It's Sukkah Time !!!

I love Sukkot for many reasons:

I get to use my tools to build something.

I also get to see how my girls have learned to use power tools...sometimes that sight is a little less reassuring than I would like

I get to have all my kids (from a time when they were young and cute) around me. O.k. so it is really hard to see but, when we first built the sukkah (way back in 1999) I traced the kids on to the wall panels so they would be with me all the time, this picture is of Nathan. If you can't see it ...you will just have to come to the sukkah and see the real thing

We get to have ushpizim (visitors to our sukkah) over. And you all know how much I love throwing a party

And when the weather is nice I love to sit in the sukkah for breakfast, which is probably one of my favorite times of day.

This is the 10th year that we have put up a sukkah and each year it gets better and better.

It started 10 years ago when I (with a lot of help) put up my first sukkah.

here is the first assembly crew

I have had many helpers over the years ...

Nathan in 2004

Shomer always tries to help

Ben, Sam and Ash helped in 2004

David and Sam did the framework in 2007

Ashleigh, Sarah, Zander and Hannah helped decorate.

Over time my little sukkah grew from it's original 8x8x8

to a 10x10x8 and that worked for quite a few years,

but then last year I decided it was time to make it a little bigger I know I know.... but it really didn't look that big on paper. But it was ... and my little 8x8 sukkah grew to be

a 20x10 major construction event.

which might take a few more people to assemble and it might require a few more boxes (up to 8 now) to store. It is still a great time of year and my favorite holiday.

and Shomer always likes when visitors come to our sukkah.

The last Sukkah Tour 5769

This sukkot was quite a bit different this year.... as I said earlier we built a bigger sukkah this year 20x10 (Barry claims that it is bigger than his first bedroom)

we also moved our holiday party from the usual Hanukkah time to Sukkot...it was a smaller group but we had a great time. A little Havdalah in the sukkah and then dessert.

Those of you who couldn't join us we missed you for those of you who made it thank you for making the eventing great.

This year we also had a little wind & fire issue but we fared better than many of our friends and we recovered and repaired the damage that was done.

In time to have a nice little shabbat in our sukkah.

We also had some very special first time visitors.

But as all good things do ... it was time to take our sukkah down... but before that happened Ashleigh took us on The Last Sukkah Tour for 5769 as only Ashleigh could. So until October 2, 2009 this will be the end of sukkot for me.

it's fix it time

Well the winds have stopped the fire is almost contained.... so it's time to start putting things back in place....

First the walls

some of them were doing fine...

just reattaching a string or two and it will be o.k.

other walls needed to have a some new grommets

and then some walls needed to be to start over from scratch

And then there was the roof....

Now Sunday Night when I was finished putting everything together there was a roof on the sukkah but as you can see from the pictures Hashem and the wind felt that maybe there shouldn't be a roof on the sukkah......

So we took the palm fronds that were left and put them back up on the roof.. and we will probably have to go back up the hill for a little more...

So Bubbie and Shomer and I went into the sukkah to see what we could do

and look at what we achieved

A view to the east

A view to the west

and a view from the front

Chag Semach to all!!!

It's time to build the sukkah again

Last year I told you all about our sukkah and how I had no tall people to help me. This year it was a little different... Sam, as one of her last great acts of kindness, engaged the help of one of her friends from USY, Hebrew High and Pilgrimage, David who is tall to help put up our sukkah.

Now the sukkah is not finished yet... but we had to get some of it done before we left to take Sammie up to Davis (she is up there and there will be more blogging to follow). So David came over last week to help me get the frame put together.

He even had Sam up on the ladder trying to do some of it. But she was much better at getting the splinter out than she was at putting the screws in. Any way the one part of the tradition that we forgot was to have David sign the posts after had helped.

I have until Wednesday night to get the rest of it done... oh for just a few more USYers.