roundhouse update

lime rendered and ready to go

Matty posted a photo of the roundhouse with render so I’ve nicked it for my blog.  It looks magnificent.

Weatherproof yet breathable, quick drying (compared to clay) lime and sand render, two coats, now all he needs is a door, some windows, a floor, some lighting, furniture..... still a way to go then.

roundhouse straw bale walling

No, not another holiday trip, though it has been quite a change of scenery.  I have been helping my friend Matty with his roundhouse.  It’s already something rather special and is going to be stunning when finished.  He has built it all by hand, mostly on his own, with the help of a few knowledgeable friends and that is where I come in.  He asked me, a month or so ago, if I’d be available to give him a hand with placing the bale walls.  I jumped at the opportunity to learn more as it will stand me in good stead for my own construction project and it’s always good to give someone a hand when possible.

Hence, for the last ten days we’ve been flat out preparing for and building the walls to his roundhouse, I think the photos explain most of what we’ve been doing, though not life around where we are building.... read the next post

Matty arriving with the first of many bales

foundation wall and baseplate for straw bale walls

spikes to hold bales in position next to doorway

second row of bales in position, window frames installed

hand made window frames

view from outside through one of the windows to the domed rooflight 

straw bale walls from the inside

initial straw bale work completed.  what a team

we holidayed as well

We dined with my new neighbours, spent a morning browsing an antiques and collectibles fair, had a mini trip to Spain through the Pyrenees to stock up on cheap wine and food with a tapas lunch.  A night back at Chalet Lou Rider courtesy of my friend Pierre who is now caretaker for the new owners, with a gentle stroll in the mountains where we picnicked and enjoyed a stupendous view in the sunshine. 

As Peter leaves, the major build is complete, leaving me roof insulation to figure out a few bits of trim and then the instillation of woodburning stove.  All projects that I can attack on my own.  It’s been brilliant to have him here to help, we’ve got on fabulously, as ever and enjoyed getting things done.  Dad too has kept us on the ball, helping as much as he could and adding his suggestions and advice throughout the build.  It’s been great having them here and after the initial shock everything went wonderfully well, Dad taking everything in his stride.  What an excellent ten days.

foundations

My brothers arrival was imminent and he was due to help erect a wooden cabin that I had ordered before my departure to England.  I was ill prepared on my arrival back, though had taken the time, en route, to order wood, gravel and cement in order to construct the foundations.

To minimise expenditure and environmental impact I decided to support a wooden subframe on several concrete filled tyres as a foundation for my build.  I obtained used tyres, for free, at a local garage, and filled them with a mixture of large stones gathered on site and a hand mixed concrete.  The wooden frame would sit on top and match the footprint of the building on order.  I had dimensions and a plan, but it was all a bit of a guess.

Additionally I decided to dig some drainage channels under the site as it was rather boggy, even in mid summer, to minimise the dampness during the winter and hopefully keep the chalet as dry as possible.   I reused some of the broken roof tiles in the drainage channels and they cost nothing apart from a bit of muscle power to install.  A couple of additional pipes were added as drains for a possible shower and kitchen sink, but that is for the future.

The chalet duly arrived.  Two huge parcels wrapped on white polythene, measuring 5 plus metres in length and weighing just shy or 2000Kg.  I had been assured that delivery onto the site would be no problem, but one look at my driveway access and the truck driver decided that it was a definite NO!!  He left the huge packages on the side of the road and I braced myself for an arduous day of moving the whole lot by hand.  The access was too steep, not wide enough and totally inadequate for the 4x4 all terrain forklift that I had been promised by the guy in the sales office.  

Lady Luck was looking on, my neighbouring farmer passed me as I as surveying the delivery and promised to return with his tractor and forks the following morning to see if he could help.  He could, and within half an hour the the materials were in position, ready for construction when my brother arrived.

In the mean time I was hastily preparing for his arrival.  Peter, for those of you who don’t know my family, was due to arrive at Toulouse airport a couple of days later.  I had erected a tent and in one end installed his room complete with proper bed, bedside table and reading lamp (courtesy of a solar model from IKEA)  The rest of the tent became tool store, kitchen and dining area. (I really must take photos of this before it is disbanded.) and my life changed for the better overnight.  Percy became a tranquil retreat, comfortable, warm and cosy.  A place to relax and sleep after a hard day’s work without having to cope with cooking meals and dealing with wet and dirty clothes when the weather was inclement.  He was much happier and so was I.

delivery, not exactly where I had imagined........

I love my new neighbours

drainage under the foundations

pillar supports for the new chalet

all in place and ready to construct

and she's up

moving a house

 Two weeks in for me, the rest of the team have spent much longer preparing the foundations and much of the wood that we have been working with, and the framework is completed and ready to put up.  It all appears to be a bit fast, but the woodsman is sure it’s all OK and is keen to get on.  Each section is loaded onto a trailer and ferried across a field and down a country track to the building site where it is reconstructed.

ready to lift

The tractor then hoists each frame upright and it is temporarily secured in position with numerous cross braces.  Sounds easy, but with each part weighing a good eight hundred kilos, it is no mean feat to get each one in exactly the right position, ready to receive the rest of the precut timbers to complete the framework.  A centimeter out of place and the whole building will be compromised, there isn’t much room for error.

keeping the posts in position

adding temporary support

a little mechanical help

 Two days later and it looks like a house, well, from certain angles at least.  The frames looked tiny when they were lying on the ground in a huge field, but now, upright, they’re massive, much larger than the house itself, as it has a rather interesting design.  You can see from the photos, the roof extends way further than the verticals that will eventually become the walls.  The idea is to have a wrap around terrace that circumnavigates the house, allowing shelter from the sun, rain or wind on whichever side provides the most comfort.  

With the timbers it looks a bit top heavy, but I imagine that it will evolve into something rather stunning.  I’m part tempted to copy.  I won’t, but will certainly develop some of the ideas, isn’t that partly why I’m here?  To learn, discover and improve on the ideas that I already have, before I start on my own.

all up and secure

nestling into the landscape

wooden framework

Two weeks in already, time is flying and I’m partly wishing that I could stay here for ages and see this project advance much further than I will be able too. Mainly though, I am excited to be getting closer and closer to the magic date when my own project can start in earnest.

It’s great to be working on a project with a good team of knowledgeable people who know what they are doing, with plans to be followed and a decent amount of organisation.  The foundations are already in place, we took off the formwork last week and since then have been flat out building the five  wooden structures that will hold the weight of the building. 

foundations

 It’s been touch and go with the weather as its been cold and showery, but progress has been swift between the showers.  I am now becoming expert at using a router, a drill like machine that we are using for cutting notches in all the beams and rafters so that they hold together and for supporting the rest of the structure once it is in position.  Hopefully this will become clearer once the structure is upright and the next stage is underway.

We’ve spent the last ten days or so constructing five very similar structures, all slightly different, from massive lengths of timber.  The wood comes direct from the saw mill which, fortunately, is a stones throw from the building site, tree trunks are fed in at one end and our pieces, along with an impressive quantity of waste, comes out the other end, directly to where we are building the forms.  A lot of the offcuts are resized for planks and smaller posts, the rest is being rescued for building raised beds for the garden.

the sawmill

one of our beams

Our timbers of varying dimensions are then cut precisely, fitted together with varying joints and marked to ensure that they are complete before they are transported to the building site.  It involves a lot of maneuvering, sawing, cutting, planing and moving, just as I wanted, an opportunity to improve my carpentry skills, it’s great.  Everything is now done for this stage of the build.  

technical bits

even more technical bits

Next week the frames be transported, reassembled in site and lifted into position, bolted into position and then we’ll immediately see the outline framework of a new house.  It’s going to be an exciting week.

In the meantime, when the weather has been less kind, there’s been plenty to keep us occupied indoors.  Swaan and Bert are starting a new venture at the same time as building, to keep money coming in.  Making biscuits.  There’s a cute little building in the village that they’ve rented and turned into a ‘biscuiterie’ so we go there and get stuck into baking.  It’s a completely new project that’s been going for just a couple of weeks and a great opportunity get warm and dry out from time to time.  (the weather has turned much colder than it was a month ago, the usual upside down spring that were becoming accustomed to)

two frames nearing completion

revisits to Nic and Brigitte and on....

And then to Nic’s for a week, more of a catch up visit and to see how he’s getting on with the various projects that he has on the go.  I haven’t been to the tower for a couple of years so it’ll be interesting to see the changes.

In fact Nic has been concentrating on another property he has in the village with the idea of selling it on to finance further developments of the main building, that way he can do it properly without scrimping to get decent materials.  He has spent most of his time refurbishing the house, which is coming close to being ready to go on the market.

It has been a great week,  sorting out the ground outside and sowing grass seed for a lawn, scraping ceilings in preparation for a coat of paint, putting up stair banisters.  He enjoys me being here as I take over the kitchen and give him a good break from cooking, which he finds tedious and struggles with inspiration for meals.  I’ve loved throwing together meals with minimal ingredients on an ever more healthy theme.  Each time I visit, we find that our knowledge of food has increased and we both err towards a more natural, home produced diet.  This time cows milk products have been struck off the list, goat and sheep cheeses and yoghurts are still allowed, the reasoning being that unless very locally produced, the poor cows are now fed an increasingly unnatural diet of grains, industrial food processing waste, live inside for most of the year and are kept going with antibiotics and a range of productivity enhancing drugs.  The natural grass diet of a cow is becoming a rarity rather than the norm.

Enough of that for now.

I continue writing ten days later, having not had chance to use the wifi before moving on.  

The last week at Brigitte’s was wonderful, so nice to return and help a lovely lady and good to see that she is well on the mend after a winter of illness.  The aim was to help get the garden up and running again, but I was beaten to the post by Gareth who had arrived earlier in the year for a couple of weeks  but has decided to stay, almost indefinitely by the sounds of things, and is busy settling into the region.  

Gareth is a great gardener and he’d gotten most of it under control, a botanist by training and brilliant at wild plant foraging, so as you can imagine, our conversations were in-depth, endless and fascinating for the two of us, both learning loads from each other.  I don’t think I have eaten so many different wild plants in such a short period ever, mainly a tasting, but occasionally more of a meal, including the ever popular nettle soup and several almost completely wild salads.  

We got on and did several jobs that were much easier done with a couple of pairs of hands.  Replacing the roof on a sun terrace awning, clearing and strimming an enormous patch of semi wild land near the property and burning loads of garden waste, chatting on for most of the time. A third helper arrived too, Trina, a canadian, who helped out more with spring cleaning and sorting out the cellar and summer house whilst I was there.  It was as interesting week language wise, with Brigitte and I being accustomed to speaking french to each other whilst Gareth and Trina in the early learning stages, we swapped back and forth between english and french continually which was great for everyone.  

I was sad to leave after a week, two or three would have been much more agreeable, but I was on a promise and have had a long long drive to get where I am now.  It’s not that far on the map, as the crow flies, but climbing mountain roads takes time in a van like Percy, going up is slow and down is no better, gently does it so as not to overheat the breaks - it smells terrible and is slightly worrying when smoke billows from the wheels when you stop, so a low gear is more the order of the day.  1200m was the first pass then a long descent before climbing almost immediately to 850m and down again.  

I’m somewhere in the Ardeche, south of Lyon, high in the hills with marvelous views, helping a Belgian family build their first ever straw bale house that has only just begun.  I’ll tell you more next time......

finding things

Perhaps it’s time to change tack a bit here on the blog, focus a bit more on lifestyle than travel as I appear to be settling down for a while.

I’ve spent plenty of time in Vieuzos on the land, musing and dreaming and trying to decide what to do, how, when and in what order.  Until I am actually there I don’t think I can really get stuck in, but I have made some interesting discoveries.

There are an amazing variety of plants growing in this abandoned plot, a good few of them good forager fare:

nettles

dandelion

hairy bitter cress

I tried to get a close up but it obviously didn’t work.  So here’s a link to a fascinating blog that explains how it can be used and has some helpful pictures to help with identification  http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/huntergathering_wild_fres/2013/01/hairy-bittercress-pesto.html

lime

beech

fig

apple

pear

sloe

elder - flower and of course berry

wild strawberry

blackberry (a few too many)

to name a few.

I really must make a list and make sure that they are well used in season.

Another time I started clearing the brambles a bit, in the hope of finding some hardstanding to put a shed on.  I chopped and pulled at branches for several hours, though with the amount of fallen debris, had difficulty in reaching solid ground.  I did, however find the remains of a car, some pig sties and enough abandoned knick-knacks to start a museum.....

pig sties

a date

I have a date.

No, a date for signing the initial agreement for my land.  Not a date date, though that would be good too.

On the 26th february I shall visit the notaires office, pay a deposit and sign the agreement to buy.  The discussions with the neighbouring farmer have been formalised and are now legally binding, the owners are still keen to sell and the date is getting closer.  I am so excited.

I’m not entirely sure which way to turn or what to do first/next or in what order or when.  So I started with a list, this is now a list of lists and is gaining some semblance of order.  I’m not concerned yet about how it will pan out, I am trying to get as many thoughts down on paper as I can, so that as my thoughts evolve the order can be changed and things added and moved as a timescale becomes apparent. 

Thankfully I’m being kept busy with the move, otherwise time could be passing rather slowly.   I’m learning plenty there too, namely, to throw unnecessary things away, declutter and keep life simple.  Their collection of belongings is an enormous gathering from previous houses and marriages.  Things that have been packed away in the rush of moving last time and never  since sorted, they move again with the same promise and join more belongings from parents and items, the story goes on. Plan ahead so things don’t need moved several times, pack non essentials well in advance to lessen stress in the weeks before moving and remember that everything takes longer than expected.  

I get to escape to the garden too, preparing the veggie plot, pruning and tidying and planting the seemingly never ending trickle of plants that keep arriving.  I’ll be back when the time is right later on for a few cuttings and divisions when they have had time to grow.

My latest reading is a book on Permaculture gardening, the subject is fascinating and turns on it’s head much of the theories that I learned back at horticultural college all those years ago.  I’m not sure that I’ll be following every morsel of advice, but know for sure that things’ll be done differently than before once I get going.  When I put learning into practice, I’ll be letting you know.  For the moment all that is growing is my beard.

It's starting well, 2014

I know, I know, it’s been over a month since I last wrote and I am starting to get emails from close friends checking that I am OK.  Yes, all is well with me, I’ve just been rather busy and not often with internet access.  

The second week of January, I stayed with my good friend Pierre in the mountains, we skied twice, went out on racquets in the snow and generally enjoyed a few cold and sunny days in winter wonderland, though, after November the scenery wasn’t quite as spectacularly snowy.  We even spent a day at Chalet Lou Rider with Clare and her team which was great.  A really good crowd, great fun, but with all that is going on with my land purchase, I am glad that I’m not there this year. 

On that front, things are progressing slowly.  Problems with a farmer neighbour (involving the present owner) have been sorted and all that is needed now is a reply to a legal letter confirming the outcome.  I met the farmer a couple of weeks ago and we have agreed ongoing rights of passage and his use of part of my future land, for an indeterminate period of time, this is an additional area that the present owners are pleased to sell rather than the initial plot.  

For two weeks I have been working flat out with a semi professional team, endeavoring to finish the ground floor plastering of Pierlo and Sandrine’s house as quickly as possible due to a change in family circumstances..  I’ve helped them periodically during the last four years and when I discovered that their son, Jules, had been in a swimming accident last autumn and is still quite disabled, decided to lend a hand.  He suffered an apnea attack as he dived into the pool and was without air for some time before he was rescued.  His lungs did not fill with water, so he had not drowned, but still, spent a couple of months in a coma.  He is slowly gaining his senses, movement and comprehension, but it appears that it may take several years before he returns to some sort of normality.  A huge shock and life changing for the family.  They hope to get Jules home as soon as it is in a fit state to receive him and a great group of friends are rallying round to give support. I’ll no doubt be back to help from time to time, but for the moment have committed myself to another project.

I am back with Cherry and Chris, where I stayed over Christmas and the New Year, where I planted over a hundred trees in the autumn and house sat on a couple of occasions.  They move house at the start of March and have an enormous list of chores.  The offer of £££ for extra hours was a tempting one, so I am working more than full time for them till the end of the month.  The new house is in the process of being renovated and will be no where near ready , so I shall be heading back to  give Pierlo a hand when I finish here.

Looking further into the spring, hopefully I will have signed for the purchase of the land by then, I have 2-4 months for searches and official paperwork before completion.   There are already three possible straw bale building projects available that want help (more arrive as we get closer to spring) and with Percy at the ready I am easily able to move from place to place to head off and lend a hand, learn still more skills and better formulate how I plan to proceed.  Hopefully the current owners will allow me to plant a vegetable plot during the transition period so I am not too far behind with the season and then in early summer there is the possibility of a 6 day professional course in straw bale building near La Rochelle.  I can use the trip north to visit other friends on route and then head back to the UK for Percy’s MOT and a long awaited visit.

Not sure how it’s all going to pan out and in what order it’s all going to happen but its going to be a challenging, exciting and demanding year.  I am almost bursting with anticipation and am finding it difficult to hold back on planning and getting stuck in to my next chapter.  I must be patient and bide my time until the formalities are over.  There’ll be plenty of time afterwards for it all to unfold.

snow capped Pyrénées

winter sunset

my current abode

Suzy, the bestest french dog I know

stripey

Suzy

newly planted beech hedge

the new residence

more land?

Having Percy is great, I can just head off for the day and do as I please, without begging or, borrowing a car or trying to work out how to get to the middle of nowhere with public transport.  I visited another couple of agencies, one of which had nothing and the other that showed me a possible three plots.  We went, another day, to visit them, though nothing so far rates nearly as highly as the plot with the ruins and the old oak trees.

not bad, facing SSE, with a stream passing one side, sloping

looking back up the plot.  Half the field only

a NO even before I got out of the car

another NO.  3Ha with a tiny building plot 300 m away in the village

I visited the town hall in the village where my favourite bit of land is to ascertain how certain it was that planning permission would be granted, the lady mayor was great but couldn’t give me a definitive answer but directed me to the local planning office and hour and a half away.  I headed there after making a phone call to make sure that there would be someone to see me.  I arrived and the person wasn’t there after all.  The receptionist made me an appointment for early the following morning so I stayed over in Percy, saving myself a ‘there and back’ for nothing and got to check out the heating properly for the first time.  Temperatures got down to minus seven overnight but I stayed snug and warm, bothered only by the hum of the fan blowing warm air into the van.  

The visit was worthwhile.  The planning officer could see absolutely no reason why any but the most unimaginable of plans be passed for this plot of land.  I can rest easy now, with no concerns to do with planning.  He even told me where to go to get free advice on design and how to present the plans without using an architect.  Now I need to make the next steps.

27 november

November 27th. A day, this year, that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to.  In the past it had been a day of celebration, my Mothers’ Birthday, a day that I always tried to be at home for, but as she had passed away earlier in the year I was not so sure how I would feel at this time.  Additionally I had a dental appointment for a wisdom tooth extraction and the weather was foul.  Just warm enough to be raining but bitterly cold, windy.  What a day it was going to be.

Percy managed the descent without so much as a shudder and felt much better on flatter ground.   I had time to stop in at the estate agents to discuss the land with the ruins that I had seen before and clarified a few points.  Suffered the french dentist with much less pain and discomfort that I had been led to believe (the noise of the tooth leaving the jaw bone was the worst part) and some excellent advice - to take pain killers  as the anaesthetic wears off before the onset of pain as it is easier to keep the pain at bay than to dissipate it after it has arrived.  I dislike taking pain killers, but on this occasion was more than happy to take his advice and it worked a treat.  

Slightly numb, I revisited the land at Vieuzos, with the huge oak tree, discovered the real site of the well, with it’s huge concrete safety cover, located more fruit trees and paid much more attention to the ruins and their possible future uses.  The space felt good again, better in fact than the first visit, it is ticking loads of boxes and has character, something that most of the plots I look at lack, definitely one to persue further. The rain held off whilst I visited and later in the day, rays of sunlight streamed through a distant gap in the clouds, illuminating the hazy landscape beneath, as if angels were shining lights from above, letting me know that life was rosy on the other side.  I continued north for a while, aiming for my good friends Vanessa and Lisa in their new abode to see how the renovations were coming along and to help with the planting of two hundred trees.   All in all a much better day than I had expected.

it's in ruins

So that’s a ‘no’ for all those plots that have brought me to the conclusions above, which is all but one of them I have visited so far. This last one, for the time being, is holding my imagination.  A third of a hectare, with three ruins of buildings, a huge oak and several fruit and nut trees.  Views to the south and west, over an inhabited valley with the mountains in the distance.  Space for a house and barns, a big garden, polytunnel, chickens and maybe even a goat.  There is a well, water, phone and electricity not that far away, along with neighbours and a little village.  

spot the distant mountains

a right proper ruin

and another one

beautiful oaks

plenty of space for veggies and chickens

boundary on the left with village beyond

I’d love to go and visit again, but for the time being, Percy is in the garage.  His exhaust pipe has rusted through and driving anywhere draws everyones attention. The noise is unbearable.  I spoke to the garage last Friday, but Ford don’t take parts orders on Friday afternoons here!! Monday was Armistice Day, so all was quiet and on Tuesday the part was ordered, promised for Wednesday, it is now Friday and has yet to arrive.  Patience required; I’m just happy to be staying with a good friend, Pierre, the baker who I met and skied with last season.  He’s happy of the company and chance to speak english, after 18 years in England he has a better accent than me, loves explaining the intricacies of the french language.  We’ve been out walking, cut wood for the stove, made soups, baked cakes, for after the village Armastice speech (attended by almost everyone in the village 25 inhabitants) made christmas puddings and mincemeat, collected chestnuts to make purées and desserts, watched french TV (a rarity for me).  I’ve spent hours and hours trawling through estate agent listings on the internet and made myself a good and proper list of visits.  It’s been good being here.

Friday evening and finally I have caught up with myself.  I am writing now, about today.  The garage called today and Pierre took me down to get Percy through the snow.  All fixed, managed to get back up to the village at 800m in the twilight, everything white and the snowflakes seemingly flying straight at the windscreen the whole time.  Great slabs of snow keep sliding and crashing down of the roofs there is the smell of woodsmoke in the air and even though the snow is blowing in the wind there is a certain stillness in the air.  Winter has arrived.