Ecorenovation in Normandy

Monday, 2 November 2015

Wwoofer - Ariana Nicolson

Ariana stayed for a couple of weeks in November this year. She is an 18 year old from North Carolina who is deeply involved in the climate justice movement. She brought her sharp intelligence and enthusiasm for learning and threw herself into every activity on offer.

She will be attending the climate negotiations with the Sierra Student Coalition at the end of November in Paris. She has done activism trainings with the Sierra Club as well as with her Quaker high school (the Carolina Friends School). She will be studying at Clark University, Massachussets next year to do Environmental Studies.

Some images from her stay:

Eco-construction

We are working on the kitchen at the moment - putting a lime render on the earth wall before building units .....

Ariana started by helping me to
apply a NHL2 lime render
(1 volume of lime to 3 of
sand). This is the best type
of lime to put over an earth wall.

She got the hang of it pretty
quickly - not easy!!

On the Land

She helped me to harvest the runaway pumpkins
and courgettes in the round garden ... I haven't watered
all year. The sheet mulch seems to have done a good
job in retaining the rainwater .... a bumper crop!!

Harvesting potatoes ....

... and a very large round marrow -
produced from ancient variety
seeds from the organic company
Biaugerme ............

We visited the Palmer family who have a permaculture
inspired project not far from us ... we exchanged
some of our seeds and vegetables for a few of their raspberry canes ....

.... and planted garlic amongst
the canes .... good companions.

We exchanged home made jam and
vegetables from the land for some
organic manure from a local horse
riding centre and put this around the
raspberry canes ..........

Helping with the cardboard run ... we have free
access to a cabin filled with large sheets of
cardboard which we use for sheet mulcing in
the garden ....................

Ariana put down layers of cardboard
onto brushcut vegetation and then
wheelbarrowed the compost into place
on top of it.

She harvested herbs from the garden, strung
them up and hung them for drying
in the house. We will use them to make dried herbs
for cooking and teas ...............

Harvesting marigold seeds for
next year's crop .....

Picking wild sloe berries near Mont Saint Michel
... we used them to make jam with apples from the garden.

In the Kitchen

..... Chopping and weighing apples
to make jam, apple butter, cider vinegar
cakes, pies and stewed apple ....

Ariana researched a recipe for apple butter - an
American delicacy and then launched into action ...

She cracked open lots of walnuts harvested from
the land ........

.... and made a delicious apple
walnut and gorgonzola tart ...

... and a spaghetti squash, chocolate
and walnut cake ......

.... after weeding the garden, she
used chickweed to make vegetable
burgers .......

Weed patties!!!

Making sourdough bread ....

... and vegan crepes ...

Impeccable table manners ...

At Leisure

A spot of weight training with logs
for the fire ......

Cuddling grey cat ....

Playing the guitar beneath the herbs that she
strung up .....

Casting her eyes over one of my
books 'A handbook for changing
the world' .... being a political
activist she was interested in this
book about grassroot action for
sustainable development.

Thank you Ariana for all your help, your company, your enthusiasm, the debates about climate change, the music and all the rest.

Hope to see you back here one day ....

Climate change (rechauffement climatique)

One of the many reasons for my decision to come to France to create this eco-site is my concern about the issue of climate change and the associated question of how we can 'tread lightly on the earth'. I have been aware of the debates for some years but feel motivated to write a little about this here after talking extensively with a young wwoofer who is staying here at the moment. Ariana is a climate activist from the United States who will be attending the climate negotiations in Paris taking place at the end of November this year.

Three short YouTube documentaries worth viewing:

https://vimeo.com/106021035
Some facts about climate change:

See: www.http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Climate change: How do we know?

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.¹

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. They also show that in the past, large changes in climate have happened very quickly, geologically-speaking: in tens of years, not in millions or even thousands.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

1) Sea level rise

Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century.

2) Global temperature rise

All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. Even though the 2000s witnessed a solar output decline resulting in an unusually deep solar minimum in 2007-2009, surface temperatures continue to increase.

3) Warming oceans

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

4) Shrinking ice sheets

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

5) Declining Arctic sea ice

Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

6) Glacial retreat

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

7) Extreme events

The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

8) Ocean acidification

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.

9) Decreased snow cover

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.

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For some answers to frequently asked questions refer to http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/facts.html

The effects of climate change:

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

wwoofer - Helene

Helen, a 22 year old graduate of environmental studies and playworker (animatrice) stayed for a couple of weeks. She did some wonderful cooking with produce from the land, worked in the permaculture inspired garden, helped with collecting and cutting wood and worked with me to line the roofspace in the house. Some images from her stay:

On the Land

Helping me with the log chopping .....

Harvesting marrows in the round
garden ....

A good catch ....

In the Kitchen

She made a delicious pizza with
vegetables from the land ...

Making sourdough bread ....

Having harvested basil leaves
and walnuts from the land, she
made a delicious pesto .... as well
as large amounts of jam with the
harvested apples ......

Very happy with the result ....

... and we all enjoyed pesto on
sourdough bread .....

..... here making a vegan chocolate cake with a spaghetti
squash from the garden ......

We harvested fennel seeds for
replanting next year as well as
for cooking .....................

In the House

Helen helped me to line the roofspace with wood ....

In love with grey cat

Sunday, 4 October 2015

Wwoofer Callum

Callum, a student of early years primary teaching in the UK, came and stayed in September and threw himself into every activity on offer with great enthusiasm. He was keen to learn as much as he could and was a great help .....

The Greywater System Gets a Facelift

After helping with the calculations in terms of grey water
produced from the house using Art Ludwig's book 'Create a Greywater
Oasis', we worked out the volume of wood chip needed around the pear tree
to filter and clean it .... and he set to work to dig the hole a bit deeper and wider ....

.... always with a ready smile ...

... until the hole was wide and deep enough ....
and he was still smiling ....

... we piled up more earth around the root ball of the pear tree.
The PVC pipe that brings the grey water from the house
can be seen here ... we decided to redesign the system so
that the greywater will pour directly out onto the woodchip
below it...

We then took some of the three year old
humanure from the compost heap to put
around the root ball of the pear tree. This
will help prevent nitrogen stripping from the
soil around it .....