Revenki's photos

The vidjor really aren't "braids", they are more like yarn in that they are simply twisted out of a pile of loose sawgrass. The sawgrass blades have small hairs or serrations along their edges, which hook them to adjacent blades -- as one twists and pulls, the loose end of the yarn engages additional blades, resulting in a strand of any arbitrary length one desires. The vidjor used on the roof acreage ranged from 4-8 feet and about 3-4 inches across.

The vidjor really aren't "braids", they are more like yarn in that they are simply twisted out of a pile of loose sawgrass. The sawgrass blades have small hairs or serrations along their edges, which hook them to adjacent blades -- as one twists and pulls, the loose end of the yarn engages additional blades, resulting in a strand of any arbitrary length one desires. The vidjor used on the roof acreage ranged from 4-8 feet and about 3-4 inches across.

Piles of åg (sawgrass) ready for the roof.

The sawgrass is laid loosely over a structure of staggered poles. Side branches a few inches long are left sticking out of the poles to provide something for the grass to grip. As the grass is placed, part of it is oriented to lie outward from the roof to the outside (i.e.: roughly orthogonal to the poles), and then it is stomped and paddled to compact it. Periodically, braids of sawgrass called vithior are looped around the poles like a winter scarf, with their loose ends buried by successive layers of grass. The vithior in effect "stitch" the grass to the roof's substructure, and will slide down the poles with the grass as it settles over time.

Piles of åg in the barnyard, with the partially completed roof in the background. The side buildings on the right have a traditional plank roof, which consists of overlapping planks periodically painted over with pine tar. An åg roof would usually only be used on shelters for lower-value items, such as livestock -- high-value items such as farm equipment would be stored in buildings with the more weather-tight plank roofs.

When we arrived on Saturday morning, the lower half of the roof had already been completed, up to a height at which men on the ground could no longer throw the sawgrass up to the working level using long pitchforks. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get to see the complex work involved in starting the roof at the eaves. The tractors had giant hydraulic claws on the front, which they used to bring in the åg (sawgrass) from the huge piles outside the barnyard. The tractors would later be used to lift large amounts of grass to the staging platforms above the eaves, where it would be bundled and lifted up chutes to the working level, all by hand.

Yeah, no kidding. I wonder why?

The part I worked on is to the right of the wreath.

The eaves were still a bit ragged, but I would expect they'll be trimmed eventually (especially the poles, which will make getting in and out of the barn somewhat tricky).

The barnyard side of the completed roof. The wreath is right about where I was working, as it turns out. Even after being whipped with a rope, the roof still shows some traces of where the three chutes were located -- this will eventually even out in time, I was told. Now that the scaffolds are gone, you can see that the barn is in fact made of wood, rather than the stuccoed-over stone walls common in the area.

A dozen ziplock bags and plastic grocery sacks later, and it's all ready to go. The big pack weighs around 23lbs, the small pack around 15lbs...less than my 42lb estimate.

"Jeez...it didn't look like that much crap on my packing list..." The white tube was intended to protect the poles during the flight to Sweden. I looked all over town trying to find one that was lighter and a smaller diameter, with no luck. Turns out even cut down to where the poles barely fit, the tube was too long to fit in the pack. But hey, at least I saved myself another 0.4lbs...

An army of dead trees marching up the moutainside.

Looking east, I think, from treeline on the way back down.

No idea which peaks those are in the distance, but they were pretty impressive.

Looking east, I think.