the day the straw arrived

We started work at first light and didn’t finish `till it was nearly dark, stopping for breaks to eat heartily and rest when needed. An impressive team who learned on the job and exceeded all expectations, finishing what was originally thought of as a two day job before the day was through.

Everyone pulled their weight and more. Teams of builders, bale cutters and porters got to learn their roles fast and rotated jobs throughout the day.

Builders constructed the walls and measured the spaces that needed less than full bales to fill the gaps next to door and window frames.

Cutting teams divided bales into the required lengths using giant needles and lengths of twine. The spare sections were also retied and put to one side for use on later sections of wall.

Porters sorted through the mess of delivered bales, choosing the best shaped for direct use, slightly distorted ones for cutting and discarding damaged and damp bales that were unfit for use.

The building took shape incredibly fast, whole sections of wall finished even before the first break of the day. The straw bales stayed in place but were dreadfully unstable, especially the smaller sections. Giant wooden mallets were used to persuade the walls to take the required form, flat, horizontal and vertical with no inward or outward bulges, slopes or slants.

All sections of wall rose to the same height, spacers were inserted where necessary in preparation for later compression. Additional bales were piled up as steps making it easy to reach the higher levels, these steps were dismantled when finished with and used elsewhere or carted off and stored for later use.

As straw building neared completion, scaffolding was erected inside to help get the upper wooden framework into position. The combined teams were challenged to raise huge sections of framework and place them on top of the sections of wall. It had been prebuilt in sections and supposedly slotted together in a predetermined order. As with most things on such building sites it needed some minor adjustments. The walls continued to sway until the framework was joined together into a continuous band round the building. Only when it was all fixed together did the form become rigid and stable and safe to be left for any length of time.

As the light of the day faded, giant tarpaulins were used to cover the new structure and protect it from the rain. It is critical that the bales remain dry and with minimal humidity if they are going to last for centuries when the building is complete.

Finally the work was finished for the day, everything tidied away and there is time to celebrate a little. It has been a big goal and a massive day, but in the greater scheme of things only a tiny step in the makings of a house of straw. I am pleased to have waited for this day and thoroughly enjoyed working with such a great team of people on the project. Hopefully I will return to see the finished article one day, as now I am somewhere quite different.

night in the mountains

Gerome? what are you doing? this is my photo

the refuge, at last

'a table'

the view was much better in the morning

in both directions

Luca, Julian, Téo, Julian, Gerome, Catarina and Jemana

(hope the spellings are good)

The plan had been in place for the last month at least, but for one reason or another it had never happened. Julian and I had been talking about a weekend trek in the mountains with an overnight stay in a refuge, some good food, a bottle of wine and some good clean mountain air.

A couple of weeks ago we found just the place, so this weekend a group of helpers from the two building sites returned and did just that.

We started the weekend with a bbq on Friday night, probably not the best idea as such gatherings usually end in drinking too much and a late finish, this was no exception. We sat chatting round the fire until a good three a.m. before deciding that we really should get an ‘early’ night before heading for the hills.

Saturday morning started slowly with a leisurely breakfast and a long discussion as to what was going to be needed for the excursion. Food, drink, dry wood, as it had been raining for at least a week and the refuge was high high above the tree line, sleeping bags, water, the list went on and on. The party of eight split into two, half back to their accommodation to gather the necessary and the other half to town to shop. Rendez vous in town for a bite to eat and a beer is always the done thing before such an adventure.

We managed to leave the cars and start walking just before four in the afternoon. Not bad as it is nearly mid summer and it only took us two and a half hours to reach the refuge last time. Six thirty should be fine to get settled in to the refuge, check out the lake and surroundings before settling down for a relaxing evening. It was cloudy but pleasant and everyone was in good spirits.

It took four and a half hours to reach the refuge for a multitude of reasons, much heavier back packs, less fit walkers, a different route and a thick fog that enveloped us two thirds of the way up. The fantastic views were non existent and everyone was either wet from the outside in by the fog or by sweat from the inside out. It was great to get a fire lit and a bit of warmth in the cabin.

Three sets of bunks for eight, not bad, apart from the fact that two beds were already reserved, a father and son who had arrived earlier. I was just thankful that it was only two and not another party of eight or more. Imagine.

Two slept on the floor and we pushed the remaining bunks together, three sharing each level, it was only for one night and after a good meal, a few beers and that climb, no one was in a position to complain. We got a glimpse of the mountains, lit by moonlight, as the clouds cleared and a fit of the giggles just before retiring for the night. Getting to sleep has never been so amusing, there was no language barrier, as no one said a word, it was just one of those amusing experiences. You probably had to be there to know.

Sunshine greeted us, we must have slept well as it was gone eight when we stirred. Another fire was lit for coffee, yes, we even took a percolator. Bread sausage and cheese breakfast and for a couple of hardy souls a dip in the lake. It was truly freezing just to wash in, so I have the utmost admiration for those that went further.

A leisurely Sunday ahead of us, most of the group headed further up the valley in search of another lake. We climbed for another hour and a half, much easier without carrying anything and found no additional water. Some late drifts of snow, an amazing array of wild flowers, it taxed my brain somewhat to find their names, but, as ever, fascinating to see plants that I have sold for so many years in pots in garden centres, outside in their wild and natural environment. Signs of Marmots and Isards, but not the real thing and expended enough energy to be hungry again.

We finished but all of the provisions we had hauled up the mountain for lunch before gathering our belongings and heading back off down the hill. There must have been a good twenty people picnicking by the lake when we left. Imagine how crowded that cabin might have been had it not been foggy the afternoon before. Lucky stars and all that......

The descent was beautiful, we profited from lightly clouded blue skies and views of lush high pasture, mountain slopes of scree, rock slides and occasional patches of forest. Lower down, the remains of ancient summer villages that the farmers used back in the day, more frequent hurds of sheep and cattle and the rushing, babbling stream hurrying all that melted snow quickly down the mountain to be used again. (If you need help with that one, google “water cycle”) Somewhere within the group a discussion started, and although almost everyone is leaving for pastures new during the coming week, it was decided that next time we will start on Friday evening and spend the whole weekend in the hills. But that is for next time....

the other house of straw

just foundations

frames for windows and doors

protected from the weather

after work

I haven’t really written about the other house, but as we construct the house of straw here, there is another project not that far away that is just starting to take shape. The two owners share their projects, help, expertise, knowledge, wwoofers, helpXers etc by working on each others properties for half of each week.

It all works really well and with a great group of helpers the days fly by, big communal meals at lunch time, the sharing of stories and plans of the future, (I already have some incredible neighbours for when I buy my plot of land here) great discussions and two pre decided teams for football, basket ball and all those other games that we play after close of play in the afternoons.

To date all the work there has been in preparation for the arrival of the straw. Completion of foundations, the wooden pre straw base, frames for windows and doors, the potager to keep everyone well fed and from time to time work on the lunch preparation team. Imagine the amount of grief I got from fourteen french people when they discovered that someone english was going to cook them lunch. Thankfully the meal that Téo and I delivered was a complete hit and is talked about till this day.

There is much excitement as, after weeks and weeks of delay due to the unpredictable weather, the straw arrives tomorrow. Six o’clock start there, so breakfast at five fifteen latest. It’s going to be an interesting one.

wonderful weekend

modeling pizza dough pants

hot off the press

pizza making implements and brand new oven

that's old, that one

potager revisited

Wonderful weekend with Vanessa and Lisa even though they were in mid flow preparing for a parental visit followed by their landlord and his mother, so as you can imagine it wasn’t as chilled as it often is in Charlas.

Never the less I had a great time, as I do helping friends out and enjoying getting things done. Waking Ziggy the dog morning and evening through fields of sunflowers and sweet corn. Fixing things. Communal weeding and a good chat with lots of tea breaks is as enjoyable for me as a weekend visiting museums and galleries. That coupled with lots of spicy ‘english’ food and a good bit of rubbish television was a real treat after two months of uber healthy living in the mountains.

The real treat was held back to my last day, as it had only just been built and needed a bit of time to dry out. Home made pizza cooked in a home made clay pizza oven. It was the best. I have to build one of these when I get settled as it was marvelous. When I arrived Lisa was removing the sand form that supports the clay dome during construction, so it was literally the first time that the oven had been used. How cool was that.

bagneres de bigorre

Ferme de la Coume.

Home made cheeses, vegetables and plants for the garden.

All grown the biodynamic way.

Patience is the mother of all virtues

Bread always tastes better when you know the baker

I would love one, but I have left so many behind in the past, I think that

I'll just keep my beenie for the time beeing.

This could be my next local town,

if I keep thinking the way I am thinking at the moment.

Will have to see what happens..........

or is it all a dream?

Une serre fait maison A homemade greenhouse

C’est un serre fait maison. Seul le polyéthylène a été acheté. Ils ont utilisé le bois de la ferme, les piquets en châtaignier et les branches longues des noisetier, la ficelle est la ficelle des bottes de paille qu’ils ont utilisé pour la maison. Elle marche comme une serre qui a coûté beaucoup d'argent.

It’s a home made greenhouse. Only the polythene was specifically purchased. They used wood from the farm, chestnut fence posts, long stems of hazel, the same string that is used to the bind bales of straw that have been used for the house.

Même la porte et la fenêtre ont été construites avec les matériaux trouvés sur place. Deux ou trois vis et une longeur de fil, plus du bois et du polyéthylène, et c'est tout.

Even the door and window were made from things found on the building site. Two or three screws another length of string, some wood and an offcut of polythene, that’s all.

J’apprend la méthode pour le faire en ce moment, parce que la famille a besoin d’une deuxieme serre. Je la construis avec les autres qui restent ici pour aider la famille et pour apprendre les méthodes d'une vie eco.

I am learning how to do it at the moment as the family needs a second greenhouse. I am constructing it with some of the other helpers who are here to help the family and learn ecological methods.

Nous avons ramassé les tiges de noisetier dans la fôret à la main. C’est important de chosir les branches qui sont bien droites et très longues parce que chaque joint utilise plus de ficelle et beaucoup de temps pour le faire. On doit faire attention aussi de bien nettoyer les tiges de toutes les petites branches et choses pour bien protéger la polyéthylène, sa prend beaucoup de temps aussi.

We harvested the hazel branches from the forest by hand. It is important to choose very straight and long branches as each joint needs more string and takes time. Attention must be paid to ensure that the branches are cleaned of all pretruberances as they will damage the polythene, that is very time consuming too.

C’est bon de trouver les nouvelles utilisations pour les vieilles choses. On a utilisé les vieilles chambres à air, coupé en bandes pour attacher les tiges ensemble. Le caoutchouc ne glisse pas, il se tire bien et les noeuds sont très facile à faire.

It’s good to find new uses for old things. We are using old inner tubes cut into strips to bind the branches. The knots are easy to tie, they don’t slip and the rubber stretches to hold things good and tight.

Après trois jours de travail, la grande structure est presque complète. Il reste encore des tiges horizontales, les branches diagonales et les portes avec leurs encadrements: toutes les choses compliquées qui demandent beaucoup de réflexion. C’est bon de travailler sur l’autre chantier pour quelques jours. Le temps de penser.

Three days into the project the main structure is complete, just a few horizontal lengths, diagonal braces, then the doors and their frames to add. All the complicated parts that take time to think about. I’m glad that we are working at the other building site for the next few days.

variables

endless discussions

trying out ideas

polytunnel challenge

polytunnel challenge two

challenge two at the end of the day

The car boot sale was great, just the same as in the UK, although more commercial sellers, the biggest surprise was the amount of money they expected for everything. Items that I would have paid 50p or a pound for back home had tags of four or five pounds. I guess that the french just like the thought of doing car boot sales more than selling off their junk. Needless to say I bought nothing for myself and only a couple of pie dishes to ensure that the desserts keep coming every evening. There have been a few breakages since I got here and ovenware suitable for pies and cakes had become a bit thin in the ground.

A varied week in almost every respect. The weather has been from blue skies and sweltering sunburningly hot to thick “Devon” mist, the cold and damp sort that doesn’t feel too bad but after half an hour outside you are soaked to the skin and freezing cold, torrential rain, blustery winds that shook the caravan all through the night and dispersed well weighed down polythene sheeting across several fields, now it is cold and crisp, I am sitting with four layers on and a wooly hat and my fingers are still cold, the sun is up and it will certainly warm well for the day.

Work wise, two very frustrating days trying to work out how to fit the very expensive, brand new, wooden framed, double glazed windows into the support frames that will hold them in place whilst the straw bale walls on the other house are built. They arrived with detailing that differed to what was expected so they wouldn’t fit flush into their housing. Plenty of discussions and trials and abandonments and more discussions and adjustments...... they have to fit as airtight as possible to keep out the draughts, ideally removable during construction so that they don’t get damaged, using as eco friendly materials (that are cheap and readily available here in the back of beyond) finished quickly before the straw arrives and all in french.

A much better day helping a neighbour erect a large steel frame polytunnel in a field, that, thankfully was a hot sunny day, so hot in fact that the steel bars became too hot to handle without gloves on during the afternoon. We got the majority constructed between six of us and managed several beer breaks and a slap up four course barbecue meal at lunchtime too. New french voices and another dose of the thick accent of the region, not to mention all those new words to figure out without a dictionary.

Here, a varied couple of days mass weeding in the potager, its amazing how much gets done when there are suddenly eight people going for it for an hour or so. Tomato seedling planting, seed watering and general garden guidance. Another greenhouse challenge, sorting out a newly started wooden frame polytunnel that had been started a week or so ago and will soon be needed for pepper, aubergine and the rest of the tomato plants. A challenge for team UK, Simon, another english guy and I eventually took the whole thing apart and started again which probably wasn’t what Pierlo wonted to see. I think he would have preferred a finished product although the structure we are now in the midst of construction should eventually be sturdier and longer lasting than the original. Another first for me, going into the woods to harvest enough sticks to build a polytunnel, cleaning them so that there are no pointy bits to damage the plastic outer, then tying them all together in a uniform shape just like a shop bought one. There is always a way to do these things and we’ve found an excellent use for the box of old innertubes that has been hanging around for ages. Then an urgent reutilisation of our skills to help the plastering team finish their task before the week came to an end, the last afternoon inside, damp and covered in clay again, I thought that I might have escaped mud for a week but then again, that is what I came here to experience.