[So much happened on December 9th, that I need to break this into several pieces. Let’s start at the beginning.]
I knew I’d start the day early. I was on call for an 8 am speech and toast to launch the work. Loathe to break my yoga streak, I arrived at the genba (site) at 6:30 and set up my mat on the scaffolding. I led a brief session via Zoom from 7 until Yoshida-san arrived at 7:20.
And shortly after that, everyone else trickled in. Sasaki-san. His father and brother, who are also carpenters. Some of our vendors: the sash man, the plumber, the representative from the lumber company. The huge crane and its operator. My favorite team from Monaca Doken. And more carpenters from Sasaki-san’s network. In total, there were 14 workers and a photographer, too!
The day before, I’d sorted out a drink and snack station in the TractorPort, so I had that all set up and ready. What I didn’t have ready was a table on which to display all of the congratulatory sake they brought. Everyone who did work that day presented me with a gift wrapped box of booze. We could have been “drunk as a skunk” as my grandmother used to say.
However, we only cracked open one bottle to bless the corners of the house with rice, salt, and sake. Then I gave a very brief speech to the 15 carpenters and we toasted the work to come with tiny sips of sake and a big “Kampai!”
Unfortunately, Tod missed this bit. He had a terrible morning. Just back from a week at the Tokyo office, he had full-on “city lag.” He overslept a little. The coffee I’d made at 5 am malfunctioned and got stuck in the filter basket and didn’t fill the pot. He’d misplaced his car keys. Everything was working against him. Despite his best effort, he arrived all disheveled and stressed out at about 8:30.
At that point, all of the posts were standing in place already. It was so fast. The crane was lifting the beams into place and the crew were tapping the pieces together with big wooden mallets before I even caught my breath.
Sasaki-san orchestrated everyone with precision. He consulted the blueprints and called off the grid numbers for each beam. The Monaca Doken team was assigned to find the right pieces and get them hoisted onto the crane. The carpenters clambered around on the scaffolding and the structure of the house itself and put each part into place. There were very few problems and when there was confusion, the lumber guy was on the phone to the mill.
We took a break at 10; I passed around a cranberry coffee cake I’d made. We had coffee and tea and cold drinks. And then back to work.
By the time we broke for lunch, there was already an outline of the roof visible with the top beam set and the lovely prow-shaped corner pieces in place. There was a visible house. A big break was well-deserved.
