The Little Grass Shack…

The Little Grass Shack…or in this case…the Grass hut!

Speaking of the little grass shack…if you would like to hear that song and learn how to hula…check out the featured video on the upper right side of my home page….just sayin’ 😉

Here in Florida one sees quite a few Tiki Huts…some cover outdoor eating restaurants and some cover boat docks on the canals.

There are many of these thatched roofs which use palm fronds and I have to admit, I really like them.

“So you can imagine my curiosity when the Captain and I went for a late afternoon ice cream cone and saw one of our favorite outdoor eating places “refreshing” their Tiki roof.

First they tore off all the old palm fronds….as they were not only replacing fronds…they were adding to their outdoor eating area which called for more thatched roofing.

They had an assembly line going on….

There was one guy trimming the palm fronds, one guy pre-starting a nail or fastener of some kind in the stem end and one guy carrying the fronds over to the “roofer’s helper” …who handed the fronds one at a time up to the roofer …and then the actual roofer was perched on the top of the round poles that formed a framework for the palm fronds.  

In New Mexico, we called these poles “Vigas”….I am not sure what they call them in the Tropical World.

The roofer had a two sided hatchet-like hammer and as soon as his helper handed him up a palm frond, the roofer would make one swift hit of the palm frond connecting it to the round poles, using the pre-started nail or fastener.

Then in the same swing, the roofer flipped his hatchet- tool, and cut off the extra “stem” of the frond.  He did this all in one motion.

You can see in the above picture how the palm fronds are in layers much like regular roof shingles.

No wasted energy here…:)

A thatched Tiki roof can last a very long time, …however in this case, the restaurant added onto the original structure.

Perhaps they felt it was easier to just replace the whole roof, rather than piece in the sides of the existing Tiki roof.

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to entertain the Captain and me…..we sat in our car, slowly eating our ice cream and watching with fascination.

Do you my dear readers like to take the time to be entertained by watching someone perform their specialty duties?

Or is it just me?

Have a great Day…and keep your eyes opened, you never know what you might see! 🙂

 

 

Me