2008 Vike Täckarting

One of the tractors starts dumping åg on the platform.

A bundle of åg is slid up the chute from one of the platforms to the work level.

Paddling the loose åg at one end of the roof. Notice that the planks on the intersecting side building have been freshly tarred where the grass roof will later cover them.

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.

While grass was being added to the roof, work continued on braiding ever more vithior . I'm not sure, but I think the guy in the black shirt was also a visitor like me...but apparently without the right "connections" to get onto the roof himself.

A beehive of activity.

Waiting for the next bundle.

The vidjor are threaded around a pole and then wrapped like a scarf, the free ends buried in successive layers of sawgrass.

The vidjor are threaded around a pole and then wrapped like a scarf, the free ends buried in successive layers of sawgrass.

Hans and I stomp while Carl paddles.

Hip-deep in the åg .

The tractor scoops up a load of grass.

Seen from above, looking at the main house. The house is now a museum, set up to represent how the farm might have looked around 1920 or so.

The plank roofs of the side buildings attached to the barn.

Looking east into the Baltic Sea from the top of the roof.