Anyone build their own sukkah?

[PotterWatch]

I know there are several other Jews on here so I thought I would ask. We are finally living in a place that has room for a sukkah. We have always gone to the sukkah at our synagogue before, but I would really like to have a sukkah in our own yard this year so that we can more easily celebrate in it. I know that you can buy kits online, but they seem to be pretty pricey and we just don't have that kind of money right now. Anyone have ideas of a good, fairly cheap way to build one? Thanks!

 

[PotterWatch]

No one?

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I'm just curious - what is a sukkah?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Try these links. I just went to google.com and typed in - sukkah build. It looks like there is a lot of information out there on this. Good luck on your project!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sukkah+build&aq=f&oq=

 

[dacjohns]

Try contacting rebbetzin.

 

[chickiebaby]

okay, definitely. You can pm me for my phone number if you want to call and I wil give you the long version. But here's a short version, that is just beautiful for us every year:

(Christian or other nonJew friends all: these are instructions for how to build a seasonal hut, as instructed in the Bible (Torah) and "dwell in them", by which we mean eat, pray and occasionally sleep during this harvest festival coming up in a month or two.)


Here we go, quick and sloppy, but beautiful indeed!

Find one wall, which is all you can technically use. Ours is stockade fence, and we make the sukkah to fit the eight foot length it comes in. Then: across from each of the verticals that are the ends of the eiht foot section, we place a cinderblock on the ground. We place a six foot tall 2x4 in each cinderblock, standing up and matching the height of the fence.

Then we screw (easier to take apart and store than nails) two horizontal 2x4's (or whatever we have around,; we rather like it scrappy), each one running from one of the cinderblocked verticals to the equivalent height piece of fence. Then a third support goes from one cinderblocked vertical to the other, at their tops of course.

Does this make ANY sense at all? We put one piece of lattice for one wall, to help keep it sturdy (screwed to the fence on side and one vertical 2 x 4. We add another piece of lattice for a roof, unless we are feeling out of lattice and poor that year (whch is may years) in which case we throw up any old supports across, made of scrap, on which we will throw the schach (how on earth do you spell scach in English!?)

We raid our neighbors cornfields for the beautiful stnding stlks and throw them up top as well as binding some to the verticals to make it prettier and more rustic-like. As if they grew maize in the holy land four thousand years ago. Well, it's just as ikely as Jesus being a white guy with straight hair, I suppose. Hmnn.

The other two walls we hang with fabric- an old sari, a guatemalan thingie, a palestinian headscarf if my grandmother won't be making it up here . . . whatever. We have some old sheets on which one year we painted, in colors, the blessings for the sukkah, when our kids were little and if we can find those we use them.

We string up lights, most years, and hang mardi gras beads, seasonal gourds, old pages from last years Jewish calendars on the walls . . .

We also hang a shelf on the fence to hold lulav, etrog, salt and pepper and such!

We are disorganized and have too many jobs, children and, of course, chickens underfoot, but you can honestly get this done with 2-3 adults, or 2 adults and hard-working non-toddler kids, in about three hours.

We keep the parts, when we take it down, in one part of the garage were we can find most of what we need for the next year, if we haven't raided it too badly.

Whew. Hope that helps. Good God, holidays coming soon, aren't they?
Glad to know there's more than two Jews on here. So far, only positive confirmation from me and somebody with the handle Rebbetzin!

l'hitraot!

Shoshana

 

[PotterWatch]

Shortly after Yom Kippur we celebrate a holiday called Sukkot. Sukkot has a dual significance: historical and agricultural. Historically, Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival. Sukkot lasts for seven days. In honor of the holiday's historical significance, we are commanded to dwell in temporary shelters, as our ancestors did in the wilderness. The temporary shelter is referred to as a sukkah. Though my family will not live in the sukkah, we will eat meals there and my boys have asked if they can spend at least one night sleeping in it. We also decorate the sukkah with things like paper chains, pictures, pomegranets, squash, apples, etc. It is really a lot of fun and I'm thrilled to finally be able to do it at home!

 

[PotterWatch]

Wow, all those responses while I was typing, lol.

 

[PotterWatch]

Shoshana, thanks so much for the reply! I think we probably have plenty of scrap wood lying around to make the frame, just have to figure out what to use for the walls. Here in California, you usually see palm fronds for the roof but we don't have a palm tree so we will probably end up scrounging the neighborhood, lol. I love the idea of painting the blessings on the fabric for the walls. I wouldn't have thought of putting up a shelf until I realized I had no where to put the lulav and etrog, lol. This is exactly why I needed ideas! Thanks!

 

[chickiebaby]

Just reread my own post, Potterwatch, and one thing I may have been unclear about: (only one!?)

the fence we are talking about is a standing fence, in use, I mean. It's halachically acceptable to use one standing wall, so you could use the side of your house or a fence that's up. That stabilized the whole thing. How about the side of the coop!

love
Shoshana