General stuff

A beautiful lily (as yet unidentified) which I saw on my mountain walk.

Over the past few days I've cleared field No 5 (the lowest one heading down to the river which I worked on with Alastair), felling some trees and scything the undergrowth - it evens looks like a field now! The trees were used to construct an A frame crane (photo tomorrow) to help lift the stones with which to rebuild the barn (when and if I ever get my 'declaration travaux' approved by the DDE).

The maize patch has been de-rooted and is ready for planting tomorrow.

I gave John a crash course in chainsaw use and maintainance on Friday morning and the afternoon made a return visit to my neighbours at Coumelary with Claude and Susan. They baked me a lovely cake and I learnt a little more Occitan or 'patois'.

This morning I went to the market in St Girons and in the afternoon I serviced my mountain bike. I hope to do some of the waymarked routes in and around Aleu, soon.

Pic de Lasirouge

Whilst most of the Ariege sat under a blanket of low cloud today, I was above it in the sun! I climbed Pic de Lasirouge (the central one in the photo) via a typical Ariege arete of compact rock and vegetation, with a little snow thrown in for good measure. I was hoping to make the peak to the right but rumbles of thunder sent me scurrying back along the ridge. On the left is Mont Valier. A modest 1300m of ascent but the first walk in along time.

Sub-aqua pigs

The door panels found in the old bog - after plenty of elbow grease

Close up of the carving on each door

Another beautiful hot day. Plenty of the usual work going on with chainsaw and scythe. The pigs have started scuba diving. Arrived at the field to find no pigs but a constant bubbling sound. In the pond, two pairs of ears breaking the surface. Idiots!

The chickens went 'free range' to day with no mishaps and they even went back into the run without any chasing.

Tomorrow a day off in the mountains.

More visitors

This morning I loaded up the trailer with some of the junk from the barn. The path to the fields has a tangle of electrical wire in one of the hedgerows which has been bugging me ever since I bought Quelebu, so I decided to remove it. It took forever, because it was half buried and tangled in brambles. As a consequence I had to de-bramble the area behind the wood shed which has been inaccessible until now. Turns out this is the old toilet (long since disused so no pong). Half an old door which had a tap fixed to it (alas not plumbed in) is a beautifully carved oak panel door (photo tomorrow). Definitely worth restoring, if only the whole door was there.

My fingers are constantly full of bramble splinters, often deep tiny arrowheads only 1/2 to 1/4 mm long but painful. Usually I have to prod around with a needle, tears in my eyes, until I can get them out. Anyone know a way of encouraging them out less painfully?

Before going to the dump I finished half the remaining hurdle fencing to field no 2. Its amazing how much wood this uses.

In the afternoon I had visitors from Coumelary, one of the hamlets between Aleu and Quelebu. The extended family came to see the pigs and all my works. They were very complimentary of all my efforts. Claude turned up, so we all retired to Quelebu for l'apero. They're all looking for a young pretty french wife for me - hurry up is all I can say!

Philippe and Celine's neighbours, Alain and his family are also here at the moment, so Quelebu is full for the first time in many years.

Greenery

This morning after some clearing up of branches and rubbish left in the barn by the previous owners, I dug over the potato patch and planted out the crop. It was heavy work digging out the grid of fern roots and the temperature in the sun soared to 34 degrees! In the afternoon another thunderstorm.

At last the trees have burst into leaf.

Rhythm of Life

After over two years at Quelebu, mixing copius amounts of concrete and mortar, watering plants, washing cars, feeding pigs and chickens , I finally installed an outside tap today. No longer does it all have top be done from the kitchen sink! The car got a wash in celebration.

The first vegetables are in, three rows of onions, three rows of shallots and some french beans. Potatoes to follow shortly, plus some maize for the pigs.

The front garden (although it doesn't belong to me) and the rest of the land around the house got scythed today, so everywhere is looking very tidy. Whilst scything under the electric pig fence I managed to cut the wire, so that had to be mended before the pigs realised!

The pigs are growing fast and are quite friendly now. They follow me around and chase each other around the field. They generally sleep most of the day and feed in the afternoon and evening. Corbett had a tick on his neck but I pulled it off - it was the size of a pea so reckon it was about ready to let go anyway.

Today was a beautiful spring day (which equates to a summers' day in the UK) 30 degrees, sunny and still, with the heat lingering until 9.00 pm or so.

Life here is developing a new rhythm around the animals: up at 7.30 to feed pigs and let the chickens out, collecting eggs at 3.00 ish, feeding pigs again at 6.30, then closing the chickens up for the night at 8.00 (early dusk). They now put themselves to bed which saves chicken chasing. The cockerell is the loudest most incessent crower I've ever heard - fortunately the neighbours don't mind. At least the immediate neighbours, from the echo he can be heard in several neighbouring villages too!

Storm

A beautiful and hot day today (low thirties in the sun) ending with a thunderstorm, as has been the pattern over the past few days. Only as today was very hot, the storm was very big, with several strikes within 300m! The lightning doesn't bother the pigs, who are quite happy to go on grazing, oblivious to the storm around raging them- until the rain gets too heavy, then they retreat to the ark.

In the morning, I scythed all the brambles in field no 2 which are sprouting once again (this takes about 2 hours). I think this will be a weekly activity this year (for both of the cleared fields) if the brambles are to be eradicated. The grass and wild flowers are slowly colonising the field. A coarse tussucky grass seems to be the first grass to spread - I'm cutting this before it can seed but leaving the finer grass which I want to predominate. In several areas (the last to be cleared) the brambles and nettles reign. These areas are still covered in thick mulch of dead bramble stems, bracken stems, leaves and twigs, which I left in place over the winter to help prevent erosion. I decided that this was probably giving the brambles as unfair advantage, as it is difficult for the grasses to establish under this mulch. So today it was all raked into piles (16 in fact) and burnt. Hopefully the grass can get a foothold now there is a little bare soil.

The first of the vegetable patches is now ready for onions and shallots (plus some french beans later). A final sieving of the soil has left a fine tilth ready for planting tomorrow.

Pigs test the boundaries

This evening the pigs got out of the field. After a week in their new home and perhaps because I was 20 minutes later than normal with their evening meal (l'apero at Claudes) they managed to force their way through the hazel fencing. The food bucket soon had them back in the field and a single strand of electric fence inside the hazel should keep them there! I'll soon be moving them to the other field anyway but in the meantime I want them to stay put.

This morning I made more spars (ready for fencing) from the arisings of the hedge I layed. In the afternoon I finished the initial digging of the potato and maize patch - which was heavy going. The soil is very clayey, compacted and absolutely full of roots, most of which are 1-2" in diameter. This year is just a test to see how the soil is, next year after the pigs have turned it all over and fertilized it, operations will be on a larger scale.

Hedge laying

Up at the crack of dawn to lay the hedge between me and the pigs. The EDF cut some of it down about 18 months ago (because the power line runs overhead), but they just leave everything where it falls - a right mess. The brambles spread into the dead branches lying on the ground on either side of the hedge and before you know it there's an area of scrub where once there was a hedge. All is neat and tidy now and for the first time I can see the pigs, field and barn from the house.

In the afternoon, I finished the chicken's mobile run, had a couple of visitors keen to see the pigs and chickens, dug a vegetable patch for the french beans, tidied up all the piles of dead wood and brambles waiting to be burnt and played with the pigs.

The firebugs have come out for the first time.

All in all it was a lovely day today.

Rayburn weather

Yesterday I went to see Ian and Nina and Ian and I decided we would go ski touring today 'whatever'. At 6.00am awoken by the noise of the torrential rain we decided to postpone until Monday. It rained heavily until about 4.00...so a wise decision.

I lit the Rayburn for the first time in over week and cooked a Belgian dish (slow cooked) - Beef Carbonade. Very nice too, a mixture of sweetness from the caramalised onions and sourness from red wine vinegar and beer, all set off by a hint of coarse grained mustard.

Settling in

The animals seem to be settling in now. A full compliment of eggs today (4) and the pigs now come running when I enter the field and will happily follow me around. The pigs now have names - Barker and Corbett. Barker is bigger and dominant, I need to build them a 'mangoire' (currently they eat off the floor) and I'll have to give it two compartments with a screen between, as he often bullies Corbett away from the food. At the moment they're 'joined at the hip' but in time they should become a bit more independent. The pigs are digging over the field - need to get them in field No 2 soon, as it could do with some rooting up of the brambles which I scythed over today.

I spoke too soon about the fox. Tonight I heard one barking in the woods. As an extra precaution I've run a single strand of electric fence around the chicken run to stop any attempts to dig under the chicken wire.

Had planned to go ski touring with Ian tomorrow but the weather has deteriorated (raining) and won't improve until Sunday. Oh well, more time to plan the trip.

All well and accounted for

This morning the rooster came down from the tree after crowing like a siren. When the chickens finally emerged from the hen house they were all there so the one I thought was missing must have been in the nest box all the time. The run now has a roof and an evening rainstorm allowed me to shut them all in the hen house, so hopefully they'll settle now.

The pigs slept outside, but seemed none the worst for it. They slept most the morning too. They're slowly getting used to me.



Early this morning I watched a Pine Marten in the field. I have seen a lot of droppings that I thought were maybe those of a fox but I have never seen a fox a here and the droppings aren't quite right - now I know what they are. I think this predator is the main threat to the chickens. The photo above makes it look like a squirrel (in fact it eats squirrels) - the male is the size of a fox, but with shorter legs and more of a weasel like 'bounce' as it runs along.

Livestock

It was a frantic morning getting everything ready, but at last the animals have arrived.

The pigs are being very well behaved so far. I think it is their first time outside and it was great to see them exploring their new environment. It's also their first time with an electric fence and it was 50/50 whether after getting shocked they'd end up on the right or wrong side of the fence. They're getting the hang of it slowly.

The chickens on the other hand were fine until dusk. They're obviously used to roosting high up in a barn, so my 'low rise' accommodation wasn't appealing. Instead they lined up on the roof of the hen house and refused to go in. After some Benny Hill'esque chasing around the run they decided to show me that they could fly - out of the run (tomorrow it gets it's roof!). After about an hour it was totally dark. I managed to get three of them in the run, the rooster is in a tree and the fourth hen in AWOL. I just hope it comes back for food tomorrow. On the plus side I have 2 eggs.

Skiing

Skiing again in Baqueira as the weather was good and I can't make Judith work everyday!! The weather was just fantastic and we got there nice and early so we beat the rest of Spain who had come to ski. The resort is big so even with the hoards it never felt as busy as say 'the three valleys' in the Alps. Off piste the snow was truly great spring snow, almost as if it had been pisted.

Tomorrow fence building in the morning, before taking Judith back to the airport in the afternoon.

Pig ark

Judith is here for a few days (first time at Quelebu) so this morning we went for a walk around the valley and to Pentussa. I'm building a photo collection of all the wild flowers here and I found about 10 or so different species on our walk. It was a beautiful spring day with temperature in the sun peaking at 28 degrees.


In the afternoon Judith gave me a hand painting the pig arc blue whilst I finished off the roof.

Animal Farm

Double click the image to read the text on the hen house.

This morning I quickly put the finishing touches to the chicken run (a weather cock!) then set off in search of poultry. High above Seix I visited a little farm which I had been reliably informed had loads of poultry, including the much prized 'Cuckoo de Rennes' (talking of which I heard the first cuckoo yesterday). But alas he had none - the buzzard took them all (me thinks perhaps my run better have a roof!). I asked about pigs. (I had already asked the local butcher but he could only offer me carcases!) He suggested the guy I was going to see anyway in Galas - M. Alban Sentenac - but suggested he might have chickens too.

Onwards to Galas, just a few minutes drive from home. Once the family had all gathered I was taken to see the pigs. Black and very hairy and confined to the tiniest of dark 'cells'. The sow would have a litter which would be available in 2 months (ready to eat perhaps next spring). I hadn't planned on animals over the winter so asked if he had 'any' to sell. Out came 3 three month old porkers - I plumped for the two smallest. Cochon noir (I have since found out we call them Large Blacks or Cornish Blacks). Big, good mannered, grazers and a good outdoor animal. Then he showed me the boar. I think he said it was 4 or 5 years old. I can only describe it as a rhinocerous in an over size gorilla suit! I've seen smaller cars.

Next I asked about chickens - a barn door was opened and out came about 60 ducks and chickens. I said I'd take 4 hens and a cockerell.

All will be delivered early next week when I let him know I'm ready.

Meantime a hurried visit to St G to get foodstuffs, bedding, electric fence, etc. Then back home to try and finish the pig ark in double quick time. Not yet finished it and there's still 30 feet of hurdle fence to erect. With guests over the weekend I hope to be ready for receipt on Tuesday. It's kinda scary.

Chickens - but not yet

A day of snow, sleet and hale showers. But in between these I managed to finish the chicken run and I'm now ready to go in search of chickens!

The pig ark is also taking shape so hopefully it won't be too long before I can get them as well - just a few bits of fencing to finish.

For Julian

Thanks for the book Jules. These are for you.

Hen house

Well here it is, the new hen house complete with zinc roof. I found some old sheets of zinc in the outbuilding. Its based on one of the designs in the book DKA bought me when I left. The handles allow it to be moved around (sudan chair style). The roof slides forward to access inside, where you can slide the roosting perches and droppings shelf forward to access the nest boxes below and hopefully the eggs! Just need to finish an enclosure and I'm ready for the first livestock.

Skiing

I didn't go skiing yesterday (overslept) so I built the chicken house (more of that tomorrow) but today I DID go skiing. Just about everything at Baqueira is open and I had a good 7hrs of piste bashing. The weather wasn't too bad although from time to time the clouds would descend and in the ensueing white-out I'd get motion sickness.

It was the first real chance to try out the tourlite bindings and all the benefits of lightness for ascent aside, I prefer them for downhill over the Diamir/Fritschi binding. Perhaps it's because your foot is closer to the ski or maybe it's the different ramp angle - anyway I found my skiing improved in most respects with the new set-up.

Thaw

A beautiful clear and sunny day today which allowed much of the snow to start thawing. In the morning I designed a chicken house (portable for 4 -5 hens and a cockerel) and a pig house. In the afternoon I bought the materials for fabrication but that will have to wait as tomorrow I'm going skiing. The recent snow promises some spring touring so as I haven't skied since early December I reckon I better get some practice in!

Xmas present

Finally stopped snowing here. The kids from Pinsou came over for part 2 of their christmas present fabrication. After getting them to draw sea creatures last time, I cut them out of plywood and today they painted them. They have no idea what it is going to be yet. Of course I know...do you?

Snow, sleet and rain

Been an odd day today. Overnight the snow thawed a bit and during the day we've been on the cusp of the snowfall level - some rain, some sleet and some snow - some sunshine too. Replenished the log store in the morning and have updated my other websites to look more like the blog. A few new photo's too. See the links to the right of this post.

Break in the snow

A lull in the weather allowed a quick snow shoe through the woods and to the neighbours. Here are some photos.

For Philippe and Sophie...

Works update

After a quick trip into St G for more cement, here's the finished fireplace (the hearth is still drying hence two tone appearance).

Still snowing

Set to continue all Thursday as well...about a foot here so far (though with strong winds it's drifting around) and 3 feet on the high mountains .

Hearth update

It took 9 hours of disc cutting, hammering and chiselling to get through the tiny piece of stone I had to remove...then I remembered. Aleu's cottage industry for two centuries was finishing gritstones. The roughly shaped carborundum stones (for sharpening axes, scythes, knifes, etc) where brought here and the women would remove all the sharp edges by rubbing the stones against a certain rock that occurred here (presumably harder than the carborundum!). In fact there are few places on the river bank where you can see where they did this for many years and the rock has dished grooves in it. I think I found where this rock came from - my hearth!

And now the weather

Here's the weather

Its been like this for 2 days now and the forecast is for it to continue for at least two more...strange I was topless in the sun last week.

Snow and Granite

Well after some disk cutting and few hours of heavy work with lump hammer and bolster - tiny granite fragments and sparks flying in all directions - I've hardly scratched the surface! Man this rock is hard.

Looking at the geological map this rock doesn't exist here. However, I am very close (about a km or so) from a major fault caused by a granite pluton with contact metamorphism, so my guess is that this is a tiny hyperbyssal intrusion (probably a dyke) passing right under my house! Will probably have a look for evidence of it outside when the snow has gone.

Talking of which it is still snowing and is forecast to continue for the next couple of days. Ironically Guzet Neige my local ski resort decided to close for the season last weekend. It probably has more snow now than it has seen all winter!

Hearth

Snowing heavily here - 3" in about as many hours.

Decided therefore to rebuild the hearth which has been on my list of things to do when the weather is poor. As you can see it looks like a (bad) rockery and has an ugly metal pipe sticking out of the middle of it (an old air intake from when the fire was an open one).

This morning I planed up some old chestnut and built a facetted timber kerb and I've just started breaking out the old concrete and rocks. The left hand side disintegrated with a few hammer blows but the right hand side seemed more solid. In fact very solid - in fact its bedrock! Not only that it's microgranite, so there are no bedding planes or lines of weakness at all. Hmmm - dynamite anyone?

Look out for the barn door Ned!

Bought some old oak from the demolition yard in Touille and made a new mortice and tenoned door frame for the barn. Although the oak is old it was fantastic to work, it felt a shame I wasn't making a piece of furniture with it. I think it's the first time the barn has had a doorway for a very long time!

Traditional dress

This is the traditional dress for men from the next valley - looks very practical, but I'm not sure where to get the clogs.

Fencing

Another hot day. Today I built the fence in the photo (double click on the image if it's too small to see). Some of the wood came from the clearance of fields 3 and 4, I have had it stacked all winter for just this purpose. Of course it all had to be carried up from the woods which took 2 1/2 hours! Still a little more to do until the field is finally secure - perhaps I'll make my first gate?

Weather is set to turn wintry again next week - I knew once I'd packed my skis away this would happen!

30

Today it reached the magic thirty degrees. The day started with burning all the bonfires (14 of them) in fields 3 and 4, and some more scything to tidy up. A trip to St Girons to buy some more wire for fencing the new fields and some fruit trees - a pear and a cherry which I have planted in field 2. I didn't notice that these aren't self pollinating so I need to buy a couple more next time I go.

Got an e-mail from Jon and Paul who skied up the Roc d'Enfer. They sent me a photo on the grassy summit though they swear they skied up and down! If conditions improve here perhaps I'll get a day in the mountains - a ski tour or a gulley climb.

Spring

Over slept so didn't go skiing but it's been a beautiful day today. In the mid twenties. Spent the day tidying up the hedges and digging out the floor of the barn.

Jon and Paul are skiing in Morzine next week, they want me to join them but its a L O N G way. I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning. I need to go buy some pigs soon and I still have a sty to build!

Barn

Finished clearing around the barn today - logged enough wood for at least another winter maybe more and started fencing in the new fields. There's a lovely stand of birches, so I might try tapping some syrup when the sap begins to flow. Perhaps some photos tomorrow.

Will probably go skiing tomorrow as its possibly the last day that Guzet is open.

Retirement, self-sufficency and pioneering

It’s 7.15 and I’ve just got in from scything some of the new field. Whilst I was scything I was thinking about my life here and some of the comments I had from people in the UK when they asked about what I was doing. The word ‘retirement’ and ‘lucky’ came up quite a lot and I have come away feeling almost guilty. Have I retired? Definitely not!

In the UK I worked hard for long hours as an Architect, helping to build up a business and earned a good wage which allowed me to have good standard of living. The cost of living was expensive because everything I consumed had to be collected as a raw material, refined and processed, manufactured into something and probably advertised before I bought it from a retailer. This all costs money as does the transportation between each stage.

Here in France I work hard for long hours on a variety of tasks (at the moment mostly building, farming and forestry) trying to build up the basics of a self-sufficient small holding. I don’t earn a wage (though at the moment I have a modest income from letting my flat in the UK – planning not ‘luck’). I have a good quality of life. The cost of living here is low (and as the small holding develops this should decrease dramatically). Many of the things I consume here I can make from the raw materials e.g. my heating, hot water, and cooking comes from the Rayburn – this burns wood. I have to cut down the tree, saw it up, carry it to the house, split it and stack it, dry it for a year, then cut it to length to burn it in the Rayburn. This amounts to about 3-4 weeks hard work each year to keep everything running through the winter – in the UK I just paid an electricity bill and a gas bill. Some of my food comes from the woods but when the small holding is established I hope to be as self-sufficient as I am currently with the heating, hot water and cooking. Of course there will always be things I can’t make myself and will have to buy, so I will always needs a surplus to sell or barter with or another source of ‘top up’ income (which is what I spent the first 38 years of my life creating and continue to work at).

Here I’ve changed a high earn/high cost lifestyle for a low earn/low cost one, but maintained, in fact improved, my quality of life. I work just as hard but I find it more rewarding and varied.

I’m nowhere near self sufficient yet, at the moment I am ‘pioneering’ building my homestead, creating fields from forest, building a barn and the infrastructure for self- sufficiency. It’s hard work, definitely not ‘retirement’ and I doubt it ever will be.

Glad to be home

After a short trip to the UK I'm now back home and glad to be here. I like the UK less, each time I go. Still it's good to catch up with old friends, buy a few books and remind myself (as if I needed reminding) why I left.

Video test

After talking to kim at Ariege.com I've learnt a way to insert video clips into the blog which should liven things up a bit! Here is an old video clip of me ski touring with Paul Hadfield when the Pyrenees had snow! We're high on Pico Aneto in bad weather

Felling heavily leaning trees

Found this technique for felling heavily leaning trees in an Australian book and tried it today on a biggish tree (17" diameter) leaning at 45 degrees. Works a treat. The first time I've bored into a tree with the tip of the chainsaw bar. The tree falls quickly when you make the final cut, but under control with no splitting/barber chairing. Just one more big tree to fell to finish tidying up around the barn - maybe tomorrow, depends on weather.

Barn

After some clearing of the barn here are some nice details I've found:

Carved in the stone "fondee en Mai 1861"

Ventilation hole with ledge...or did it serve another purpose?

Granite stooling for the oak door frame.

And here are two of the chestnuts...the one on the left has some rot in the middle which was probably there prior to felling but the one on the right is sound. Both are exactly 100 years old.

Alaskan mill

This morning dawned clear and sunny with fresh snow on the mountains. A quick trip to St Girons and in the expats chat room aka 'Monsieur Bricolage' I bumped into an english couple who have just moved to the neighbouring village of Soulan - Mark is from Hereford (near where I grew up). Like most brits they've come here to escape the british...but its still good to ocassionally have someone to talk english too and bitch about home!

In the afternoon I cleared up around the barn. There are three enormous chestnut trees which were felled in 1999. They're mostly off the ground and although there's some decay I think they're big enough to still have a lot of good timber left in them for the barn conversion. It's certainly more sustainable to use timber lying next to the barn than buying some in - not to mention the fact that getting bought timber to the barn would be problematic. I reckon this project alone would pay for an Alaskan mill and a s/h chainsaw with a 28" bar, a ripping chain and plenty of guts! Additionally with this bit of kit I could make more use of the hardwood trees which fall in the storms here, rather than just burning them for firewood.

Chimney

The storm raged on until the morning, but it was a good test for the new chimney (it didn't blow over!). Though not exactly pretty, particularly as I currently still have the old chimney too, it is necessary for the new thatched roof.

Spent the rest of the day tidying up field 4, clearing the last few trees and general chainsaw work. Tomorrow rain is forecast but if it doesn't arrive I'll start installing fence posts.

Philippe and Sophie (my most ardent blog followers) have arrived from Paris and are staying with John and Sandrine, no doubt there'll be some more work on their project and maybe some more tree felling and firewood?

Vision for the barn

Another beautiful day today which allowed me to finish clearing the bottom terrace of field 4. In the afternoon a wind storm hit - a hot dry southerly wind but very strong - so I got to work preparing the submissions for the barn conversion and the re-thatching of Quelebu.

A home for the pigs?

Could this be the new home for the pigs plus somewhere to keep straw, hay and machinery, even a place to make sausages and hams? Watch this space!

Paul, Tracey and Luke...

...have headed for home after visiting for the weekend. Alas the house they came to see probably isn't for them.

Chimney

A little snow this morning at quelebu, then the sun came out and now its gone. The new chimney is finished and working (so far)...photos tomorrow. Paul, Tracey and their little son Luke arrive late tonight to look at a holiday home they might buy tomorrow.

Valley Ossese

The weather was much warmer today but we went in search of ice nonetheless. The mother of all ice falls awaits in the valley Ossese but today it was not to be.