I'll take away the suspense and post one picture of the completed raising. Again if it will work.
It only took 5 minutes!
In writing then first and plenty of pictures later. We're pulling into Bruxelles by the way. Barely an hour after leaving Aachen.
Here is the classic story of a project in a foreign country. Even with much preparation on the part of the locals, namely Nicole, there were plenty of challenges, that in hindsight could have been foreseen.
The lumber was delivered and in fine shape. 5x5 pine with a few larger pieces. German timber framing is not terribly complicated.
The work site was a different story. When I did a half day timber framing introduction with the same kids in February we were in the shop room. With plenty of benches and out of the weather. Arriving on Monday ( a day off for the kids) we were told that the shop room was going to be occupied a lot and not available.... Hmmm. No sawhorses and a weather forecast that is less than friendly. So we go to improvise work stations and a tarp for a roof. Both are not satisfactory, but we will have to work with them for a few days. The rain is always just on the cusp, so we can stay outside, but are ready to move into the hall at any time.
Amidst all the chaotic setup we have to keep either 12 or 14 kids busy. They can saw and they can chip at the waste wood to make tenons. The chisels from the school are sized to the kids- not necessarily to the task. But I find out rather quickly that that does not matter. Most of the kids are quite happy to chip away at big tasks with small tools.
There are 26 kids in the class which are split up into two groups. While one is working with me, the other is in the class room building little huts out of clay and twigs with the teacher. I have the help of usually 3 Moms and one Grandfather. They need to have the process explained as well, but then they help supervise the kids. My role is then to go around and make adjustments and give hints as to what to pay attention to.
After three days our activities have been noticed by most of the students and all of the teachers and we are attracting fans, like the french teacher and (very important) the head of school finances. But also the shop teacher has allowed me to do work in the shop room in the afternoon, where I finish the days work and prepare the next day.
After three days I feel like there is a rhythm that allows for good progress but most of all for busy kids. The tasks are repetitive, but they enjoy doing something that has already been explained.
On Saturday there is a Summer Fest for the students and parents of grades one through four. Unexpectedly plenty of the third grade Dads show up and quickly complete all the work I had set out for the day. But I scramble and manage to keep them busy as well.
As we move on into the next week we set our raising day for Wednesday, since we'll need to roof on Thursday and Friday is the last day before vacations. We had just got started and it was crunchtime!
But. As the kids got more comfortable with the work, I got more comfortable giving them new tasks. Such as involving them in layup and layout. We did very simple scribes and also used the German layout technique where pieces are laid on the floor on top of a one to one scale drawing of the frame. It was very interesting to see how differently the kids picked up the process and were able to follow it or even reproduce it on their own.
By Tuesday all the pieces were cut and fit, so Wednesday could be the big raising day.
Pieces were assembled to walls, pegged and raised together or piece by piece. We even managed to get the kids up on scaffolding and drive in some big rafter spikes.
Nicole and I spent tuesday evening with rewriting a raising poem, so that it fit to the occasion and as the last rafter was fastened and the Raising Crown attached I gave the little speech to quite a little gathering. There was plenty of food and juice to celebrate and so we did.
On Thursday we roofed the little structure with donated tiles, which was not necessarily a class level activity since we could not allow the ids on the roof. But at least the parents and teachers got a chance.
Of course there are always little leftover tasks for the last day, but they were quickly taken care of and I was given a grand good bye by the class.
Pictures to follow soon!
Actually, one at a time.
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