The hermitage that was erected under the patronage of Our Lady of the Snows is located in a clearing at the entrance to the Irati Forest from Ochagavía. Its construction is relatively modern since it was built in 1954. One of the architectural singularities of this mountain hermitage is its roof, built entirely with slats obtained from the surrounding forests. This photo is from the year 1972, when the tablets of the hermitage of the Virgen de las Nieves were made of oak, from some oak trees in the Garralda forest, in the Aézkoa valley. There are my father and my brother, who are the ones who made the tablets at that time. A group of neighbors and experts in forestry work in the Aézkoa and Salazar valleys have committed to renovating the roof of the hermitage with beech slats. Beech has a very limited life. Although it was a wood that was easier to obtain and they made them from beech in 90% of cases, but on special occasions they made them from oak because oak lasts much longer, ten times longer than beech for example, and they made them from Oak. It was more expensive to make them, because oak is very hard to split, but for special buildings they made them from oak. The trees that are tried here to make the splint must be as straight as possible, as tall as possible and with fewer knots, because what they have is a damaged piece for the splint. And in this way what we do is uselessly spoil wood. It is chosen in this area above all is the beech, which is the ideal wood to make the slats. It is normally selected in crescent because that is when the wood is whiter and has less weight. Another one that has… It must be done between the September moon and the February moon, on those moons, in crescent, if possible at the end of the crescent. They give an area for first-class wood, another for second-class wood and another for the firewood that the beech has. This one specifically has first class wood, almost everything, and the rest is firewood. There are others that have more firewood than wood and etc, etc. With the rod it is placed so that the guard measures the height, then, with two meters from me and three from the rod, five meters in height. We estimate the height with a stick that Kike has of about three meters, and with his height we calculate about five meters. I put the reference of the pen that occupies the distance of the stick and what Kike measures, that is, here I am about five meters tall. I overlap the pen, another five, along the entire length of the beech stem, and I calculate a height of 20 meters to the first branches and 25 to the tip of the beech. And we already have the height reference. The measurement sings her, the diameter, at 1.20 more or less, crosswise. Crosswise, exactly. 55 in diameter. Beech first. We are in the public strip forest of Irati, in the 190 A stand and we have said diameter, 55, we have a 55 beech, the batch number is one and the quality is first. They already have some coefficient figures, according to the mountains, they have already done the study and by the diameter it gives and the height it gives, they know the cubic size that the tree has to have. Now we are going to proceed to the marking of the tree. This mark has the purpose that when the tree is cut, the stump is marked, it means that it is already valued and so on, it is not that it is simply taken away. It is done in the part where when dragging the mount, the wood does not touch any wood of that brand, so that it remains fixed there. And that is the witness that this brand is valued and can be worn. This is a normal axe, before an ax and a hammer were used, two tools, now everything goes in one, the ax and the hammer with the stamp of the Government of Navarra, GN. There is. This is the identification of the Government of Navarra that remains there perennially. It is chaspe up, the tree is pointed up so that the chainsaw operator can see it from afar, it can be seen well. The way to do this marking is that when you come to see the mountain, you walk, slope, and you go to the top and you see that it is marked, and when you go down you also see that it is marked below. That makes it much easier for you to keep track of what you're seeing, you're not going around the tree to see if it's marked or not. We have chosen this area and this one, and we are going to throw it there, because it turns out that we see the fall and the slight inclination that we see in the wood so that it can fall there. The moss of the beech is being cleaned, which may have dirt and some pebbles or something, so that the miter saw or the chainsaw, whatever is going to get in there, does not go out of tune. That is the object of cleaning. Now we are going to proceed to make the sullen with the ax also so that the tree takes the direction where it has to fall. This basic technique of determining the direction of the tree's fall consists of sectioning three cuts, forming a kind of hinge at the base that can be closed during the fall. Now what we do with the miter saw is removing it from the resistance part of the tree to give it the direction of fall. With sullenness we have made one, but here we still have the power to modify the direction a little. Those two nerves that are there are the ones that are holding the tree, and we are eliminating the resistance of the tree. Once it is about to begin to fall, you should never make it look like the tree is falling, you should always look up because the possible branches that touch the sides, when they break, can go back. In that it has already begun to fall, there is no danger, the branches that can come backwards are dangerous, because they return as if they were real whips. You never have to escape in the direction of the tree, you always have to escape squarely, because the tree has already taken an inclination and we go there, and then we will be protected from another tree that can be there calmly. With this I'm doing, modifying the fall trajectory a little bit. Here now we can determine the age of the tree, starting from what would be the center, all these stripes that are seen here, these semicircles, those tell the age, those every year that the tree has. Normally they tend to be different, a different circle, because it means that some years have suffered more than others, either due to temperature or drought or excessive cold, or all these circumstances. We are going to look for what is good to start making the splint, normally when they begin to have these marks that you see here, the crust itself begins to be good to make the splint, in that case we make a mark and from here , every 65 cm is one of the logs to be able to remove the slat. These will be chopped in the spring, they will be chopped to start making the tablet. Now we leave the tree here until it pours out the last of its sap, because although it may not seem like it, the tree is still alive and in the spring, when the leaves begin to come out on the others, it will also draw the little sap that you may have so far. And that is so that the board is completely free of products that can rot it. Here we have a blind knot in this part, that here there cannot be a splint, but there can be in the back, all this part is good for making a splint. From the last mark that we have made for the slat so far, it would be timber to be able to make sleepers because this type of wood is knotty, it is very ugly, nothing can be done now. And everything from here on, up to 5 cm thick, was all good for making firewood. The activity will continue inside the forest until these woodworkers have lying the seven beech trees that have been awarded to them. For a few months the trunks will remain spread out on the mountain so that they lose their sap before proceeding to their transformation into tablets. Half a year has passed and summer has arrived in the Irati mountains. The trees felled in winter have lost their sap and the rolls or stalks from which the 65-centimeter-long slats will be removed can now be cut. The two pieces of each trunk closest to the root will be left for other uses, because being a very leathery part and having a lot of fiber, they are not suitable for making slats, being a practically indomitable wood. We are in the miter saws, the typical miter saw, the non-mechanical saws that we had, and it turns out that we have, the one that I have on my right hand is one of the first that the French called it. As we can see, the teeth are very different. These were all pickaxes and did not have sawdust scrapers to remove the sawdust that they cut themselves. This one, as we can see, has very different spikes from them, it is simply finished in a point so that those tips cut the wood, both on one side and the other, as you can see here, some are sharp, you can see the sharpness and the other one cannot be seen because it is sharp the other way. They called him the American or Canadian. As can be seen, this has very different cuts, the type of teeth, some teeth are draggers and others are cutters, on the right side and on the left side of the cut. The most suitable cutting tool for this job is the miter saw, as it leaves a smoother and cleaner surface than the axe. With the so-called "French" miter saw, the sawdust is not expelled and remains in the crack of the cut. The tooth system of the American miter saw allows the expulsion of the sawdust as the cut progresses, thus avoiding stopping the work for cleaning. This is the difference between the two cutters. The old saw removes a very fine sawdust and the American tooth saw takes a very long chip, which cuts more this saw than this one. Come on. To here and there. Now you see how we were cutting a couple, but this can be applied in case time was pressed. You can do four people, two on each side, so there has to be a consonance between the four people to cut. And this way it was done a little faster. With air, huh. Put the wedge so you don't squeeze the cut here. OK OK. In any case, this system is so that the cut is more fluid and does not press on the cutter and in this way what we do is to be able to continue with the same cutting freedom. Pressing down. Only he's squeezing like hell. Come on. up. There is. Now we put in position. This mark that you see here is typical of the heart. And here is a second one, that now what we do with the wedge and the hammer is to follow that trajectory, due to the fact that if not, we can damage the slats. Beech is one of the strongest woods. So, the oak, the walnut and all that doesn't split, but the beech, which is very straight and quite strong, when it has a tension it opens, now when cutting, or in transport, and even in sawmills. So you always start from a form that has a weakness or whatever. When cutting the slats, you have to take into account that crack that always marks, which is a very large crack and also another one that is less strong because it has already lost its strength. This is used to hit the ax so it doesn't get damaged. It can not be glued with iron. Then it is made of the same wood, from a piece a mallet is made with a bit of a handle to be more manageable. And it has a bit of weight to hit easier. Normally, to make it last, they put it inside a pile of fiemo for forty days and then it was annealed, which is what is done industrially with beech to give it hardness and stability. And these are made from the heart. The closer the heart is to the depth, the harder it is and it doesn't crack as it could crack from this. Sharpen the ax a bit, give it a little temper, because when you just cut it, the cut goes away. So you have to give it a little bit. You see the stone. This stone is made in Norton. It has the emery here and here, however, it has to sharpen, to give it the cut, because just by giving it this the… it gets hard, so you give the stone a little and look, I'm going to give you a demonstration now . The hair on my arm is going to… you'll see how it removes it. Now with this it is already underway to be able to start working. Now it comes that we are going to make the team. Normally there are two people, which is how it is best done, taking advantage of time and material, so that a job well done comes out. And we start to make the pieces that should be splitting for each slat shape. We now start with the splitting of the wood. We are going to look for what it would be, that he himself is indicating where we have to start, because everything we would do outside of this would be to spoil material. So we start now to crack this. It's enough. Now we are going to distribute the wood so that the boards all come out the same size. In other words, now we are making some as if they were the eighths of a piece for a tablet, which we call in Basque the “zorzikos”, which is equivalent to eight, then comes the “lauko”, which is four, half of eight, then the "biko" that would be half of four and would come out for two and the "bateko" that is of a single tablet. That is the name in Basque. He is looking for his measure, because not all hands are the same, he is looking for his measure, he knows that from here eight tablets will come out of this part. Now Bernardo puts his finger, as you can see, just a little in the direction where the lines that go from the outside to the center mark, that is what marks us, that he is telling us that we have to cut through there, because otherwise we would spoil material . We already have a “zorziko”, now we will move on. Without cutting finger tips. The next piece, as it surely has more, we will leave it when making the halves again. Always looking for the shape of the lines that the wood itself indicates. Now all the segments are done, so to speak, and now what we are going to do is remove their hearts. Slats, normally anything above 14 cm is not good to do. Now we remove the heart, everything that is not usable for tablet. This also has another circumstance, because the further towards the center we go, when the board comes out, one of the parts is very narrow and that usually breaks. If here we have a measurement of one and a half centimeters or so, here it can reach two and a half or so, which already begins to be a little excessive in thickness. Each one of us now has our workplace and we can start working, dividing them in half again. Now let's find the half. Jesus Mary. The "zorziko". That's it. This is where we get the "laucos". From here we get the pieces of four tablets. Now again in half, which would be the "bicos", which are two tablets on each side of the ax. We are looking for what would be the means to find the two tablets. And now comes removing the bark. Here is a way to know a little if the wood is in optimal conditions. If it comes out like this, that it comes out without any flakes, we already see that the bark comes out whole. If this wood had been three or four months longer, it would have been by the blow of an axe, nothing due to its own separation from the wood. As we can see, the slats should not have, if possible, more than two centimeters, that is the ideal thickness for the slat. So, here we have how if we had been able to get three, but the wood's own grains are not going to give for three, because here they would be very simple for us. So we have to play with it so that they are both the same. In this case, what we do is start with the narrowest part to get it to go where we want, not where it wants. You see, it has already begun to do where it has to go. It has gone both ways, as you can see. So, now, what we do is follow the path that we would like for the tablet to come out. This tablet can hit the bottom, which is worth the top. To the bottom. See, we already have a tablet made. This is one of the tablets. We can fix it a bit so that this thickness is uniform, because when it comes to placing it on the roof, otherwise it would lift too much in the way it would be placed. And this what we do is fix a little. Now we see how the slat has a uniformity and when it comes to placing it on the roof , the following ones above and below do not change direction. Here we see that this tablet would be impossible to put it properly. So, now comes the fixing of the tablet. In that now the doll and the sharp ax have to intervene to be able to put it in its position. The fact that I make spikes like this now, means that when I'm going down now, instead of it going to the bottom, we see how it jumps from there. So, this slat would never give me any trouble removing a slab from top to bottom, because I could go wherever it wanted. Now we see the difference from how it was before to how it is now. We are going to place this slat in such a way that it can be placed well on the roof, so that they join one with the other, because if we do not do this, we will take a little out of what would be the… that it be totally rectangular. If we had left it as it was, this tablet would have had some guts. And this must be done as much as possible so that when it is placed on the roof it can be, that it does not leave leaks. In order for the shingles to resist inclement weather and not let rainwater pass once they are placed on the roof, it is important that the cut follows the direction of the grain. In this way its impermeability is achieved, preventing the wood from having pores through which water can penetrate. Here we see how there are some lines that indicate all the veins of the beeches. Normally all these are perpendicular to each other, which means that if we follow that line we will have left the tablet in a position to place it well. This is fixing the board. As we can see now, we are going to follow that mark that we have at the bottom and that is when we can say that this tablet is already at the point of being able to be placed once it has dried. The direction of the ax position is quite interesting. Waiting. If I put it like this, depending on how I put it, I'm looking for the grain, the direction of the grain. Go ahead. We are going to make the peg to hold the shingle on the roof. So, we do with the ax, which would be one of the pegs. That on the one hand it is rounded and on the other it is flat. And this must be put in a position so that it rests on the can, which I will now explain how it is. So, now what we do is nail it here in a previous hole to a suitable size. And this would be the can. So this stays like this. But what we have to do is remove it. So, with the ax well sharpened, it stays like this and we put it like this. This would be in this position. This is the correct position. The slats contain a certain amount of water, from a third to a half of their total weight, so they cannot be used immediately after being cut, as they would dry out on the roof, producing irregularities in their fit. During the summer months they should remain stacked alternately, leaving a space between them for air to pass. As not all the slats are made in a saw, the measurements are very different and the curvature of them are different. So, what happens, that we put four by four so that the slats are placed in such a way that with their own weight they dry out and if there is any irregularity, which are often twisted, with their own weight they go looking for dry up and part of it is straightened out, although not completely at the time, but part of it remains much more regulated. We see that it is twisted, we see that it is warped. If we leave it as it is, on the roof it would make us a kind of lumps and it would not allow us to settle well, so what we do we stack it here, we see this that, when we put a load on it, with the days it dries up and that warping is losing it. The separation of this passes the air and the board is cooling and drying, pulling moisture from the board. These specialists from the forest world have calculated that some 7,000 slats will be needed to cover the roof of the Hermitage of the Virgen de las Nieves. For a few more weeks they will continue to work in the improvised workshop in the Irati forest until they have the necessary number of tablets. Manufacturing an average of 400 to 500 tablets a day, a month after working in the forest, the half dozen woodworkers, who have altruistically committed themselves to their work, have stacked some 6,700 pieces. The work in the forest is already coming to an end. While a group of woodworkers continues with the manufacture of slats, another is in charge of digging a trench in the same place of work. We are doing this work to lay wood, to be able to make slats later, in case we needed it at the time of placement. And in this way what we do is save them, they stay in the same way we put them. We keep three of these in case we need more of this wood, so that we have a reserve of wood to be able to make more slats. Come on inside. Well, now they are covered with earth. We are covering the entire area so that it is left without any oxygen inside. We pack well. So that there is no air left. The important thing is that you don't get any air left in this. If possible... Then, with the humidity of time, it settles and all the pores that may have oxygen close. Now with the rake… This, in this way that we are doing now, we are weighing down the litter a little and thus the wood that we have put below is deoxygenated. Everything is covered. Time also covers it and settles when it rains or when it snows, all the pores close and that wood has not lost an iota of its properties. The tablets, perfectly stacked, will be kept on the mountain for a whole year until the time comes for the restoration of the roof of the Virgen de las Nieves hermitage. The moisture from the autumn rains, plus the weight of the thick layers of snow that may fall during the winter, will make it easier for the slats to take a perfectly flat shape. Without the noise of the axes, There is silence in the Irati. The silence of the axes. The brave rafters Down the river no longer go down. They no longer go down the river. And there is silence in Irati. At the beginning of summer, taking advantage of the favorable weather conditions, it is time to place the new beech pieces to replace the oak ones already worn by the passage of time. Here we see the difference in the tablets that have been in place, that have been covering the hermitage for forty-odd years, how these have been nailed, perhaps not having to be nailed so much, how they have been damaged on both sides, we see the difference what's up. Also these are oak, not beech. These, as you can see, are rotten almost to the bottom. And that's because they've been too close. They should not be completely glued, but there should be a kind of separation. Because the truth is that being supported on points always dries much better. Although they have been out in the open all winter, which have been practically covered with snow, they have been maturing. Many of these were twisted and based on being in the stack with a weight on top as seen before, they have matured and the tablet has been greatly improved. So now it's at its best. We see that even the weight has been able to reduce up to 35 to 40% from when they were made to now. Martín is in charge of fixing the edges of the slats to prevent cracks between them when they are placed on the roof. Thus we see how the tablet has been much tighter. We see that these tablets are irregular. You always have to try, when making the hole, that they all more or less go in the same style. Here we see how now the tablet must always be placed in the same position if possible. About the thickness of the head, this is what would be the outside of the tablet, the thickest. So that when they are going to be placed on the roof they all have the same position. Some holes are made here, with some marks, on purpose, so that they all have the same distance. So, now we put this on top of this and there, more or less, whoever is making the hole already has the idea more or less of where they have to make the hole. They should never be placed in the middle, in the middle, but on one side. This is already here now. And now we put it… Now we take one of the pegs and put it in the hole. If it is seen that it is too long, this should never be, then what is done is to remove it. And if here it is seen that it is too long, we do the same job. We give it a blow and this is enough. We see here everything that is smoothest and here where the scales are, but which in turn are also always downwards, because when a time comes, this board will have its peg removed from here, the peg will be removed and it will We would flip the table. This would be the old, the already very used, and we would put it back here. So, we use the same peg. And this board, depending a little on the situation on the roof or the weather where it is installed, can have up to 50 or 52 years of life. Bernardo and Jesús Mari are in charge of having enough perforated slats with the corresponding pegs placed, so that Javier can advance in the orderly placement of the pieces of wood on the roof. This same one comes a little backwards, it would be a matter of giving it. Then it is time to put it in its place. Hey. We started with a narrow board so that the next one can cover the crack that it would leave, now we come with a wider one, where what it does is cover the next one. This may be too wide, so what we do is place a slightly narrower one so that it already covers everything. The water that falls here, although there is separation here, does not matter, because this water is caught by this one and taken out. We cannot do is that they are in this position, because if they are in this position, here it would already enter inside. This is the ideal way, that is why the measurements of each one do not matter, simply, they can be of different sizes but always taking into account that the space does not leave a permanent crack to the other. Clipboard. See, this one comes the same here. Now comes the next one that what it does is cover that one. This aeration that you see here, in principle it could be that it looked bad, but that is extraordinary so that when it rains there is aeration and the slat rots much less. Board by board, if they are very close together, what it does is store moisture and that is where all the mites enter, the crap and all that does not drain, and all that begins to rot much earlier. Clipboard. We have here, we have two or three rows, because each one that comes along we place according to the width needed to cover the cracks. How is the scale? It is well placed because the water would never get inside or damage the slat. The water acts as if it were the scale of the fish, that what it does is expelling the water outwards. If we put it upside down, the water would enter from here, and with the humidity and heat the ends would turn upwards and the slat would be damaged much sooner. It is very interesting that the thickness of the board is always in the same direction. As we see here, on one side it is thicker than the other. So if we do this side we leave more crack, more hole, and more irregularities in the roof. If we put it this way, they all go in the same direction and the gap is smaller. This is good, we put in the middle, and if not, we could start here. We already have another ready. We put half of this one, because if it were whole, what the next one does would leave us in a very inadequate position. So, what is done, the first one is mounted there, the next one is mounted like this, as it is, and so the third one continues up doing the same work as her. And that's why the first row and the last row are half. This is a bit to see how these roofs, while covering moisture, were also thermal. You can see here the thickness of the three boards that are going to be joined throughout the roof. By mounting one on top of the other, what this does is an enormous thermicity. When the slat roofs were changed either to corrugated iron or to other sheets, the temperature in the buildings was very noticeable. The same very hot in the summer and in turn, very cold in the winter. The days go by and the placement of the slats progresses rapidly. We have been laying tiles on both sides for eight days now. You can already see how the finishing is being done, and we really see how the board should look. As we are placing, we are seeing the way in which the slats are placed in such a way that they are going to cross. They are regulated so that each of them does not leave a crack for water to enter. The space left here is not by chance, it is simply to give the roof aeration. And this also serves so that the board, not being totally attached to one another, does not store moisture and therefore does not rot. They will always be much more airy and they will be much better. So they are all caught, as you can see, in the same direction to the bottom. Here again we see how the first slats begin, but as they are placed we see the thickness they acquire to make what would normally remain as thermal insulation. The same for the heat as for the cold. This part is already more laborious because when making this conical type, the slats have to be a bit elaborate depending on the need for the width. Because here we are losing and the next position is being won, so that the next board covers the same. You see, these are the inclinations that have to go around this whole cone. This is what each of them would do. No hace falta quitarles demasiado, simplemente es ir apropiándonos cada una en su postura real. El tejado de la ermita ya ha quedado totalmente terminado. La Hermandad de la Virgen de las Nieves del Monte Irati ha quedado satisfecha con la restauración del tejado de su ermita, en cuyo proyecto han colaborado los valles de Aézkoa y Salazar y el Arzobispado de Pamplona y Tudela, junto a otras instituciones y particulares. Un trabajo artesano de varios meses y mucho esfuerzo que ha sido posible gracias a la voluntad de un grupo de expertos tablilleros que tratan de mantener viva esta técnica que, antaño, estaba muy arraigada en los valles del Pirineo navarro. Soy Eugenio Monesma, director y productor del documental que acabas de ver. Si te ha gustado, te animo a que te suscribas al canal activando las notificaciones desde la campana y así podrás disfrutar de los cientos de documentales que ya tengo en el canal y de los que semanalmente voy a ir subiendo. También puedes apoyar el canal, haciéndote miembro del canal, pinchando el botón Unirme. Logicamente vas a tener así una serie de beneficios, como pueden ser: fotografías, chats en directo, estrenos, documentales exclusivos… Te puedes informar en mi canal o bien preguntándome a través de los comentarios.
