Work continues in the house and on the land

 

 

Brigitta, a carpenter and vegan cook, stayed for three weeks in June.  She continued work on constructing the kitchen and made fabulous vegetarian dishes with produce from the garden.

 

Starting work on one of the kitchen cabinets
using pallet wood and timber found on the
land here .....

Here standing under the structure for
hanging kitchen implements that she
helped to make using pallet wood ...

Helping to fill holes in the sub layer of the earth floor.
The finishing layer will be done in a month or so after
these areas have dried .....
 

Woofer Elodie and Laura working
on the earth floor ...

Elodie creating in the kitchen ...

Elodie and Laura preparing vegetables from the
land ....
 

 

Woofer Lila in the round garden in front of the
greenhouse ....

Lila helped me to weed and tidy the greenhouse.

Transformed!!

Preparing the earth for rendering ...
we filtered it into the bathtub and then
mixed it with water to soak 24 hours
before mixing it with sand and flour glue
for rendering a wall in the house. 

Preparing the wall for the earth render ...

Shelling peas and broad beans from the garden.

 

Some creative cooking.

Making nasturtium leaf pesto - using
the first nasturtium leaves of the season.

Shovelling sand from the trailer - to be used
for earth rendering and the earth floor in the house.

Harvesting onions in the round garden.

Yeah ... first harvested onion this year!!

 

Volunteers Adam and Celine

Adam, a young graphic designer from the UK stayed for a few days in early June, followed by Celine, a French girl - both wanting to connect with nature and learn more about autonomy and ecology.

Adam

Helping Kevin with the terrace project in front of
the house - the idea is to use the large number of
flat stones lying around the land and other found
materials ...

Helping me to move some of the edible wild plants
in front of the house to the forest garden ....

Planting potatoes in the forest garden
in the spaces between the trees
and fruit bushes ... a way of
using the space before putting
in permanent edible groundcover and
other perennials next year.

 

celine

A trip to Off-Grid-John's ... planting
potatoes in his plot in return for all
the help he has given me ...

Examining John's rainwater catching system ...

Following one of our recipes with
produce from the land.



Making radish leaf pesto ....

Enjoying a walk around Mont
Saint Michel .....

Celine working with another volunteer - stripping
radish leaves for supper ....


 

Thank you Celine for your help in the garden, for your company and good humour.  Good luck with your plans for a humanitarian future.  à la prochaine.

Wwoofer Julie

Julie stayed for 10 days in May - she is between jobs/courses and is interested in learning more about permaculture/living closer to nature.  She is an 'animatrice' for the elderly ...

Always beautifully coiffed - with an exotic flower in
her hair .... here helping Cecile with some harvested
plants ..........

She brought an elegance to the process of raking up
lawn cuttings - to be used as mulch on the garden.

In the round garden ...

Chopping nettles to use as plant
fertiliser .........

Cutting comfrey to be used as mulch on the garden
beds - it will re-grow and can be cut up to three
times a year ... a great mineral accumulator.

Harvesting bundles of nettles to
bed dried for tea ....

She learned how to use the brushcutter ....

Helping to plant up an area with the 'three sisters'
companion planting scheme of sweetcorn, climbing
beans and climbing ground cover marrow/pumpkins.

A spot of weeding in the round
garden ............

Mounding up potatoes with Woofer Cecile ...

Clearing the orchard of branches before brushcutting
for mulch material for the garden ....

Thanks Julie for all your help and for making me laugh ...
good luck with your permaculture project ...

Wwoofer Cecile

Cecile stayed for 5 weeks in April and May this year.  She has a degree in biology and environmental science and recently decided to leave a Masters course in environmental studies to discover the practical world of autonomy and permaculture through volunteering on  projects.  This was her first wwoofing experience and she threw herself wholeheartedly into permaculture gardening, furniture making with pallets and recuperated wood.  She also spent many hours creating wonderful dishes in the kitchen.

In the Garden and on the land

Creating a raised bed with a keyhole
entrance.

Surveying the paths that she dug out and then
put three layers of cardboard onto ...

Hum .... a good job ....

Adding woodchip on top  of the
cardboard paths ...

Playing with GreyCat

Helping me to pot up seeds

Not quite sure what she's doing here ... certainly
not watching my digging demonstration!!


 

Earthing up potatoes that she planted a month
earlier ...

Working with wwoofer Julie in the
potatoe patch.

Clearing branches to make brushcutting the nettles
easier .... the nettles will be used as mulch in the
garden.

Transplanting mint into the forest garden.

Weeding .... putting the edible weeds
into a container to use for cooking.

Chopping wood.

Shovelling horse manure from the trailer into the compost bay.

Shovelling horse manure onto sheets of cardboard -
first layer of a new sheet mulch.

Putting sawdust into bags for the dry toilet.

 

Cecile the furniture maker

She learned how to use a number of woodwork tools, dismantled pallet wood and used old wood from the barns - and made a fabulous piece of furniture for the kitchen.

Creating in the kitchen

Thank you for all the wonderful cooking.

 

 

Service with a smile

 

Thanks for all your help, enthusiasm and good humour and good luck with your wwoofing adventures and service civique ... à la prochaine ...