Communal Table During the first week, before more women arrived, we built the hexagon-shaped table and bench that had already been designed (I was very delighted to hear this having read The Shamanic Way of the Bee over spring-break, with its imagery of the bee’s sacred hexagon): First step was a 60 degree A-frame for each of the hexagon’s 6 sections: We split the boards in half with a circular saw, then 90 cm in length – the length of all sides; Chose tongue-and-groove joints for our level of expertise (1/3 of the width wide, and exactly the height deep – so they don’t end up sticking out), cut them out with a jigsaw, put them together at a 60 degree angle, then glued and screwed ‘em... This turned out to NOT be enough angle support in the end, as one had moved without our knowing until it had all been put together. After planing each and every plank that would make up the table top, the next step was to line them up face down, lay down the A-frames in alternative directions (to conserve wood and cuts), mark the lines to cut, cut, then nail the planks to the frames. Leah, from England, is helping to finish the equi-distant triangles. At 180 cm across, the table is huge; for this we built it on site (under the shade of the Fig tree): dug the log legs (left over from building their house) 20 cm into the ground, put some sand in the bottom of each hole, leveled them to themselves and each other, then secured them with stone. Half the height was cut out of the frame, just where they met the table legs, to accommodate for the length of nails we had to use; they didn’t get nailed down in the center, but the center leg was wide enough to hold them. Puzzling the pieces into place was a bit tricky: there was a gap in the hexagon (Make sure your angles stay put!) so two legs needed to be moved (To find the points your hexagon should have an X, and a +), we had to put wedges between the table top and its center leg to keep our level, and our cuts weren’t exactly, perfectly straight... Leah sanded and oiled the table top and I, with some help, leveled the bench legs to themselves and each other. Then, on top of each, we nailed in two 40 cm long cut planks to give the bench the additional height it needed. Across these we marked a continuation of the hexagon line (already 60 degrees), and laid our bench planks down to mark on top of those. We cut one section at a time making sure they lined up with each other before moving on to the next. This, then, is the almost finished version (in a not so-complimentary, rainy-day photo). We’ve left a rounded-off gap in the bench for handicap accessibility and table setting. To finish, the bench will be sanded and oiled, a face plate will be added along the table’s edge, and the small gap left in the table top where the pieces don’t quite come together, will get an “intentional” stone mosaic - with a point on the outside in keeping with the hexagonal shape. Natural Building: Abroad Tuesday, April 8, 2008