building a "haus kuk"

Over the weekend we had the project of building a "haus kuk" or a structure used for cooking.  For the next five weekends (started February 9th), we will be cooking all of our meals in this structure.

On Thursday, we watched a one hour demonstration where some experts put the entire thing together.  Then, we were each directed to a pile of materials, given an axe, a bush knife, and a ball of twine and four days to work on the project.

With my roommate in front of our pile of materials.  Stage One. 

Notice the discrepancy between one hour and four days?  Yeah, it was needed! 

The initial frame before the tarp went up.

In order to get the posts into the ground you have to first make sure they are the right height and the bottom is pointed.  Then, you bury them into the ground by lifting it up and driving it into the ground with all your might.  Over and over and over again until they are firmly entrenched, sometimes up to 10-12 inches deep.  Talk about an upper body workout!  Not only does sinking the post take a lot of effort, but you also have to pull it back out of the hole and then try to land it in the same hole again!  Not good for people who have no aim!

End of day one.  Frame and tarp complete. 

We worked for about 1.5 hours the first day and managed to get the frame and tarp up.  We were pleased with the result and went off confidently.  The next morning the whole right side was leaning inward toward the middle.  You can see the closest post is already a crooked branch, it became more so overnight as the wind and rain pummeled our poor structure.

The next day we spent about an hour driving in supports and trying to bring the structure back upright.

The initial stage of our table. 

Because of the large quantities of rain, the ground was very wet.  Both helpful and not in this process.  When we began to work on the table on day three we were driving in the four posts and I got a few face-fulls of mud!

Sitting at our table!  Notice it held both our weight on one side?  What a relief!

It took several hours the third day, but we managed to finish the project.  We built the table and benches, but at first when we sat down the whole things wobbled and shook, which was not very reassuring.  We put in several more supports and tied everything together more and then it felt pretty stable.  It only has to last for six weeks total, so I'm hoping and praying it does not collapse before then. : )

A close up of the table and benches. 

A view of our small platform and table. 

It was a lot of work and since then we've had several storms which have made things come a bit loose or crooked.  I think it might be a constant project to maintain our structure, but it should work for what we need it for.

I'll keep you updated as to how it works and expect some pictures of our times cooking in our haus kuk! : )  This week we go to town and market to buy food for the five weeks so we'll be putting into practice the lessons we had on keeping food without refrigeration and cooking/baking over a fire, etc. 

Here's a fun action shot that a friend took.  : )