Wwoofers - Marie and Mika

Marie and Mika stayed here a week. Still at school but incredibly independent, helpful and capable - their years of experience in the Belgium scouts served them well with fire lighting, harvesting fruit and vegetables and creating in the kitchen ....

Working on the Forest Garden

Marie putting mulch material
down on top of the layers of
cardboard between the trees
and shrubs ...



Spreading out the mulch - nettles, grass
ferns etc that had been cut in the
orchard ....

Taking sellope and staples off the cardboard used
to mulch the forest garden ....

Saving seeds from the garden

They harvested rocket, chard, radish and cabbage
seeds from the garden .....

 

 

Helping with Ecoconstruction

Marie helping to dismantle the
scaffolding ...

Applying an external lime render ....

Mika sieving earth to be used in
the external lime render mix
for the house ......
 

Cooking inside and out

They quickly got the hang of lighting the outdoor woodstove and cooked jam with fruit harvested from the land and made delicious meals on it ....

 

They harvested plums ....

and elderberries ....

 

 .... and learned how to make jam ...
 

They learned how to make sourdough
bread ........

The girls at leisure

The adapted well to the 'chantier' conditions -
they made a makeshift sofa and watched a
film on my laptop .........

 

 

They created a comforable space on the earth floor
and played cards ......

 

Reading on the pallet bench in the garden ....
Marie is thinking about training in cabinet making so
had a look at one of the woodwork books from the
library here ....................
 

Thank you Marie and Mika for all your help ... looking forward to seeing you here another time ......

wwoofers Helen et Jean Olivier

L'arrivé des bobos .... bobo is short for bohemian bourgeois ..... a very welcome arrival ... Helene, a primary school teacher and Jean Oliver, a radiologist ... both successful and happy with their careers  but currently in search of a change of lifestyle ... a way of life that incorporates their growing awareness and concern for the environment and human relationships ... they both brought a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm and threw themselves into ecoconstruction, cooking and gardening.

Some images from their stay here at La Mariais ...

The Multi-faceted JO

JO took charge of the concrete mixer
and perfected the mixes for the  various earth
renders being applied in the house: 'corps
d'enduit', couche de finition et 'thermal
corrector' mix

He also had a lot of fun helping compagnon carpenter
 Jean Christophe with repairing the staircase in the house ...




Taking  sellotape off the cardboardk to
be used as mulch in the garden ...

 



Laying three layers of cardboard in the forest
garden over brushcut vegetation ....




JO found some sheets of plastic
at the tip that he used to repair
the roof of the dry toilet in a
barrel .....
 



Fitting the new roof ....

Constructing a raised bed with
logs from the land and stones
for drainage ....

A more leisurely activity ... collecting seeds from
the garden for sowing next year and for using
as microgreens ...




Grey cat and JO make friends ....



.... and become inseparable ...

 

Helene The Unstoppable
 

 Helene worked her
magic in the garden ... here
mulching the garden beds ...

We went on a trip to a friend's
woodland to harvest bamboo and
then Helen and JO constructed
a tunnel into the round garden ...

Making a willow heart to attach
to the bamboo tunnel ...

Tireless and unstoppable ... Helene
drags wood from the land to border
a raised bed ...

She dug and cleared an area of
the garden ......

designed a path with 'keyholes',

sowed seeds into the beds ...
 

 

... and laid cardboard onto the path
which will be covered in woodchip.
White cat decided to take up residence ...



Filtering rich soil from the land to use for seed
sowing in pots ..................

Sowing seeds into the filtered earth .....

Enjoying a well earned break with grey cat ....

Cooking, dining and singing ...



JO preparing roast vegetables
harvested from the land ....

 

 

One of Helene's many successful vegetarian
dishes using produce from the land here ....

Courgette tart, beetroot hummus and sautéd herb
potatoes .... almost all made from produce from
the land here .......



A shared meal ...........

 

Enjoying singing with Wwoofer
Stephanie ....


 

 Thank you JO and Helene for  all your help, energy,  enthusiasm and shared laughter .....
à la prochaine .....

 

 

 

 

 

Wwoofers Gerard and Pao

Gerard and Pao (otherwise known as Pepe and Juan) drove all the way from Barcelona to lend a hand for a couple of weeks.  They are studying agricultural engineering in Spain and were keen to learn about econconstruction and permaculture.  Some images from their stay ...



Pepe

and Juan

Ecoconstruction

They chopped up straw with the lawnmower - to be
 used for the 'thermal corrector' render in the house ...

... manned the concrete mixer
and made different earth render
mixes .....

A bit of weight training - bringing
the earth mix into the house ...

Applying the middle coat render
by hand .....

Using the trowel to smooth the
render ...
 

 

It didn't take them long to get the hang of it .... and
they finished the walls in this room almost single
handedly ...



The boys used their strength to
apply the thermal corrector mix
to the end wall ...

 

Using their hands to apply the earth render ...

Thank you for all the hard work!!


Cooking and working on the land
 

Cutting up apples from the land to make stewed
apple on the outdoor woodstove ...
 

Supervising the woodstove cooking .....

They made a delicious tortilla

 



Using the courgettes from the land
to make stuffed marrow ....

Delicious!!

 



Brushcutting between the trees and
shrubs in the fledgling forest garden ...




 



At Leisure

Learning some guitar chords with Matthew ...

A shared meal ....