Autumn/Winter 2015 Update

A quick update for all you permies out there. The last couple of months have been challenging as I have been unable to get rid of an elbow injury, meaning I have been about as useful as a chocolate teapot! Doesn't mean nothing happens. Winter sculpting is well in progress with Andy and our long-term WWOOFer, Remi, picking up the slack from my disabled arse!

We need more hedgerows to break up the wind... So we have scythed a load of grass... laid out wood from a recently coppiced hazel (see pictures below) and covered with aforementioned grass.

This baby hedgerow will be planted with a variety of trees and shrubs over the winter.

Water is of upmost importance as we want to encourage predators to our land in the shape of frogs and toads.  Also we'd like some ducks to compliment our growing menagerie of animal helpers.  Freya offers us some context here so you can see how deep it is.

We get down to the woodland as often as we can.  This is dictated by the weather as felling trees is difficult in windy conditions.

This was last week, early morning fog was rolling up the valley from the stream.  It was peaceful and pretty.

The Kelly kettle is an essential piece of kit to help keep hydrated. 

At the Yurt-end of the main field, Andy needs additional protection so has sculpted some rough beds and transplanted a number of small trees from our nursery.  Over time this should form a formidable barrier.

Remi has been continuing to work on some interesting Hügelkultur beds.  Updates over the coming years will illustrate their importance and utility.

We are focusing our felling on a previous site that we did not clear completely.

Proper coppicing will only work effectively if you clear enough of the canopy to allow new growth from your coppiced stools.

This was one of our small fields we had let our voisine (neighbour) use.  They have sadly moved  to Ferte Mace, with work, so Remi has been utilising the cultivated space for a "hidden" garden... his words not mine.  The key thing is to heavily mulch to prevent weed regrowth.  This year we will be mulching like mad men.

It's incredible how much wood can be cultivated from properly managed stools.  This hazel stool had not been cut in a number of years, but with this new haircut should regrow beautifully.

This basically sets the pattern for the next 3-months.  A lot more felling, wood is our primary source of energy and a lot more landscaping.  The additional help of a WWOOFer has certainly allowed us to push ourselves, next calendar year we will hopefully have the accommodation to have more than one!

Hügelkultur @ La Fieffe

Hügelkultur (Hoo-gul-culture) is a raised bed composting system, built on the top of decaying wood and other compostable biomass materials.  The term Hügelkultur, comes from the German for hill or mound culture and has been practiced in Eastern European culture for hundreds of years.

Hügelkultur attempts to mimic the process of decomposition of trees in a forest environment.  Over time the wood breaks down and becomes almost sponge-like soaking up and retaining water.  The area near the bed is nutrient rich has improved soil fertility, better water retention and significantly warmer soil, improving plant growth on or around it.  Furthermore it is raised so that those with lower mobility (the parents as they age, especially Mum with her knees!) can more easily access the food growing on it.

Being experimental gardinistas (revolutionary permaculturalists!), we are building a number of different Hügelkultur beds at La Fieffe, located in different areas, some dug into the ground some above ground to test their effectiveness.  This could take some time as the decomposition process continues for a number of years but we will post how they do in the Normandie environment.

So lets take you through the construction process.

 Firstly a sunken Hügelkultur bed.  Dig out all the nasty box hedge, stand back and admire your work.

 Fill the hole with wood of differing sizes.

 If you have compost (we do) fill the gaps with some of this lovely worm-created soil.

 Add more biomass, in this case off-cuts from the prior destruction of hedgerow.

 Cover with some soil that was excavated from the hole.

 Top dress with grass to act as a mulch, keep adding this over the winter period to build more biomass.

 Alternative to the above, you can create the bed on top of the surface.

 The same steps as above, wood, compost and other biomass.

 As it's above ground perhaps some stakes...

 ... and jauntily weaved hazel sticks.

 Again lasagna the layers.

 More weaving to hold all the stuff together.

Finalise with grass.

 Both beds should be good to receive some plants in the spring and for the foreseeable future.  Self-fertile, good aeration and good moisture retention.  Have a go, share your results, satisfy permaculture principal, Care of People!

Insect (Bug) Hotel

What do you do when you don't want to do any "adult" chores. Come up with a child-friendly project that you can get everyone involved in doing. This is our attempt at a bug/insect hotel.

Step 1: Plan something simple, then quickly allow it to become overly complicated and stressful as you struggle to find materials to meet your complex structure needs!

 

Step 2: Listen to your clever wife and use the slats from your old bed that are stored in the barn and construct a basic frame.

 Step 3: Having not thought it through very much, listen to further advice from your brother and wife and ensure the width isn't too great and stand up against the south-facing wall of the house.

 Step 4: Randomly insert levels with no real thought as to what will be placed on each.

 

Step (where are we up to?) 5: Forage for all manner of natural equipment that might not look out of place in a bug hotel.

 Step 6: Drill some holes in wood for the little critters to be able to use as accommodation.
Step 7: Give up drilling holes of differing sizes in the wood as you can't get the drill bit out of the rapidly heating SDS Drill 

Step 8: Start bunging things on the shelves and make it look rural and jaunty!

Step 9: Get more people involved so as to be able to blame them for any cock-ups that you may have made up to this point. 

 Step 10: Throw some food and forage type things in there.

Step 11: Add some colour, for the wife and two daughters, they like pink! 

 

Step 12: Have the chickens come over to inspect. 

 

Step 13: Chase chickens away as they keep nicking the corn. 

 

Step 14: Voila, you have constructed your first Bug/Insect Hotel... Good job!
Some serious stuff about building these structures.  All joking aside, these are fun, simple and important structures especially for creatures like solitary bees.  Give it a go, post your pictures on social media and inspire others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_hotel
http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening/insects/building_homes.aspx
http://www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/sites/birmingham.live.wt.precedenthost.co.uk/files/Insect%20Hotel.pdf

WWOOFing at La Fieffe

What do you do when you have 1001 projects (http://palmer-permaculture.blogspot.fr/2014/10/what-tools-we-use-permaculture.html), two aging semi-disabled "labourers" and a full-time mother of two under 5?  You get help. 

(Removal of Box hedgerow)

We have been fortunate the past couple of years that a friend visits from Wisconsin and lends us his labour.  He has been a godsend in the Spring months to increase our output.  There's probably maths involved in it, but instead of increasing our output by a factor of one, an additional body seems to increase if by a factor of 2 or 3... perhaps we are shamed into working harder!  We look forward to welcoming him back next Spring... he better be coming back!

(Turning Box hedgerow into Hugelkultur bed - more on this in my next blog posting)

His efforts illustrate to us how we could probably benefit, at other times of the year from, young, fit, willing workers.  People who may want to offer their labour, in exchange for experiencing something different from their usual life, and our life is certainly not the common way people choose to exist.

So, we took the decision to approach an organisation, WWOOF, to register as a host venue for WWOOFers.  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a membership charity "teaching people about organic growing and low-impact lifestyles through hands-on experience" (https://www.wwoof.org.uk/), that was founded by Sue Coppard in 1971.  The Guardian newspaper in the UK wrote this article about it, describing it pretty well: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/apr/23/wwoof-world-wide-opportunities-on-organic-farms?INTCMP=SRC.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 6,000 hosts in 100 countries so, we decided to register this summer with WWOOF France (http://www.wwoof.fr/) to become 6001(ish) https://app.wwoof.fr/host/2559) .  So far we have been contacted by 8 people ranging in age from teenagers to someone in their sixth decade and coming from England, Portugal, France and the USA.  We should've done this years ago!  The WWOOFers stay with you as volunteers, so you determine between you for how long.  Provide them with a number of jobs that need to be done and let them get on.  The most competent require very little assistance, others require more hands-on tuition.  The key really is to try to offer new experiences, whilst enlisting help of your volunteers in the everyday and seasonal jobs that are required to be done on a organically run small holding.  As long as the coming together is of mutual benefit!

AND before anyone shouts slave labour, it's free association, labour offered and a chance to pick up and use skills in exchange for board and food.  If either party doesn't get the most out of the experience, you move on.

(Remi creating a mix of green cover crops)

I will be documenting, with individual WWOOFers agreement, the projects that we carry out with them.  A crucial aspect that I wasn't prepared for was how much WE LEARN as hosts from our guests and it is most welcome.  Our current WWOOFer, Remi, is vegetarian and we have chosen to be vegetarian with him, which encourages us to cook a different (arguably more healthy) menu than what we are accustomed to having.  May the cooperative nature, the collective pool of knowledge, the new experiences and the challenge of welcoming strangers into our small home continue... it's a blast.

 

The Animals of La Fieffe

On a recent visit to the UK, my brother and I were fortunate enough to make some new friends whilst attending the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs)

Whilst at the festival, we were asked about the animals who share the space at La Fieffe with us.

We are fortunate to share this space with some wonderful fauna. (in no particular order); Roe Deer, Wild Boar, Foxes, Red Squirrels, Coypu, Hedgehogs, Moles, Adders, all manner of rodents and amphibians, Buzzards, Hobbies, Kestrels, Sparrow Hawks, Barn Owls, Tawny Owls and every type of countryside and garden birds. A post on our local wild fauna will follow in due course.

For our friends from Welwyn; Michael, Carol, Scarlet and Comrade Charlie. Here are our more "domesticated" fauna!

This is Loki

He is approximately 2 years old and has lived with us for just over a year. He was rescued from the streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia by a wonderful woman named Milena (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SSSarajevo/?fref=ts).  We offered him a home and he has become an integral part of our extended family.  He is named Loki, for the Norse god of Mischief. a very apt name! He is a mischievous, playful friend.

This is Bridget

Bridget is an Angora X Pygmy goat. She came to us 2 years ago along with her mother, Martha. Our friends could no longer house them so we adopted them. Currently wearing her summer coat, she looks like a chubby, fluffball in her wonderful winter coat.  Martha passed away last year and we have since been trying to find company for Bridget. She had a temporary friend called Betty. A Sanaan X Alpine Goat, we found her too much of a bully for sweet little Bridget so we were forced to re-home Betty. We hope to have Bridget "covered" next year so that we can have more goats, produce some milk and cheese, and give her the company she requires.

In the absence of goat friends, we now have 3 sheep to keep Bridget company.

This ewe, (variously named Davina, Mint Sauce and Sheep Andy) is approximately 5 months old.

 She has been hand reared, is very friendly and likes dogs. We adopted her in June and are pleased with how she has settled in. Unsure of her heritage (as with our other 2 sheep) Possibly breeds of Charmoise and/or Rouge de l'Ouest.  Interestingly, Rouge de l'Ouest sheep were originally bred as dairy sheep for the production of Camembert (not far north of us).

This ram hasn't been named yet (All suggestions welcomed). He is about 7 months old.

He was a gift/exchange along with our un-named ewe.  We were given them by a neighbour of ours. Jerome, who wanted to rent one of our fields so as to grow some vegetables for his family and raise some sheep. We happily allowed him to use our field. I asked for some "viande" when he came to slaughter his sheep. Jerome insisted instead on giving us a pair for breeding. Now we can raise our own lambs.

This ewe also hasn't been named (Again, all suggestions welcomed) she too is about 7 months old.

She, along with the ram, Mint Sauce (my favoured named) and Bridget are currently being run through our old orchard and are doing a fine job of mowing!

These are our Chickens

They are Harveys, Ringwood, Old Speckled, Blinger and Green Dragon. Our chickens have been supplying us regularly with fresh eggs for 2 years now.  We normally allow them to run freely across the land.  They have a tendency to dust bath amongst our veg, eat our seedlings and lay eggs in all manner of places. This spring, as an experiment, we decided to corral them into a (very large) chicken run.  The idea was to get our seasonal vegetables well established before the chooks could go and forage. We intend to free them during August for the rest of the year.

Poppy, the cat is very elusive, a superb hunter, I was unable to find her for a photograph.  She comes and goes as she pleases and at times seems semi-feral!

These are our family of animals. Husbandry is a relatively new and developing skill for us.  What we are learning is that given the right conditions, the right care and a relative free range, animals are very valuable partners in an organic setting.

They assist in pest control, soil fertility, security for each other, weed suppression, seed propagation, food production, sources of textiles, and learning tools for adults and children alike.

I highly recommend having animals in your life. Even if just going out into the countryside to look at wild birds.

If you decide to get a pet such as a dog or cat, please seriously consider choosing a rescued animal that requires re-homing. There are so many neglected and abandoned animals that so desperately need loving homes.