Almost Done!

We kept weaving the cane around, adding more vertical thick canes as we needed to in order to keep it tight. It looked like a giant nest and was very secure. The cane was getting more difficult to work with as it was losing its moisture and breaking more easily. We couldn't wait to put the roof on....
and then a moment of great sadness. I took the machete to cut a hole for the door and without thinking sliced through the side of the nest with the machete (I had planned to simply cut an archway at the bottom, leaving the top snug to keep the "nest" together). As soon as I swung my arm downward I knew my mistake. I cried and cried and cried as I watched our hut begin to unwind itself. I apologized profusely to the girls...and tried to fix my mistake, but alas it was too late both in the day and for the season of sorghum cane...there was no more cane left that was not shriveled with frost....the roof we just began (a tripod frame) lay beside the ruined hut, never fulfilling its mission. We planned to put it on and then lay sorghum leaves on top of its tripod frame...but not this year. Oh I am still crying over my mistake....next year we will do this again and finish our quest to build a home from materials laying around our farm...that we can sleep in just for fun! All in all we spent about 12 hours building this hut over 3 days....we learned how to weave and make it strong and how to not cut a doorframe!!! We felt very blessed that we had a warm home already built to retire to after our experience. How much more tragic my mistake would have been if we did not; especially as it grew very cold and rainy the next few days.