Revenki's photos

Now that the pole ends were trimmed off, we had to be extra careful not to let the grass cross over the peak of the roof yet. Because the material will settle over time, the two sides had to remain as separate as possible for about two more feet above the now-trimmed pole ends, to keep the felted grass from binding. When the go-ahead was later given, vithior would be placed across the join, and grass stacked across both sides to close out the peak of the roof. Wooden hånglor would then be installed to further help hold the roof in place.

With the intersecting roof to use instead of a platform, the guys working at this end could simply throw the grass up with a pitchfork. Note that the poles at the end were not trimmed off like the others...

Byxorna refers to the detailing at the gable ends of the roof, and means "pants" in Swedish. If you look at this picture and visualize someone bending over while wearing tight, furry britches, you can imagine how it got the name.

I swear I'm not doing the 'Captain Morgan' pose...I think I was probably catching a beer being tossed up from the ground.

One of the pole ends goes flying.

"...why's that guy with the chainsaw cutting off my handholds?"

Breaking out the chainsaw to trim the tops of the roof poles. I hadn't been worried about heights until this point, since I'd had the pole ends to hold onto. After the ends were cut off, though, it started to seem just a little dangerous to be standing atop a layer of grass strewn on flimsy pine poles some forty feet in the air...

A well-formed and extra-long vidjor .

From this angle, it looks more like we're making a huge mess than installing a new roof.

By the time we stopped for lunch, the work level had almost reached the point where the poles crossed. But we weren't done yet -- we still had another three feet of grass to go above that...

By the time we stopped for lunch, the work level had almost reached the point where the poles crossed. But we weren't done yet -- we still had another three feet of grass to go above that...

Hip-deep in the åg .

Hans and I stomp while Carl paddles.