Unbundling

After raising a bundle of grass, the rope had to be removed quickly and returned to the work platform for the next bundle. We would then spread the grass out evenly under our feet, orienting some of it to lie orthogonal to the pole structure underneath (in effect crosslinking or "felting" the grass together into one giant mat).

The goal was to pile up the grass so that it was about two feet thick on the poles, the surface leaning slightly inward towards the structure, and then compact it with our feet by walking back and forth over it while waiting for the next bundle. Vidjor (seen stacked in loops on the poles behind the man in the plaid shirt) would periodically be threaded around the poles and buried in the grass to "stitch" the mat to the roof, and after every foot or so of grass added to the work level, we would paddle the outer edge to compact what our feet couldn't reach and to level out any high spots in the surface.