With December just around the corner and the second story up, the Othole family know that it is the bottom floor that must be completed by late November. The family is getting busier by the coming weeks which calls for more cooking and baking.
Arriving to Zuni late Friday night, Brenda sets the table for tomorrow's meal.
Mornings and evenings are becoming colder each day in Zuni.
Before his wife Brenda starts telling Gordon to run errands for her, Gordon sits and enjoys his morning cup of coffee.
Just like every weekend, Brenda and her sisters start breakfast for the men.
Tortillas are never bought.
After finishing his coffee, Gordon chops wood for the hornos.
Grandma Laura shows her hands before mixing the dough.
While the other women are preparing breakfast, Sherdine sits on the couch for a while. Her husband died in a car accident in June and it is obvious today that she misses him.
The "old house" has been changed to the "long-horn house" because the house is no longer old and we are building it for the long-horn group.
George starts sanding lumber for the ceiling.
The man in the ceiling on the far right is installing the lumber for the ceiling.
Na'na Bernard and Eddie install the insulation in the rest of the first floor. Na'na has chosen not to wear the protective suit.
On the other side of the house, sheet rock has been nailed to the walls and electricity will soon be available.
Outside of the Long-Horn house, some of the men have started laying concrete for the foundation for the stew house. The stew house will be used by the women to cook stew in.
As the men call it a day at the Long-Horn house, Julius shows his dry working hands.
Across the village, a cow has been delivered from Dulce, New Mex., and the Othole family waste no time in butchering it.
The Zuni people believe that every animal has a purpose and are not squeamish when it comes to butchering this cow or any animal. Every part of the animal will be used.
At night, some of the girls start a fire in one of the hornos so that the women can put some food in it to cook overnight.
While there's a fire, the kids get a hold of some jumbo marsh mellows for roasting.
On Sunday, the Long-Horn group will be hauling about 12 truck loads of wood, so Gordon, Avery, Eddie, Bert and Bernard woke up at 7 a.m. to build something to hold and organize the wood.
Sunday is also a baking day for the women. The Long-Horn group's female family members have come to bake bread.
One of the women starts the fire in one of the hornos. The horno on the left already has meat in it and is sealed with a stone slab and mud.
In the late afternoon, the bread is ready to be taken out of the horno.
Not long after the bread is out, the first wave of trucks come with wood.
Hiram throws a log on top of the pile.
There were 10 truck loads of wood brought to the house and in the coming weeks, more wood will be hauled.
As the weekend ends, the Othole family realizes that from here on out, weekends will get busier and soon every day will be as busy as this past weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment