La Ferme de Sourrou .:. Permaculture in France

How to tell a girl lamb from a boy lamb

2011-01-24T00:39:00.004+01:00

How to tell a girl sheep from a boy sheep, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Girl lambs pee sitting down !

We've started lambing and there's a Basco Béarnaise !

2011-01-22T00:17:00.005+01:00

Sleeping lamb after her fiirst feed, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The days just seem to fly by at the moment. There's a lot of everyday things going on and like farmers all over France, we've loads of paperwork to do this month, then on exactly the date we predicted, the sheep started lambing.

I like it when they lamb early in the year because we have them all inside in the warmth and out of danger. When we let them lamb outdoors there are often mishaps when, for example a new mother abandons her new-born lamb in the field or a fox or badger takes a lamb.

There's not a lot to eat in the fields anyway and it's been bitterly cold and windy out there for the past few days.
We've some good hay, mineral and vitamin licks and a ration of cereal for each new mum and being closer to them at the moment makes them less scared of us and easier to manage if there are birthing or feeding problems.

We have a lot more water harvested from the roof this year which the goats and sheep seem to prefer to tap water and we keep the storage close to the shed, in a warm area and so they're less likely to freeze, which cuts down a lot on the work of smashing ice and carrying kettles of hot water. The new mothers drink an amazing amount of water ! All in all it's easier and more comfortable for us and them and as we can hear what's going on in the shed from the house it's certainly more reassuring.

I'm excited because we've had a lamb from one of our Basco Béarnaise ewes. He's a strapping lad and huge despite the size of his sire - a small but obviously very capable Cameroon ram.

She's not a terribly good mother which is not a bad thing in some ways. It means we can feed the wee fella a bit ourselves and take some of her milk for tea and for making cheese and I'll feel a lot less guilty about the whole thing.

We've one lamb in the kitchen who we needed to warm up and feed quickly because his mother totally rejected her. The poor wee thing chose the worst spot ever to curl up in and got chilled and when we tried to get her to suck the colostrum from the ewe she was already too weak.

We milked off some colostrum and gave it to her gently in drops from a syringe and she licked and swallowed.

She finally got a bit more strength after she was warmed up and with a bit of help from our Dachshund Bonnie who is a real star and licks lamb's bottoms to stimulate them to pee and feed just like the ewe does. Thanks to Bonnie, the lamb's sucking reflex started working and she's now taking tiny amounts from a baby's bottle and is slowly walking around the kitchen this evening.

The little thing isn't completely OK yet but we're hoping she'll recover and make a strong wee lamb.

Winter Solstice 2010

2010-12-21T17:13:00.001+01:00

Winter Solstice 2010, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We've got too many chickens !

2010-12-12T23:42:00.002+01:00

That's the spirit !, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy

This boy got beaten up by a band of roaming youngsters that I call the red bunch and as he was walking away with his head down I started taking photographs of him and he suddenly perked up and strode along proudly as though to show me that he was non the worse for his humiliation.

The culprits were a large group of young red cockerels who are now at sexual maturity and are a pain in the whotsit - not just because they're fighting with all the other young cocks but also they've started to gang up on the girls and the poor things have to walk the gauntlet before being allowed into the chicken shed to roost for the night.

Anyone who has kept chickens will know what I mean - I almost feel like throwing something at them when they start their antics and the girls are becoming nervous and scatty and if this goes on any longer they'll go off the lay, their backs will lose their feathers and some of them may be tempted to sleep outside and risk an encounter with Mr Fox.

It's been a real joy all summer to see this year's chicks grow up. A high proportion of them are bright orange with a few blacks and a couple of pure whites. The garden has been brought alive by the flashing past of dozens of orange chicks running when they hear the feeder being filled up. But I counted the chickens this morning and there are fifty and an awful lot of them are young males. I'll try to find homes for the best cockerels - normally my neighbours are interested if they need to change their stock - but sadly, it's not worth feeding them all winter and the time has come to cull them and get them into the freezer.

We've finally got a new worktop in the kitchen !

2010-10-25T17:30:00.010+01:00

The worktop's finished and I cleaned the cooker to celebrate, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Now I know for some people this is no big deal but for me it's one the most exciting things that's happened for ages. (Apart from the roof but I'll talk about that another time.)

Anyone's who's ever visited here will have noticed that there's never ever anywhere to put things in our kitchen. Everything that arrives gets dumped on the table and before we eat, we've taken to simply pushing the mess over a bit to make the space to put a few plates. In the summer, space isn't a problem because we have three huge tables outside on the terrace but in the winter everything has to come inside.

I've been meaning to make a work top and somewhere to store pots and pans for ages but I've always got something else more important to do. Well-meaning friends try to persuade me to go out and bu something but I just can't do that. It's not even the money, we'd just never dream of just buying something - unless it's for the computers or something that neither Fabrice nor I can make ourselves.

I really do prefer things that have been home-made from recycled materials and we're fortunate to live in a rural area where people share our frugal ethics. Since we started building the house our neighbours have been wonderful - helping us to source materials and bringing anything they've got or they can get that they think we might be able to use.

Our tribal dumping ground in the photo here is an area where we stock materials. It now looks pretty organised but when we first started building it was piled high with masses of reclaimed materials which have now found pride of place in the house. Now we're looking for fittings for finishing the extension and this summer has been absolutely frenetic with 'phone calls and lorries arriving with old baths, wood, tiles, bottles, windows, sinks, stone, chicken-wire and anything else you can imagine. Some of it gets passed on to other people who we know are looking for things but a lot of it gets arranged in lots to be used for building or for making things for the garden.

We ask people to try not to bring polystyrene or plastic or broken bottles and over the years they're getting better at knowing what we need and what we might find useful and it's incredible how they often go out of their way to help us.

The conversations go something like this. "My son knows a place where they're pulling out a load of double glazed windows, there's nothing wrong with them, it's just that the electric shutters don't work any more. The guy said they'd be skipped on Friday, if we get there fast he'll let us have the lot for a fiver each." The logistics of how to get there fast with a van or someone's borrowed trailer are sorted out and off we go to collect the windows.(Merci Guy !)

To be honest if it weren't for all the things that people give us, our house would have been a lot more expensive to build and we'd have spent an awful lot of time in DIY shops - not to mention the fact that it would be boring to have to choose what we wanted all the time instead of just doing what we can with what we've got. Sometimes things do look a bit weird to begin with but the finished result is quirky and interesting and totally unique.

We've use almost all our old windows now for covering firewood, making cold frames, covering straw bales as temporary shelter for tender plants and we've used them for making our greenhouse and even as windows when they're good enough.

The new veranda is just second-hand windows we've been given and wood Fabrice cut from our land, topped by incredibly expensive hail-stone proof double layer plastic. We've got seven second-hand double-glazed PVC French windows which we'll use at the back of the house just to the right of these windows and on the east side of the extension. I don't really like plastic or PVC but we get a lot of storms here and I don't intend replacing anything in my lifetime. We'll paint the windows or do something to make them look OK and the fact that everything is recycled assuages my green conscience.

We've used all the stone that was easily accessible on our land, (Peak stone !) so we've asked neighbours to help us find more. They have come up trumps and sometimes even deliver it to us (Merci Christophe !) or we go and get it ourselves.

We dump all the stones and rubble in front of the house and when we've taken the best bits out of it, (Including some roots and bulbs which have become beautiful plants !) what's left makes a solid base for the roads we've been making for the past few years.

Anyway, getting back to the kitchen worktop. A few weeks ago I bit the bullet and bought a worktop in a shop. (I bought three because I'll need two more for the extension.) They've sat inside the front door doing nothing because we've been so busy.

We had a visitor here and after a week or so, he started to appreciate why we never had time to do anything about storage space in the kitchen, so he offered to make us something. On his next visit, he brought with him a couple of beautiful pieces of boxwood Buxus sempervirens which he used for the front legs of the table and of course, the rest of the bits he needed came from the dumping ground !

After he spent the day making it he had to go back to work at L'Ecocentre du Périgord, so I finished sanding it down and over the past week I've given it five coats of varnish and it's now dry and ready for use. Thanks Yohan, you really are a star !

What an amazing sky !

2010-10-22T09:14:00.072+01:00

What a sky on a cold October evening, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Pyke dragged me out this evening. He ran around the house, teasing and showing off and insisted that I go out with him. I was a bit busy but stopped what I was doing because when he does that there's usually something worth seeing, so I let him lead me to the end of the drive, then he stood there watching the sky. He's a funny dog.

He's a Border Collie from good working stock and we got him to work with the goats and sheep and he does help a bit but gets bored easily then runs off to chase swallows and butterflies. We've given up trying to get him to work properly.

In the village they call him "The poet".

Le poète est celui qui voit autrement, qui porte un regard neuf, émerveillé
sur ce qui est souvent ignoré par les autres hommes...

In English that means, "The poet is someone who sees things differently, in a new light, amazed at things which are often ignored by other people."

I've never known a dog before who walks around sniffing flowers. The interesting thing is that his likes and dislikes are so similar to mine. Sweet smelling roses, Jasmine and Honeysuckle have a really positive effect on him and when he sniffs a flower he likes, he looks up at me, smiles and wags his tail.

We sat looking at the sky with the clouds moving slowly towards the west and as the sun crept over towards the horizon and the sky darkened we turned and walked towards the east where the wind was pushing and dividing the clouds into puffy balls and as it got stronger the little wind turbines suddenly started chugging into life.

The wind got stronger and stronger and my little cardi suddenly felt very inadequate so I looked at Pyke and he looked at me then we went inside to the warm.

Autumn colours

2010-10-17T20:54:00.000+01:00

I walk down this little path every day to open the chickens then through the vegetable garden and back up towards the house to open the geese and check the goats. Then I have a cup of tea.

I'll probably walk down this path four of five times in an average day but the morning stroll is the important one and starting the tour by this path has become a morning ritual. The path is crunchy underfoot with years of discarded mussel and oyster shells and in autumn it rustles with the sound of fallen sweet chestnut and oak leaves.

I've lingered a bit more than usual this week on the path - the colours are stunning and it's interesting to see the shape of the tree trunks emerging from the fallen greenery and the new growth of biennials like the Foxglove, Mullen and Evening primrose. Autumn is a lovely time of the year, especially when you're ready for winter.

Getting ready for winter

2010-10-05T23:43:00.007+01:00

Emptying the corn dryer before it rains, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The man with the corn picker is coming to the village soon so we had to get a move on and get last year's corn out of the crib to fill it up again with freshly harvested cobs.

We kept some of the old cobs for the pigs and goats then grained the rest of it with our neighbour Guy's ancient machine and put the grain into all the containers we could find and stored it in the extension. It's the first year we've had to rush like this - normally we don't have any left at the start of autumn but last year's crop was exceptional.
The weather's been really dry here since the end of May, so this year's crop won't be so good.

This is the ancient corn picker which has been doing the rounds in this village (and several others) for quite a few years. When I see it I always think of Mad Max - a film set in a future where law and order has broken down at the end of the 'Oil Age' and baddies use weird and wonderful machines like this for just cruising around doing wicked things.
I suppose using a machine like this is wicked. I hate to think how much diesel this thing uses when it's chugging through the maize and what sort of damage it's doing to the earth below. We ought to be sowing and harvesting our grain by hand but a few years ago, thirty of us harvested a small field of corn for a neighbour and it took us several hours. This machine does the job for the whole village in just two days.

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging for a long time but we've been under a lot of pressure from forces beyond our control and I haven't felt like sharing what's been going on. I'll get back on that straight and narrow road soon.

DC pump powered by solar panel for solar water heating

2010-06-24T20:27:00.009+01:00

DC pump powered by solar panel for solar water heating, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

It seems like ages ago that we started to put up the new vacuum solar tubes. The rain and the corn planting and hay cutting have stopped us getting on with the installation but today we finished it !

I've used a photo of a pump as an introduction to today's blog post because DC pumps like these are really difficult to find - at least in France.
Someone searching the 'net for a solar powered pump (As I've done so often !) will get the information here that they need to find the right pump. The installation and operation manual of our pump is available on the 'net in the Laing website

Our old flat plate solar collectors worked by thermosiphon - that is the hot water rose and circulated without the need for a pump. (Note the English and the American spellings differ) I prefer that system as there's nothing to go wrong but as I wanted to put our new panels on the back roof of the conservatory where they wouldn't be seen which is higher that our hot water cylinder, we couldn't use thermosyphon and have to pump the hot water around the circuit.

This little pump is powered by a little 20 watt photovoltaic panel which of course only works when the sun shines and the water is being heated - so it's perfect for a solar water heating system !

The photo above shows Fabrice fitting the last of the 16 vacuum tubes which each heat a little copper bar at the top of them. They fit into a manifold where they heat the water. That was the last step in the fitting process after we'd tested the pump and bled the hot water system.

I haven't lagged the pipes or insulated the water cylinder yet just in case there's a leak, so the system isn't as efficient as it will be when it's insulated but so far everything is working as planned and the water is warming up nicely.

Hens, hatching eggs, chicks and dustbaths

2010-06-01T22:58:00.009+01:00

Dustbath before bedtime for the hen and her chicks, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Our hens lay their eggs (mostly!) in empty gunpowder containers in the chicken house. Once a hen goes broody, she'll stay put on the eggs and when you approach her she has a very aggressive stare and pecks you when you put your hand near her. You can be almost sure then that she wants to be left in peace to hatch her eggs. I say "her" eggs but the chicken doesn't really mind whose eggs she sits on !

We often swop the eggs our hens have chosen to sit on, replacing them with our "best" eggs or with eggs from friends. Our huge red cockerel - the biggest I've ever seen - was a gift of an egg from a friend who said we'd be delighted with him and we are !

When the hen is settled on her eggs, we lift the barrel and its contents gently to our "inner sanctum" - a big cage inside our chicken shed where the hens can sit undisturbed by other hens who want to lay their eggs in the same barrel. By moving the hens we ensure that there's no fighting, no eggs get broken and the eggs all hatch at the same time. That gives each chick the best possible chance of survival.

Once the chicks are hatched we keep them inside the cage for about a week to make sure they're well fed and they learn to respond the their mother's calls to feed and hide under her wings when told to do so. We sometimes have to move them out once the next batch of chicks are hatched to prevent fighting either into a covered chicken tractor or into the big wide world - a very dangerous place for a little chick.

As well as the dangers from stoats, snakes and the obstacles on the terrain itself, birds of prey take chicks and it's heartbreaking to walk down to the chicken shed and find several writhing on the ground having been dropped by the birds. Keeping them inside or outside under a cage helps reduce the inevitable losses.

Chickens love to take dust baths, they are essential to the well being of your chickens to help rid then of external parasites and dead skin. If, like ours, you hens free range leave them a few corners of the garden but protect your plants and seedlings otherwise they'll break your heart !

Dust baths are especially appreciated after a hen has spent three weeks sitting on eggs and the first thing she'll do with her new chicks is to look for somewhere to take a dust bath. If you don't have room in your garden, a paddling pool filled with dry, riddled soil will do the job. The substance used must be fine enough to clog the breathing pores of the chicken's parasites.

I've tried using Diatomaceous earth but noticed that my chickens' eyes were being irritated by the powder, so I've stopped using it and I don't use sand for the same reason.

You'll have to replace the soil regularly because the chickens wriggle their way in to the the dust and cover themselves with as much as possible then shake out an impressive amount of dust all over the place.

A bit of motivation to get on with things

2010-05-24T08:54:00.008+01:00

My birthday garden is two weeks late !, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

There's nothing better for getting over anger and sadness than getting on with things. Around us there's the sound of birds, frogs, toads, lambs and chicks - all celebrating their existence. The endless optimism of the singing birds in the trees lifts our spirits and encourages us to get on with making our space more welcoming and attractive. I find physical work profoundly energising and the exercise helps us get rid of stress and prepares us to live as warriors and not as victims.

When I need a bit of encouragement to get on and do things, I have a look at some of the old photographs I've taken of the garden and wander around taking shots of the same views now. This one is a good example of the back of our house about a year after I planted the rose in the photo. It's now more than six metres high, winding into the young oak tree which shades the back of the terrace and it's covered in little yellow flowers around the time of my birthday in April.

People often give me plants for my birthday and I plant them in this spot which has become my "Birthday Garden". It's starting to look good and does a great job of keeping our cellar cool in the summer.

The brambles and ferns are still present but I've left them for the time being to provide shade and I've cleared and mulched a space for a few more birthday shrubs planted this year which should eventually grow to about a metre.

Unless you have an unlimited budget, filling a space with plants takes time. I like the gradual process of using sentimental plants which you can nurture to maturity. They give an enormous amount of pleasure, not just to me but also to the person who gave them to me.

Bisous Bourrou and thanks to all my friends

2010-05-14T23:26:00.000+01:00

Bisous Bourrou, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Au revoir Judy - Bourrou May 2010

2010-05-07T13:27:00.003+01:00

Judy never had a chance - we buried her today, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Our little wire-haired Dachsund Judy was in perfect health on Monday.

In the early evening we found her in a coma behind the house. Her gums were white and her limbs in spasm and I rushed her to the nearest vet. He said that she'd eaten rat poison. Neither us nor our neighbours use rat poison. She died without regaining consciousness.

We are devastated.

Notre petit Teckel Judy était en parfaite santé lundi midi.

En début de soirée nous l'avons trouvée dans un état comateux derrière la maison. Ses gencives étaient blanches et ses membres dans le spasme et je lui amenais en tout hâte vers la vétérinaire la plus proche. Il a dit qu'elle avait mangé du raticide. Ni nous, ni nos voisins utilisent le poison pour les rats.

Nous sommes dévastés.

Amazing April light just before the rain

2010-04-30T10:13:00.001+01:00

Amazing April light just before the rain, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

It's been hot and dry for a couple of weeks and we really need a bit of rain to soak everything I've planted over the past month or so. Yesterday evening the sky became dark and with a beautiful light and the wind stopped for just a few minutes before the drops started to fall.

I've just checked the water butts and they've been topped up overnight. Perfect timing !

Stevia rises from the dead - yippee !

2010-04-26T22:16:00.002+01:00

Stevia rises from the dead - yippee !, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

This is the second year this Stevia plant has overwintered.

The leaves started dying a few weeks ago and I tried watering then not watering and eventually gave up; thinking that the plant was dead.

I had a look yesterday and there's new growth from the base of the plant which means; with a bit of luck, that I don't have to look for new Stevia plants this year.

Latest lamb - small but perfectly formed

2010-04-26T00:28:00.012+01:00

Latest lamb - small but perfectly formed, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We have a few young ewes due to lamb soon so we're keeping our eyes peeled regularly on the field in front of the house since the flock have gone outside on to the new grass.

Some of the older lambs at the end of a greedy day, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The sheep turn their noses up at hay now and we've almost stopped feeding supplements as both the ewes and the lambs are looking pretty chunky but the yearlings who are pregnant still need a bit extra so we're getting pretty good at slipping some corn and lucerne nuts in front of them and they've started to become used to a discreet treat.

This teeny weeny little lamb was born yesterday. She's the smallest lamb I've ever seen and when we saw her at first we thought she might be premature.

On closer inspection, we saw her little feet are hard and you can feel her teeth and today she's running after her mum and screams her head off when she's lost. She's pretty normal for a day old lamb really.

We're almost at the end of our terrible footrot problem. Seven of our goats still have a slight limp and I still have a slightly sore back but we're getting there.

April anticipation. The weather has changed; it's getting warmer...

2010-04-18T21:40:00.002+01:00

April anticipation, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

There's mud everywhere and the tarpaulin has blown off the hay !

2010-04-08T01:43:00.002+01:00

There's mud everywhere and the tarpaulin has blown off the hay, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The self-seeded lettuce is ready to eat and the no-dig seed bed is ready to plant !

2010-04-05T00:14:00.014+01:00

The self-seeded lettuce is ready to eat, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Our neighbour Robert gave me these lettuces and told me to let some self seed and I'd have early lettuce. The commercial winter varieties I planted just haven't grown at all but these ones been through frost, snow, hailstones and torrential rain and they've come up smiling and taste wonderful!

Alongside them is some Italian Parsley which is coming on well, and there was Coriander but it's disappeared after a morning frost on Saturday. Behind, is my replacement patch of wild strawberries which has always grown there and I use it to re-plant where I think the strawberries will grow well or just to give away to friends.

Next to that bed is another cage that Fabrice put up for me yesterday. I normally just cover newly planted seeds with movable wire tents to protect them from the chickens but this little area was just asking to be cordoned off so he's driven four or five posts in and put a chicken wire round and made me a little gate.

The ground in this little spot was used for pumpkins last year and was really well mulched - once when the pumpkins were planted and again just before the winter really started. The mulch has rotted down and the resulting earth is just beautiful, dark and crumbly and totally weed free thanks to the chickens.

I can't wait to finish off the top of the new cage and start sowing seeds in that patch of earth but after our terrible experience of foot rot which spread through our flock of sheep and goats like wildfire I've had a very bad back.

After a visit to a chiropractor who seems to have cracked me all back into place, I have been ordered to do nothing for a while - which is very easy at the moment because I can hardly move ! I should be very careful over the next week or so as my back heals, so I'll have time to devote to this rather neglected blog.

Here's a short video of a chicken weeding - thank goodness I don't have to do this right now !

Freak hailstorm in Bourrou !

2010-03-26T09:30:00.002+01:00

Hailstones in March, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Yesterday we had a hailstorm which only lasted for about ten minutes but made a terrific racket on the plastic (hail storm proof) roof of the terrace. The hailstones we get here are huge and come down with an amazing force, bouncing off the ground like golf balls and they can do a lot of damage. Our little old van a has a few more dents but one of our neighbours borrowed our truck to pull his trailer when he went to get some building materials and as luck would have it he left just before the storm started and came back after it had finished. Where he went they didn't have a storm, so the Nissan was undamaged. The solar panels have been through this sort of thing before with no problems.

The plants don't seem to have suffered much - I haven't started to fill the garden up with seedlings and the perennials are almost all covered with protection to stop the chickens eating them - so that probably helped stop them being damaged.

I can't use our greenhouse which was badly damaged in the storm last year but I'm breathing a sigh of relief, because I almost repaired the roof. The corrugated plastic sheeting which I'd have used isn't hailstone proof and it would have been full of holes. Sometimes laziness pays !

Protecting the vegetable plot from free range chickens

2010-03-17T11:49:00.013+01:00

Chestnut whips used to protect the Rhubarb from the chickens, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The weather's getting better and we've had quite a few sunny, warm days. It may be because we've had more chickens than usual this winter or because there's been very little growth of grass and weeds around the house
but the chickens have really pecked down every single thing that they can find to eat and the vegetable garden looks like the aftermath of an atomic attack !

If I don't do something to protect the perennial vegetables and self seeded Parsley and Coriander coming through they'll be destroyed, so covering everything has been the priority for the past few days. I can normally just lay a few sticks across the seedlings but the chickens aren't finding much to eat elsewhere so they're particularly determined and a light hand just won't work.

To protect larger plants like Rhubarb and Artichokes I normally use old fruit boxes or make bamboo criss-cross frames but last year we cut down a lot of trees suffering from Horse Chestnut Canker and so this year we've loads of Chestnut whips growing from the stools. I decided to use them to make lots of plant supports and for weaving around raised beds and they're perfect for making cages for protecting the new growth and certainly more aesthetically pleasing than old wooden boxes.

Our friend and lodger, Laetitia has started her new job just a few kilometres from here at Montagnac la Crempse just next to Villamblard. She's hoping to start learning how to make chestnut furniture and garden supports with the association "Les Enfants du Pays de Beleyme" so she got a bit of practice at the weekend and gave me a hand into the bargain.

Chestnut protection against free-range hens for the Globe Artichokes, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Update two weeks later....

Rhubarb coming through untouched by chickens, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Waiting for planting to begin - the only time my earth is bare

2010-03-11T22:07:00.002+01:00

Waiting for planting to begin - the only time my earth is bare, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We're very busy at the moment building a new drive at the front of the house and planting fruit bushes and trees before spring comes.

The lambs are growing fast. We've a problem with the dreaded foot rot unfortunately, which is also taking up a lot of time.

Clearing up after the storm and almost the end of lambing

2010-03-01T16:35:00.012+01:00

Hen looks at new lamb arrivals, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We had a really bad storm in Europe this week and although the Dordogne wasn't too badly hit, it's given us a lot more work to do and the animals are stressed and jittery. There wasn't any damage to our buildings but a few trees have fallen on the fences and in the veg garden and we've been collecting debris, cutting up trees and mending fences for the past two days.

Some people in Bourrou still don't have electricity and of course we've had a lot of visits from people who need to borrow lighting, 'phone EDF or contact family and friends in other parts of France which are suffered badly after the high winds and flooding.

The weather has made working outside difficult for us some weeks now, first the bitter cold and winds then snow. Now we have rain almost every day. In the morning we put the sheep out in warm sunshine then it starts raining and we have to go and get them back in again.

The changeable weather doesn't matter too much when the sheep don't have lambs, they're hardy enough to decide for themselves whether or not they want to come in but I don't like to think of the little ones outside on the damp grass because it's still quite chilly here and lambs can go downhill quickly if they get too cold. That's one of the reasons we like to keep our sheep inside for lambing but they do get bored and there's a risk of footrot if the bedding gets damp from constant use and of course there's a higher incidence of external parasites.

Thankfully, all the births this year have been trouble-free and the lambs are up on their feet and looking for food within minutes. We've had no problems at all with new mothers and every lamb has a ewe and plenty to eat, so they're growing fast. Although it's nice bottle feeding lambs the powdered milk is expensive and not as good as the ewe's milk and after having done it for a few years, early in the morning and late into the night, the novelty soon wears off !

To begin with we had just single births which seemed a bit strange but in the past few days we've had three sets of twins - two within an hour of each other.

We had a problem with one lamb of the second set born yesterday who wouldn't stay with her mother and kept going over to another ewe when she called for her twins. We put her with her mother who then rejected her but we persisted and the problem seems to have been resolved. Yesterday evening the ewes had worked out which lamb belonged to which mother - as you can see in this video.

For everyone who knows us - Christiane has finally found a new dog !

2010-02-27T18:03:00.004+01:00

Teckila is a Teckel (Dachshund) Spaniel cross, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Fabrice's aunt Christiane is someone with special needs but she lives on her own and manages well with us close by to help her with her daily traumas.

She'd had a lovely dog called Rhapsy for as long as I've know her but unfortunately, Rhapsy died recently at the ripe old age of nineteen. She still has her other dog Titino who is almost eighteen and completely blind and Christiane realises that one day he'll die too. Getting another dog for her has been a priority for us for the past month and we've been ringing round animal refuges, looking at ads in the local papers and on the internet and presenting her with canine options - none of which have been suitable.

Christiane loves our four Dachshunds and they are exactly the right kind of dog for her - small enough to be lifted up and cuddled, loyal, sociable and interesting and they tend not to wander off and don't need a tremendous amount of exercise. They are also good house dogs who prefer to live with someone who is around all day and they are good little watchdogs. For all of those reasons, Christiane decided that she wanted a Dachshund like ours.

We intend one day to breed from one or two of our Dachshunds but the little ones are only a year old and they're still far too young to have pups so we had a look on the 'net and there were no pups available from any of the breeders.

Christiane was becoming more and more impatient and just as we were beginning to despair, we were really lucky to find this little pup who's father is a Dachshund and her mother a small Spaniel. She looks very like a Dachshund and got a very warm welcome from our four when she was introduced to them yesterday !
She is a very lucky little dog to have Christiane to love her and I hope both of them have a wonderful long friendship together.

Cameroon sheep cross lambing is in progress !

2010-02-12T11:36:00.010+01:00

lamb five beige and white, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I've taken a break from blogging for a while to concentrate on other things but I can't resist showing you some photos of some of our lambs born this month. They are from our sheep who are a mixed bunch of "normal" girls crossed with our Cameroon ram. We decided to try this cross because last year we had a surprise lamb who was a Cameroon cross and he grew fast and was extremely hardy - out in all weathers yet big boned and heavy like his mother. This might not be the most appropriate time to say this but the meat was wonderful !

That's him in the middle of the photo at about five months. His sire is the brown strange looking horned ram top left. We inherited most of our sheep from Fabrice's family and we kept a small herd going of about thirty through a period of some very low lamb prices. We've chosen new rams to improve the conformation and increase the hardiness of the flock as the summer grass has been affected by the droughts we've been having for the past few years and winters seem to be getting colder.

Now our lamb is selling well locally and it's very nice when the work involved in keeping them is rewarded with a decent regular income.

We've had the Cameroon sheep for a few years. They're easy to manage, out in all weathers and graze contentedly where there doesn't seem to be a lot for them to eat. We decided to leave the Cameroon ram with all the ewes.

Unfortunately, we have Blue Tongue disease in France and were obliged to have our sheep vaccinated early in their pregnancy. We've had a lot of miscarriages, so many of our ewes aren't going to have lambs at what is (for us) the best time of the year when they are inside on straw because of the weather and easy to keep an eye on.

So far we've had six lambs, all easy births, all fine healthy lambs who fed easily and quickly as soon as they were on their feet but all singles - which is a bit of disappointment because we normally have a lot of twins and sometimes even triplets. Still, the lambs are beautiful chunky wee things and we should have some more later on in the season.

Après la fête il y a encore du vin - After Solstice there's still some wine

2010-01-07T19:30:00.002+01:00

Après la fête il y a encore du vin - After Solstice there's still some wine, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Do I look bothered ?

2010-01-07T19:29:00.003+01:00

Do I look bothered ?, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I took this photo of my "magic mirror" in the spoon pot just before I started cooking for the New Year Dinner.

I put it there to remind me that one of my resolutions this year is to stay cool, calm and unperturbed by the people and situations around me and to be myself no matter what.

Advantage of putting solar panels where you can clean the snow off them

2010-01-07T19:28:00.002+01:00

Advantage of putting solar panels where you can clean the snow off them, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I'm so glad we put these panels up here where I can manoeuvre the floor brush out of the window to give them the once over.

Season's Greetings !

2009-12-25T23:41:00.003+01:00

The gloriette in the snow, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Winter has really set in here in the Dordogne. We've had a few days of snow and some very low temperatures, then a week or so of constant rain and with the coming of the depths of winter some very dark afternoons - and no solar power.

Today - Christmas Day - it's a really beautiful sunny day and a reminder that at this time of the year, the passage from darkness to light begins !

Yuletide greetings to you all.

Fabrice fixing the solar panels on the roof

2009-11-21T22:42:00.002+01:00

Fabrice fixing the solar panels on the roof, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We've been really busy recently and I just haven't had the time to blog but I just had to share this with you.

We've just added another 450 watts of solar to our array just in time for the solstice !

I'll do a longer post soon showing how we did it.

The Red Cockerel had lost his tail feathers

2009-10-28T23:42:00.001+01:00

The red Cockerel had lost his tail feathers, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

He's been fighting - so it's time to cull the young cockerels for the pot !

Chickens feasting on the Amaranthus Gangeticus (Elephant Head Amaranthus)

2009-10-08T20:57:00.004+01:00

Chicken have a feast in the amaranthus, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

This summer has been another extremely dry one - with a lot of very hot days up until a few days ago when the temperature outside was 30°C. There's very little grass anywhere and we've been supplementing the sparse grazing for our sheep and goats with hay for the past few weeks. The geese are going further and further away from their normal circuit to find something to eat and we've been giving them extra corn to keep them in condition and build up their fat reserves for winter.

With the lack of fresh vegetation around, I suppose it's inevitable that the chickens have started pecking food in the vegetable plot which they normally leave alone. A week ago they started eating the remaining courgettes and then pecked away the leaves until each plant has almost disappeared.

I don't mind them eating the courgettes, everyone is fed up with them anyway and they're hard and tasteless at this time of the year especially since it's been so dry.

The chickens normally start to peck the veg towards the end of October when there's very little for them to eat after a hot summer but this year they've started early, snipping off the lower leaves of the sweet peppers and Aubergines when they're still plenty of fruit left on them. I've noticed them pecking the new growth of Globe artichokes, they've even started to peck out the Foxgloves and they've almost totally destroyed the leeks I planted a few weeks weeks ago !

Thankfully, I had a lot of Amaranthus self seed last year and this variety "Elephant head" have been really rich and beautiful this year growing alongside Cleome Spinosa which also self seeds freely. The chickens love the Amaranthus, so I've started pulling up a plant or two to let them eat the leaves and seed heads. They peck away furiously at each one for about two days until there's nothing left but the stalks.

I'll keep giving them a few plants each week to give them something to squabble over and keep them of mischief until the rain (hopefully) encourages the grass and weeds to appear - and I mustn't forget to save a few seeds for myself for planting next year.

Seed saving and two of my favourite annual climbers

2009-10-03T17:12:00.011+01:00

This is exactly the right time to collect seeds from your favourite plants from your own or other people's gardens. That's what I've been doing a lot of this week.

Aren't these big seeds with a little heart really sweet? They're from a lovely annual climber with an interesting name, Cardiospermum halicacabum (Sometimes called Love in a Puff or Balloon Vine).

I got my original seeds a couple of years ago from some friends who run Rose Cottage Plants. I planted four which did really well and since then I've gathered the best seeds to give away, to plant and to save.

The plant climbs to about two metres, gives a light feathery shade and the tiny white flowers produce green seed cages. I grow them in various spots around the garden especially where a dark background can show them off to their best advantage. It's classed as a noxious weed in some parts of the United States of America but here in France the plant self seeds rarely and is very easy to keep under control.

As well as being pretty, this plant's useful because it's leaves are edible and I often nip off a few to add to salads and use them to decorate dishes - in the hope that the more varied our diet is, the better our bodies will be able to look after themselves. Here are some of the medicinal uses of the plant.

The whole plant is diaphoretic, diuretic, emetic, emmenagogue, laxative, refrigerant, rubefacient, stomachic and sudorific. It is used in the treatment of rheumatism, nervous diseases, stiffness of the limbs and snakebite. The leaves are rubefacient, they are applied as a poultice in the treatment of rheumatism. A tea made from them is used in the treatment of itchy skin. Salted leaves are used as a poultice on swellings. The leaf juice has been used as a treatment for earache. The root is diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, laxative and rubefacient. It is occasionally used in the treatment of rheumatism, lumbago and nervous diseases.

For more information on growing and using this plant see the Plants For A Future database.

Another climbing plant which has a fascinating, cheeky little seed is the Black Eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata). It's normally grown as an annual in northern climes but it's a perennial native to tropical Africa where it can grow up to 20 feet.

With regular watering, the plant grows very fast in France. If it's well supported it can climb up to two metres and one plant can easily cover a square metre, so it's useful for quick cover. It flowers from June until the first frosts and I've used it for an effective screen to hide the water butts in front of our chicken shed.

The Thunbergia is also available in white and the beautiful Blushing Susie - a lovely pinky/orange colour but I've found that the yellow is much more vigorous and produces flowers more profusely and for much longer than the white and orange varieties.

There's a lot more information about this plant in THIS African plant site. Where I got this information :

Medicinally it is used for skin problems, cellulitis, back and joint pains, eye inflammation, piles and rectal cancer. Gall sickness and some ear problems in cattle are also treated with this plant.

NB. Some people can get contact dermatitis from it.

Click HERE if you'd like to see a slideshow of the Black Eyed Susan growing on the screen throughout the year.

Using Quinori - and a recipe I want to share

2009-10-02T10:56:00.013+01:00

In the summer there's so much to eat that we really are spoiled for choice.

Rather than eat heavy meals with meat I prefer not to cook the new peppers, sweet tomatoes and crunchy lettuce, shallots, new carrots, chives or whatever else I can find but eat them raw tossed in vinaigrette and a little salt.

From the middle of summer until the start of the hunting season we tend to eat mainly vegetarian food. It seems to fit in with the rhythm of the seasons when the body doesn't need so much protein and the sun goes with every meal eaten outdoors.

Once Autumn comes, it's good to have recipes which use garden vegetables but perhaps we need the addition of pulses - a little bit more protein to help prepare us for winter. I'm not one for recipes, tending to just make up as I go along or use tried and tested recipes with variations according to the ingredients we have - but this is worth passing on.

I saw this packet in our local bio shop in Villamblard and although it's a bit more expensive (3.15€ for 500g) that plain quinoa it has chick peas, rice and sesame seeds in it too. I'd spent a long time talking to the owner of the shop and wanted to buy a bit more than I had, so I though I'd try it. This dish takes about 25 minutes preparation then another few minutes under the grill.

Stir-fry the veg, adding them to the pan in this order:
Two small carrots
1 Aubergine
2 small courgettes
small chunk of fresh ginger sliced finely
2 long small sweet peppers
1 small onion
A few cashew nuts is nice too and crushed garlic can be added and stirred in after the cooking process is finished

I used about 70g of Quinori and cooked it in water for about 7 minutes then drained it and put it at the bottom of a fire-proof dish.

While everything is still piping hot, slide the veg on top of the quinoa, dribble a couple of beaten eggs into the dish then place a few tomatoes cut in half. Top it off by sprinkling some grated cheese and a big pinch of herbes de Provence and put the dish under the grill.

Quick, cheap and cheerful dishes like this are useful and this was one of the best we've had. I think what makes this dish special is to not overcook the vegetables - especially the carrots and add each ingredient to a wok cooking on a fast heat.

I've since used a tiny amount Quinori with just aubergines and a few red peppers as a starter in small individual dishes and all our guests asked what it was that made the dish nutty, not too "bulky" and very tasty.

A small packet goes a very long way and should keep well, so that's another useful addition to the larder.

Red Sunflowers are so pretty !

2009-09-21T22:54:00.001+01:00

Red Sunflowers, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Life after Parvivirus - Didi is recovering well.

2009-09-18T17:36:00.000+01:00

Apart from still being a bit tired and still a bit on the thin side, she's almost back to her old self playing with the other dogs.

Didi comes home from the vets after Parvo - spaced out but OK

2009-09-13T23:37:00.005+01:00

Didi comes home from the vets after Parvo - spaced out but OK, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

One of our miniature Dachshunds, Didi was was very of colour last weekend. She wouldn't eat and looked depressed so on Monday morning we took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with Parvo canine parvovirus.

She spent four days the veterinary hospital where she was on an intevenous drip while the disease ran its course. She's skinny and tired but this weekend she looks much better and we hope she'll be OK.

I've never come across Parvo before - this is the first time any of our dogs have ever been ill but in just a few hours Didi changed from being a bouncy playful little dog always full of energy with a constant "smile" to being tired and although she didn't make any noise she looked as though she was in pain.

While she was at the vet I found out as much as I could about Parvo. It's a viral disease that attacks the lining of the intestinal tract, bone marrow and immune system of dogs. The virus normally causes vomiting (Didi's was a frothy yellow vomit), diarrhoea (usually foul-smelling and often with traces of blood), lethargy, depression, dehydration, high fever/chill and sudden death. Apparently, pups are more vulnerable to Parvo than adult dogs but even fully-vaccinated dogs, can die from Parvo.

Didi was put on a drip because dehydration is often cause of death with the Parvovirus, after the diarrhoea and vomiting. We were very lucky to have called the vet so quickly because without treatment, 80% of dogs who contract the virus die within a few days.

There's some very good information about how dogs can contract the virus and how to identify symptoms and treat infected dogs in the WORKING DOGS site.

In that site I found out that some breeds of dog are more susceptible than others. For some reason, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, and other black and tan breeds are especially prone to Parvo, and seem to succumb to parvo faster and with less chance of recovery than any other breed. If you have one of these breeds, it's even more important to make certain your puppy or dog gets immunized properly.

All our dogs have now seen the vet, they have a clean bill of health and their vaccinations are up to date, so let's hope that all's well on the doggy front for some time to come.

The French government has approved the use of Stevia !

2009-09-09T15:29:00.003+01:00

Good news today !

I've taken this information from Food Navigator. More detailed information is available in the link below.

The French government has approved the use of stevia sweeteners with 97 per cent purity rebaudioside A (Reb A), officially opening up the first EU market for products containing the much-anticipated ingredient.

While full EU approval for stevia sweeteners is still dependent on a scientific opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), France has taken advantage of window that allows individual member states to approve ingredients for a limited two year period.

The approval, published yesterday in France’s official journal, has been hotly anticipated by the industry since AFSSA, the French food agency, issued a positive safety opinion earlier this year.

The application for France was made by Greensweet. General manager Joël Perret told FoodNavigator.com: “This is very good news. It is the first opening for this type of ingredient in the EU market”.

The global sweetener market for food use was valued at US$1.83bn in 2007 by Leatherhead Food International. The intense sweeteners market is dominated by aspartame and, to a lesser extent, sucralose. However interest in food ingredients from natural sources has led some to consider that the stevia plant could provide ‘the holy grail’ of sweeteners.

Reb A is one of the major steviol glycosides found in the leaf of the Stevia rebaudiana plant. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar but has no calories, making it an attractive option for manufacturers catering to the market for foods and beverages with reduced, low or no sugar.

More information HERE

Red cabbages are so beautiful

2009-09-06T12:29:00.001+01:00

Red cabbages are so beautiful, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The tomato blight is under control !

2009-08-30T12:58:00.005+01:00

We've been lucky - either the hot weather or the Bordeaux mix has stopped the blight from taking hold and we're getting good crops of tomatoes from the plot. The capsicums and aubergines are doing well too and I've lifted my onions. So as well as eating lovely fresh salads and tasty Provençal dishes, every week we've enough veg to store in sterilised jars for the winter.

Ratatouille is often my choice because it's quick and easy. The smell and taste of it bottled is almost as good as freshly made and it's good for couscous, adding to a stew or to eat just on it's own. I simply stir fry all the ingredients in batches then put them together in a huge pan and reduce the water content by simmering then put them into Kilner or Le Parfait jars and sterilise them for 30 minutes.

At this time of the year we clear out the freezer. The ice melts quickly and the freezer dries properly ready to be filled again with our own meat and winter game. I use up all last year's meat to mix with the summer veg to make stews and curries and this week I've made a few batches of bolognaise sauce.

Reducing tomatoes and the long slow cooking needed to make a really good bolognaise sauce takes a lot of time and a lot of gas so we rigged up a cooking plate on the rocket stove with a simple chimney leading the flames towards our back boiler in the fireplace so while we're cooking we also get hot water.

We normally use tree branches as fuel but at the moment, we've thousands of light, clean, dry corn cobs lying outside. (We grow a couple of hectares a year for animal feed.).

We've been using them in the rocket stove with really good results. With one bucket of cobs we slowly reduced 7 kilos of tomatoes (four hours) and now there's enough water for a bath !

I usually to make a dozen or so jars a week of garden veg in August and September because there's not an awful lot to do outside and it's hot here in August !. So we can have "ready meals" two or three times a week throughout the year without having to buy veg or spend too much time cooking - which suits me just fine !

Harvesting and storing Stevia

2009-08-22T11:56:00.010+01:00

Ian and Luis have just reminded me that I haven't mentioned in my Stevia posts how to save the leaves for winter use. Stevia leaves can be used fresh, or dried and saved like any other herb such as one of my favourite teas Lemon Verbena (in French Verveine citronnelle).

To harvest Stevia, you can simply cut the complete branch and hang it up upside down somewhere dry and airy and within a week or so the leaves will be ready to take off the plant.

I find that method a bit messy because the leaves can get dusty and hanging herbs seem to be favourite spots for spiders to spin their webs, so I prefer to cut off a small branch now and then and remove the leaves one by one at their base with my fingernails.

Pinching out the plant in the growing season will make it bushier as two new shoots will develop at each side of the growing point. You can then use the rest of the stalk to make a cutting to pass on to someone else. Towards the end of the growing season cut down the whole plant in the same way to prepare it for overwintering.

Once you've a small batch of leaves, put them into an open paper bag and hang the bag up in a basket somewhere dry and airy. From time to time - about every three or four days to begin with - shake and tumble the leaves to make sure that they're drying evenly. If you've forgotten all about it and the leaves show any signs of going mouldy, throw them away.

When the leaves are completely dry they'll be crisp and can easily be crushed by hand or ground into a fine green powder. You can use a fine mesh sieve to separate the leaf stalks if you prefer. Once you're Stevia's ready it can be stored in small airtight jars. Be careful not to use too much - a tiny pinch of the powder goes a very long way !

Taking cuttings, growing, harvesting and saving Stevia isn't complicated in small quantities and for a household, just one well-grown pot plant contains a huge quantity of sweetener. It's no wonder then, that the sugar industry with their "Roundup ready" Sugar Beet and "Almost Roundup Ready" Cane sugar is nervous about the "safety" of Stevia - despite the fact that the controversial sweetener Aspartume seems perfectly acceptable for licensing as a food additive.

Lots of different kinds of food taste good naturally and there's no real need to add anything - but a fresh tomato with a bit of salt or new potatoes with freshly ground black pepper are real treats and adding some honey or Stevia to a cake or a rhubarb tart is a delightful ways of using nature's bounty to the full.

The best conditions for Stevia cuttings

2009-08-18T14:37:00.006+01:00

I've been experimenting with Stevia cuttings, using different mediums, taking them at different times of the year and at different phases of the moon. I must have taken over 100 cuttings over the past couple of years and the very best results I've ever had have been in rainwater, in shade, outside, in August and September.

After taking the cutting of about 12cms (4 or 5 inches) remove the bottom leaves for drying then put them immediately into water. Mist them from time to time.

This is a photo of one of the seven of my latest batch of twelve cuttings which produced roots after only 14 days in water. The photo was taken on the day of the full moon on the 6th of August. The plant is now growing well in a pot and was last seen hitching a ride to the north of France...

Beautiful Araneus diadematus spider web in the garden

2009-08-16T11:43:00.009+01:00

European garden spider or Araneus diadematus an Orb spider" />
Epeire Diademe spiderweb in the garden, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We rarely see big spider webs as beautiful as this one. We've has been watching the progress of it's reconstruction ever since I inadvertently broke it when I walked past it - or rather through it - when I was in the garden. Ever since, I've walked round it, encouraging the dogs to do the same because it's such a shame to destroy such a beautiful structure.

In reality, we needn't have worried, because according to Wikipedia This is an Orb Weaver spider (So called because of the wheel-shaped spiral webs they build.) and these spiders are said to eat their webs each night along with many of the small insects stuck to it. They then spin a shiny brand new web in the morning. These wonderful webs are built by the larger females who usually lie head down on the web waiting for prey to get entangled in it. The insect is then captured and wrapped in silk.

The spider isn't aggressive and will only bite if provoked but the venom isn't dangerous to humans. The much smaller male is obliged to approach the female very cautiously in order to mate as he risks being eaten by her.

There is more information about this spider and some amazing photographs (Especially the close-ups.) in Nic's Spiders

I was curious to find out a bit more about the geometry of the construction of the web as I remembered that the spider's web is a forex trading term - a golden section indicator which looks like a spiders web and is used as a key to stock market behaviour. (Presumably Peak Oil means that someone somewhere now has to do redo the whole thing!) I started a foray into economics and geometry then spotted this phrase : The epeira spider spins its web into a logarithmic spiral. ... which is composed of three bones in Golden Section to one another and takes the spiral shape of... Which led me to this this link (After a lot of barking up the golden mean tree) on the Geometry of the Epeira's Web Isn't the internet an amazing tool ? Imagine how much time and effort it would have taken to get this information from books !

It's fascinating to learn more about the world of wild creatures but first you have to identify them ! So my thanks to Kathy and Karunia in The France Forum who helped me find out that this is the common European garden spider Araneus diadematus and it's name in French is Epeire Diademe.

Late Tomato blight strikes again this year

2009-08-13T09:22:00.011+01:00

Green Beefheart Tomatoes, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I've hardly commented on how the vegetable garden is doing this year but - apart from tomatoes - things are coming along nicely and we should have enough vegetables to eat fresh and to store to last us all year.

I say apart from tomatoes because although we've a had a few kilos of early tomatoes, I've noticed the dreaded late blight rear it's ugly head and I'm hanging on in there hoping that the precautions I'm taking help to delay the onset of the disease just long enough for me to harvest our main crop.

Over the past couple of years we've had a problem with tomato blight, a fungal disease spread by spores in the atmosphere. The disease is highly contagious and although I've noticed that some varieties like Brandywine resist blight slightly longer all tomatoes succumb in the end and there is no cure for blight.

It's so annoying because I plant a lot of tomatoes and really look forward to getting a good crop which we use almost every day for salads throughout the summer and have loads left over to purée into tomato sauce and add to ratatouille which I bottle and keep in the cellar for the winter.

Late blight is caused by Phytophthora infestans an oomycete or water mould. (Early blight, caused by Alternaria solani, is usually called "potato blight".) Late blight was the major culprit in the devastating 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines.

The spread of the infection is most rapid during conditions of high moisture and moderate temperatures. It's spread by the wind or by rain splashing the spores on to the plants. Once the blight really takes hold the leaves, stems and even the tomatoes themselves go brown and the whole plant withers and dies. It spreads rapidly, devastating a crop in a few days.

The first year I saw blight I took the brown leaves off and burned then - composting them spread the disease. That stopped it for a while and my early season tomatoes ripened well. Later into summer - with a rainy and cool August the bottom leaves of all the the plants curled and started to have brown mottled patches.

I don't like putting anything on my plants so I decided to cut my losses and ripped them all up and burned them plus their wooden stakes in the fire and sterilised the metal electric fence posts to use again next year.

To try to prevent blight, I give my vegetables a very thick mulch to stop the earth splashing on them when it rains. I always water my tomatoes at ground level and never on the leaves. I plant tomatoes in full sun. This year we made a new raised bed using a hugelkultur bed and I decided to use it for growing tomatoes because almost all my existing garden has at some time or another had tomatoes on it and the new bed is tucked away behind trees and protected from the wind.

Last year for the first time I used Bordeaux mixture and it did help to delay the spread of the disease.

This year, I've sprayed the beautifully formed tomatoes once again hoping that they won't take long to get to to the stage when they start to go even slightly red and I can pick them and ripen them indoors. The blue haze on the plant isn't pretty and I have to forgo one of the garden's treats of being able to take a perfect ripe warm tomato from a plant and pop it straight into my moth - but needs must.

Although Bordeaux mixture is deemed suitable for organic growers, if it's used excessively (Hopefully once a year isn't "excessive"!) the Copper, it's principal ingredient, can lead to the destruction of beneficial organisms and cause an imbalance in the soil nutrients that probably reduce the ability of the organisms and the plants themselves to fight off disease naturally.

In that case, the truth of the saying "You are what you eat" leads me to believe that for the good of my own immune system, I should try to allow my vegetables to grow as naturally as possible and if they can't grow without my interference then I should replace them with something else.

That's very easy to say, but trying to replace tomatoes isn't going to be easy and for the time being I'll take my chances that nature will help me to restore the balance in the soil for the years to come.

Chicken with her chicks in the new raised beds

2009-08-04T20:11:00.003+01:00

Still working on the extension roof....

2009-07-31T21:33:00.003+01:00

Tower Roof Golden Rod and Purple Loosestrife, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Making progress, slowly but surely.

Harvesting rain water

2009-07-23T22:19:00.015+01:00

New water butts at the back of the chicken shed, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We have piped "town" water but in our area it's very expensive and smells of chlorine. I hesitate to use it even on my hair or when I'm washing or dying wool. I may be wrong but I have the impression that the chemicals used to kill the harmful bacteria in the drinking water aren't good for an organic vegetable garden, so I try to capture as much water as we possibly can to use where we need it.

Where there's a slope on the land or a roof there's the possibility of collecting rainwater and over the years we've created swales, ponds and drains and amassed quite a collection of barrels and water butts to contain this precious stuff. Buy buying, making or scrounging anything that will hold water we now have a capacity to stock around 12,000 litres in containers. Some of the containers have lasted for years others have failed us miserably. The cheap green ones we bought in a garden centre split after two years even out of the sun but we hope the new ones will last us for some time to come.

Our vegetable garden and the planted areas around our new house have increased dramatically over the past few years. Despite lavish mulching we still need a lot of water for our new fruit trees, shrubs and windbreak plants to keep them healthy and in some cases to keep them alive until they become established. Summers seem to be getting longer and hotter and water is becoming more and more a worry especially when, like us, we really need good crops in the veg plot to be able to feed ourselves all year round. We intend to increase our stockage capacity little by little until we're collecting enough rain water to never to have to use the hose from our taps.

We've built the house and almost all of the sheds at the top of our south facing garden and our system is very basic and gravity fed. Our chickens, geese and the goats and sheep are watered from the roof water and we've enough pressure to clean feeders, plant pots and even the pigs appreciate a shower !

Although we have composting toilets outside (and loads of trees!) we've flushing toilets inside the house and we have a terrible job to try to persuade visitors to use the outside loos or at least only flush when it's really necessary. (If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down.) The water in the septic tank isn't wasted - it waters the shrubs and trees on the shady slope behind the goat shed but it seems a shame to use drinking water to do that. So we're planning on directing some of the water from the roofs of the extension for use inside the house so that we can wash clothes inside the house and flush the toilets without spending a penny !

Thanks !

2009-07-21T16:15:00.001+01:00

Pyke and Judy are great friends, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Thanks to all of you who commented in the blog or contacted me personally about the wasp incident.

I'm fine now and it's almost business as usual except that I'm a bit more careful about getting stung. We've also decided to destroy wasp nests near the house - something we don't like doing but it makes me feel a lot happier.

Frightening experience after a wasp sting - Anaphylactic reaction

2009-07-10T10:03:00.030+01:00

This was one of the most frightening experiences I've ever had so I thought I'd tell you about it in my blog to spread the message about this potentially dangerous allergic reaction.

On Wednesday afternoon I was stung by a wasp. I didn't see the wasp itself but I think it was an Asian Hornet because I noticed that they had started building a nest just near our back door. I spend a lot of time outdoors and I've been stung a few times by wasps and bees and although it's a nuisance it's not normally something I'd worry too much about.

I immediately applied wasp-eze to help reduce the inevitable swelling in my arm then went back outside to carry on with what I was doing. A few minutes later, I suddenly felt very strange with crackling stars blinding my vision and a powerful feeling of my brain being "squashed" and I felt faint and very ill.

I sat in the kitchen with Fabrice thinking it was just shock and would pass. I got up with an urge to go to the toilet and my legs buckled under me, so Fabrice helped me to the loo and I sat for a few minutes waiting to "go" and vomit - to no avail.

My throat and tongue became swollen I couldn't breathe or move and slipped to the floor. My vision was poor, my heart was pumping very fast and my arms and legs felt very heavy and swelled dramatically. I had painful cramps like labour pains and my tongue, mouth and eyes became puffy and red.

Fabrice 'phoned the Pompiers and they came within minutes, made me comfortable and immediately gave me oxygen to help me breathe. The doctor came a few minutes later and gave me a intramuscular shot of adrenaline and antihistamines.

After half an hour my whole body became swollen and bright red and covered with itchy spots.

The doctor stayed for about an hour until my blood pressure was almost normal, the danger had passed and I could walk upstairs to bed.

Yesterday, I felt sore all over and today I'm still a bit swollen and shocked but I feel much better and I've been spending a while on the 'net finding out more about what happened.

Apparently, according to The Allergy Site I experienced a classic anaphylactoid reaction.

This is an extract taken from the Allergy Site.

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction - the extreme end of the allergic spectrum. The whole body is affected, often within minutes of exposure to the allergen but sometimes after hours. Peanut allergy and nut allergy are frequently severe and for that reason have received widespread publicity. Causes of anaphylaxis also include other foods, insect stings, latex and drugs, but on rare occasions there may be no obvious trigger.

An anaphylactic reaction is caused by the sudden release of chemical substances, including histamine, from cells in the blood and tissues where they are stored. The release is triggered by the reaction between the allergic antibody (IgE) with the substance (allergen) causing the anaphylactic reaction. This mechanism is so sensitive that minute quantities of the allergen can cause a reaction. The released chemicals act on blood vessels to cause the swelling in the mouth and anywhere on the skin. There is a fall in blood pressure and, in asthmatics, the effect is mainly on the lungs.

Symptoms of Anaphylaxis

* generalised flushing of the skin
* nettle rash (hives) anywhere on the body
* sense of impending doom
* swelling of throat and mouth
* difficulty in swallowing or speaking
* alterations in heart rate
* severe asthma
* abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting
* sudden feeling of weakness (drop in blood pressure)
* collapse and unconsciousness

I found a useful pdf from the Resuscitation Council (UK) which gives advice on what to do in the case of Anaphylaxis.

Now, of course, I have to be more careful when I'm out in the garden ! Some of the things I looking at are wearing less colourful clothes, no perfume (not that I do!) and I have to go to the doctors this afternoon to get a prescription for an Epi-pen or Ana-Pen (A self-administered adrenaline shot) and some anti-histamines.

I've also read that it's possible to follow a course of desensitisation. I'll look into that more and add more to this blog after I've seen the doctor.

UPDATE

I've now got an Epi-pen or as it's called here : ANAHELP trousse d'urgence pour choc anaphylactique. My doctor also gave me some steroids - antihistamines - to take in the event of another sting.

I still feel slightly itchy and "floaty" so I'm not quite normal yet but I feel a lot more confident about working outside. I've told friends and neighbours that I'm allergic so that they'll know what to do in the event that I need their help and I'm trying to find out as much as I can about natural ways of dealing with Anaphylaxis.

Dog update - the new Dachshunds

2009-07-06T09:03:00.023+01:00

We've had two miniature Dachshunds for some years and they really are wonderful little dogs.

Bonnie is now eight years old. She was our first Dachshund and I have to admit that I never used to like this breed because when I was a student in Glasgow my landlady had a horde of smooth-haired dogs and when I came in late they "welcomed" me home yapping and biting at my long skirts and flares. I always dreaded putting my key in the door.

I've loved dogs all my life but this particular breed makes me very nervous and when Fabrice was invited by one of his hunting friends to go and see a litter I could see what was coming.

We came home with this little creature who looked more like a rat than a dog on the understanding that she'd be sterilised as soon as she was old enough. I regret that now because Bonnie has grown into a very interesting, intelligent little dog and her main rôle in life is hunting with Fabrice and tracking animals injured by hunters or by cars. She's fearless without being reckless and when she's tracking she never gives up.

Bonnie had been with us for about five years, when her friend, our old dog Didi, a miniature Poodle and Yorkshire Terrier cross, died. Bonnie missed Didi a lot and as we had fallen in love with the Dachshund temperament we decided to look for another "mini-wire".

We asked around, scoured the small ads and lists of breeders and discovered that finding a Miniature wired haired Dachshund (In French it's Teckel nain a poil dur) wasn't as easy as we thought it would be.

We eventually found our dog who we called Didi III (Didi was the name of Fabrice's first dog.) Although she's a lovely dog and a great wee hunter she isn't a good example of her breed with her shortish hair and slightly bent legs. Like many Dachshunds, she also has the annoying trait of having a false pregnancy after she's been in season, so we don't intend to let her have puppies either.

We decided after Max and Judy died that we'd look for another Dachshund and we spread the word and started looking again at breeders lists. After a lot of e-mails, 'phone calls and visits to breeders to see pups, we got in contact with a couple who live about three hours from us who have bred long-haired Dachshunds for over 30 years and had recently bred a few wire haired pups from the berlioz de ker ki douar line.

We visited their farm and spent a few hours with the breeder, talking and being shown around and we were very impressed by the condition of all of their dogs and the cleanliness of the yard as well as their professionalism and willingness to answer questions.

Of course, the two pups available were adorable and their mother was bright eyed, calm and friendly and as you can see in the photo to the left, looked exactly like our Bonnie! Choosing between the pups was impossible so we had both !

For the moment, Bonnie and Didi are ignoring the pups, spending more time outside with our visitors than they do in the house which gives Pyke our Border Collie the chance to show them the ropes. He's responding so well to their company and the responsibility, it's a pleasure to see him finally growing up.

As Angie pointed out I forgot to say what the pups names are !

Their kennel names are Ebony and Emine because dogs born this year have a name startin with "E" but we've decided to call the Honey coloured one Jessie and the darker one Judy but they don't know that yet !

Notre système pour chauffer l'eau

2009-07-03T08:06:00.005+01:00

Comme promis, pour mes amis français qui ne peut pas lire mon blog, voici une description de notre système pour chauffer l'eau.

Chez nous, nous avons une cuisinière, allumée en hiver pour faire la cuisine et elle chauffe toute la maison sans effort.

Mais, la cuisinière ne chauffe pas l'eau - sauf en petite quantité. Donc la solution pour avoir l'eau chaude était de se servir la cheminée.

Nous avons décidé d'utiliser une cheminée ouverte. Je sais, je sais bien que ce ne pas trop efficace vis à vis d'autres systèmes, mais je l'adore.

Nous l'utilisons pour l'élimination des déchets pour le séchage des bottes, chaussettes et champignons et pour faire la cuisine à notre façon.

A coté du feu, pouvons faire toutes sortes de choses comme sculpter un morceau de bois ou nettoyer les chaussures sans se soucier de salir la maison est la communication est plus facile et beaucoup plus douce à côté d'un feu ouvert.

Nous avons construit la cheminée à une pente afin de conserver autant de chaleur que possible à l'intérieur du bâtiment. La cheminée chauffe le premier étage où je garde ma literie.

Dans le foyer au-dessus des flammes, il y a un récupérateur de chaleur qu'on appelle "Le chaudron magique" qui chauffe l'eau et deux radiateurs dans les salles de bains au premier étage. Les panneaux solaires sont sur le même circuit.

J'avais déjà un système très efficace que j'ai conçu au Royaume-Uni qui a utilisé du gaz, du bois et de l'énergie solaire pour chauffer l'eau et la maison, alors j'ai décidé d'utiliser le même système dans la nouvelle maison en France.

Voici une parti de plan de la conception du système rez de chaussé (12mx6m) indiquant l'emplacement de la cheminée au milieu de la maison, afin de minimiser la longueur des tuyaux qui vont aux salles de bains et aux radiateurs. Cliquer sur la photo pour la voir grande.

Le ballon d'eau chaude (à droit sans isolation, principalement en laine de chèvre) est placé derrière la cheminée dans une petite pièce que nous utilisons pour le séchage des vêtements mouillés, les graines et d'herbes. En place maintenant, il y a beaucoup de masse thermique autour le foyer de la cheminée (chauffée aussi par le soleil en hiver) et le récupérateur de chaleur en forme de chaudron.

Voir les trous dans le chaudron (à droit sur le photo gauche) pour maximiser le contact avec la chaleur de la flamme. Le système fonctionne très bien.

Quand il fait trop chaud pour chauffer la maison, nous utilisons un petit poêle fusée (ou rocket stove) directement sous le chaudron pour éviter de chauffer le foyer et la maison reste fraîche.

Le poêle est alimentée soit avec du bois ou des rafles de maïs. Nous cultivons environ un hectare et demi de maïs chaque année et nous utilisons les grains de maïs pour l'alimentation des moutons, les chèvres et les poules.

Une fois les grains retirés de l'épi, nous avons des "déchets" que nous utilisons soit pour l'isolation ou comme source d'énergie. Les rafles de maïs sont parfaites pour un rocket stove, elles sont légers, propres et produisent beaucoup de chaleur.

Heureusement, le bois et les rafles de mais sont les deux sources d'énergie en abondance chez nous.

Grâce au rocket stove, nous pouvons faire la cuisine ou faire des conserves pendant des heures avec peu d'énergie et chauffe l'eau en même temps.

Une partie importante du système pour chauffer l'eau, surtout en été, sont les panneaux solaires qui préchauffe l'eau au printemps et en automne et nous fourni l'eau chaude durant les mois d'été.

J'ai rapporté mes vieux panneaux depuis le Royaume-Uni (La personne qui a acheté ma maison n'en voulais pas !) et nous les avons placés sur le terrain en plein sud, derrière la maison.

Comme le chaudron, les panneaux sont plus bas que le ballon d'eau, le système complet fonctionné par thermosiphon. Mais, placé sur le terrain les panneaux ont été trop vulnérables et et malheureusement ils ne sont pas esthétiques.

Donc, nous avons décidé de poser les nouveaux panneaux sur le toit de la véranda qui est en construction. Ils seront hors de vue et de danger aussi. Le toit de notre véranda est plus haut que le ballon et pour faire circuler l'eau il y a une petite pompe 12v alimenté par nos panneaux photovoltaïques.

Nous utilisons environ 8m3 de bois chaque année pour chauffer 170m3, cuisiner et sécher le linge, teinter la laine et faire nos conserves. Nous achetons aussi deux bouteilles de gaz chaque année pour la cuisine, mais une fois que nous aurons construit le poêle de masse dans l'extension (nous avons l'intention d'utiliser une partie du poêle pour la cuisson), nous allons être autonome.

Bientôt je vais commencer à faire le design du poêle et cela prendra un certain temps pour la recherche et l'expérimentation. Je vais prendre des photos de chaque étape de la conception et la construction.

Duc's going home

2009-06-29T15:26:00.002+01:00

Duc's leaving after almost a year with us, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Duc is an 18 year old ex-trotter who has been staying on our farm until his owner's broken collar bone healed. She's now fit enough to ride and take care of him again and has found Duc a few hectares of land near her home.

We were really sad to see him go - he's a lovely horse who still has a lot of energy and fun in him. Best of luck you two...

Getting ready for the tower roof of the extension

2009-06-23T13:16:00.002+01:00

Getting ready for the tower roof of the extension, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We're between solar panels so we're using a rocket stove to get hot water

2009-06-12T21:57:00.005+01:00

There's a hole in your bucket, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We've taken away the old solar panels to redo the back terrace and intend to buy new vacuum tube solar panels very soon - well as soon as we have a roof to put them on!

In the meantime with five of us in the house we need hot water and although we just have to light the fire to heat the cauldron which heats the hot water, the fireplace is designed to retain heat so the house stays too warm for too long afterwards.

So we made a new rocket stove from an old bucket and a few tin cans, put it directly under the cauldron and it does the job perfectly. This isn't a very efficient design for a rocket stove but the bucket already had a hole in it so we used it.

Here's a little video by a guy called Vavrek which shows how to build these efficient twig-powered cooking stoves from scratch.

Bourrou village from the second floor window of the extension

2009-06-10T21:29:00.002+01:00

Bourrou village from the second floor window of the extension, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Fabrice the pig whisperer

2009-06-05T22:47:00.002+01:00

Fabrice the pig whisperer, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

More raised beds and the chicken shed is completely covered in perfumed climbers

2009-06-05T21:25:00.010+01:00

More raised beds and the chicken shed is completely covered in perfumed climbers, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We're making more space for food growing - there are too many flowers in the veg plot !

The perfume from the Star Jasmine around the Chicken shed is really glorious and as there's a bit of shade, it's a nice place to work in the heat we've had this week.

At the moment, the wild honeysuckle is all over the place and the Foxgloves are in full flower. There are chicks everywhere and as you walk further down under the shade of the Chestnut trees, you can hear the pigs grunting, thinking that there's sure to be something nice to eat on it's way. They've eaten well this week - all the brambles and weeds have been thrown over to them. Their favourite munch so far is Milk Thistle aka Pig Leaf! I've cleared this patch, made an instant fence with hemp string and Honeysuckle and planted a few more courgettes. I had a few Rose cuttings and some Cannas and I've popped them in here too to give a bit of colour. The earth is lovely because I mulched last year and at the top we had a huge compost heap.

The new compost heap will be further up towards the house and little by little we'll open up this little part of the wood without too much damage to the trees and insects.

New steps up from the goat shed

2009-06-05T01:56:00.001+01:00

New steps up from the goat shed, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I've been sharing my computer with four other people, so I haven't had much time to blog and the weather's just been too good to sit inside.

We've been really busy planting up the summer veg, doing the jobs we've been meaning to do for ages and others that just presented themselves - like these steps made with some concrete posts we found in a rubbish dump !

The last steps were "temporary" and I've lost count of the number of times I've slipped on them. These aren't quite finished but they look nice already and they'll last for a while and not be slippery when it's wet.

Fabrice and one of our new Basco Bearnaise lambs

2009-05-26T15:05:00.001+01:00

Fabrice and one of our new Basco Bearnaise lambs, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We got these sheep as a gift from two women farmers from the Pyrénées who came to Bourrou several months ago with the promise of taking over a farm from a retiring farmer.

They packed and stored their belongings and transported their tractor and farming equipment along with with their herd of 150 pregnant sheep on to their newly rented farm, hoping to start commercial milk production in the spring of this year.

After two months and for reasons known only to himself, the farmer changed his mind, sold his barn and rented his land to someone else. Threatened with expulsion, the girls had no choice but to dry off their ewes, keep the herd off the spring grazing and keep them inside in cramped and unhealthy conditions for several weeks while searching for somewhere to put them.

In desperation, they came to ask for our help and fortunately we found them enough land and a barn on an exploitation just a few kilometres from their temporary accommodation near our farm.

The girls have managed to sell some adults in their herd and almost all the lambs have gone for meat but these two little females from exceptionally good stock were bottle fed and it seems criminal to kill them.

They are big lambs - these two are just over two months old and, with a strange "Roman" face and a good appetite for milk! (We're still bottle feeding for a while to get them used to us.)

The Basco Béarnaise originated in South West of France, they're a good all-round breed and give milk for cheese, meat and wool and they've been designated a HERITAGE breed.

Heritage Sheep Breeds (HSBs) are defined as genetically distinct, geographically concentrated and adapted to their environments.
Typically, these sheep breeds are "local" breeds, traditionally farmed for commercial use and play an important role in the culture and rural economy of the regions in which they are managed.

Heritage Sheep Breeds are already used to support the environmental and economic sustainability of local rural communities and may reasonably be expected to become even more significant in agriculture in the community as low input farming systems are prioritised. In addition, with the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), breeds such as HSBs that are environmentally adapted to their local geographical regions will become even more important given the de-coupling of subsidies from production, with increased focus on the environmental status of agricultural holdings.

We've called the very white one Juliette and the bigger one Coco and we're hoping they'll do well enough to provide us with milk for cheese next year, I've already started Googling for recipes !

RIP our lovely Griffon Vendéen Judy.

2009-05-24T13:46:00.009+01:00

Au revoir Judy, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Our Griffon Vendéen Judy died on Thursday but I was too upset so soon after Max's death to post anything about her in the blog.

She was a big happy silly dog who spent her last six years with us at Bourrou. We got her from Yan's (The Spice Man) parents who found her badly injured by the side of the road. They took her to the vet and were presented with a bill for 6000 francs. She had no collar or tattoo and wasn't chipped and despite trying for several weeks they never found her original owner.

They nursed her for three months until she was well and called her Lady because she was so elegant but as she was a hunting dog, Judy did what she loved to do and ran off regularly to hunt - sometimes disappearing for several days. Yan's parents were concerned about her having another accident, or causing an accident - not to mention the havoc she would cause with the local wildlife. Having her became a constant worry for them and Yan asked us if we would be interested in taking her.

We were warned to be vigilant and we were - but despite that Judy would be with you, then you'd turn your back for a second and she'd be gone. A door ajar was an open invitation, she managed to just disappear when you least expected it and you'd hear her baying miles off in the woods. Judy escaped several times in the first month we had her. All the hunters in our area were supplied with her description and each time she was spotted, caught and brought back, tail wagging.

Fabrice is the local gamekeeper it just wasn't on that we had an errant dog, so, regretfully, we decided to build a compound for her where she'd be secure when we couldn't keep her on a lead.

She hated the compound with a vengeance (It's now become a park for weaners when they first arrive so we can see them from the house.) and sulked and moped and looked so sad at not being included in what was going on, so we bought a chain and she was like many other dogs in France tied up under a tree just behind the back terrace and she was quite content!

She'd obviously been loved in her last home. She was affectionate with Fabrice and our other dogs and loved children and knew what a sofa was for but at first she completely ignored me. (Which is very disconcerting indeed!) For the first six weeks she was here she never responded to her name "Lady". During those first few weeks we acquired a Mynah bird, Arthur, who's owner was going back to the UK. He (Although we found out later Arthur was a "she"!) was a real character with a good vocabulary and every so often he would shout "Judy" in a high pitched voice. We noticed that as soon as Arthur shouted "Judy" Judy would look up at Arthur, so we decided to rename her Judy and from then on Lady became Judy and we had no problem getting her to respond to her name!

Dogs like Judy need a lot of exercise and in the summer Fabrice and his hunting colleagues take their dogs to a training and exercising park to re-hone their skills, train new dogs and initiate new hunters. Judy started going with them and it was obvious she knew exactly what was expected of her. When the hunting season opened Judy went out with the pack and from that day onwards she never ran away from home.

She was always Fabrice's dog - a man's dog - and I never played a big part in her life until about 18 months ago when she "retired" and I started to care for her more when she became weak with the cancer which finally killed her.

It seems ridiculous now to think that I was afraid of her when she first came. Wary, because somehow I couldn't "connect" with her. Judy was the most gentle, placid dog I've ever known and we're all going to miss her.

Always wear your Rose tinted specs

2009-05-23T02:11:00.003+01:00

Never throw away your Rose tinted specs, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Hooray, the hoops and the temporary shed have gone thanks to Fabrice and Nic !!

2009-05-22T00:44:00.004+01:00

Hoop hoop hooray, the hoops and the temporory shed have gone thanks to Fabrice and Nic !!, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

...and Jacqueline !!

We had two blue "sheds" that have been really useful but they were so ugly.

We made them from hoops and tarpaulins our pal John brought over for us just after the terrible storm here in 1999. The tarpaulins are still in good condition.

We emptied one of them moved all the stuff and now it's gone and there's loads more room at the side of the house.

Chickens and chicks helping get the raised bed ready for planting and mulching

2009-05-17T01:24:00.001+01:00

Chickens and chicks helping get the raised bed ready for planting and mulching, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

"Compost Awareness Week" and making more raised beds

2009-05-09T09:53:00.019+01:00

Did you know that it's "Compost Awareness week ? No, neither did I until someone in the GROWVEG forum posted about it.

We've got several different ways of making compost, some methods work quickly and some are incredibly slow. The slow way we have of making compost is by using all the organic "waste" materials we have when we first clear a patch of land, adding more roots, weeds, branches, twigs, brambles, sheep and goat daggings and dog and human hair.

I've just found out from a reader of this blog that this system is called Hugelkultur.

The pile then gradually becomes a home for all the insects, snakes, lizards and other animals we've disturbed during the clearing and gives us somewhere handy to throw organic materials. We don't have to burn our waste - we simply walk round it and in doing so shape the paths and add form to the garden.

After about a year we cover the top with used goat litter and leave it for a few weeks to settle down then we use the pile to grow easy vegetables like pumpkins and plant some climbing plants like Ipomea and Virginia Creeper to decorate the heap. We never disturb or move the heap except to throw more and more things on top of it and despite having thrown many square metres of organic matter on it it never seems to get any higher.

Our oldest heap had started to sink and last year we decided to leave it to rot completely to make a new raised bed.

We were going to use chestnut poles as we've done almost everywhere else in the garden but we were clearing roots out of the pig park after the pigs had dug round them and it seemed a shame not to use them to make something nice. So Fabrice hauled them round one of the old compost heaps and we'll use them to retain the earth for a raised bed. We also gathered up lots of stones and used those and the remaining branches to backfill the roots to improve drainage in the hope that they'll last a bit longer.

I've started planting around the outside of them already and the chickens are still "digging" the middle bit for us and getting rid of all the grubs and insects.

When we cleared the little wood at the back of the house to make a garden, we decided to keep the well-shaped trees which were too beautiful to cut down. They give us a bit of shade and interest and provide nesting sites well out of the way of our cats and the birds don't seem to mind our presence.

Under all the trees, I grow raspberries and other shade loving plants and store cuttings for potting up and they do well in those conditions. There are a few Oaks and one beautiful Linden tree where the Collared Doves build a nest each year.

The Linden's roots go on for metres and send up new little trees every so often but I just work around them trying to keep the planting between the roots and the veg far enough away so that they don't suffer to much. At the south of the tree we've had a compost heap which we've also made into a new raised bed this week so there will be loads more room this year for summer veg.

Irises and Euphorbia cyparissias Clarice Howard enjoying the rain

2009-05-01T00:47:00.003+01:00

Irises and Euphorbia cyparissias Clarice Howard enjoying the rain, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

This Euphorbia is very invasive but looks lovely squashed in here between the pale blue irises.

Romantic Permaculture and our Spring gardens

2009-04-28T12:34:00.008+01:00

I've been talking a lot recently with my gardener friends about what's growing. Everyone's excited now that the earth is warming up and things are coming back to life and it's time for sowing and repotting and preparing the garden for the best growing season ever.

I'm a bit embarrassed sometimes because I want to share my joy at what's growing here and although the fruit trees and bushes and the self seeded Parsley and Coriander, the rhubarb and Artichokes and the seedlings are doing well, it's the flowering plants that give me the most pleasure.

There's no rule that says a self-sufficient gardener shouldn't have pretty flowers, wonderful shrubs or glorious climbers, so I'd like to celebrate not only the start of the growing season for the vegetable plot but also for the return of Spring and Summer colour, perfume and beauty in the garden.

As you know if you read this blog regularly, I'm basically a very practical person. As soon as I decide I want to live somewhere, I plan the house, the vegetable garden and the housing for the animals. In permaculture terms I'm ZONING, that is during the design process I'm thinking of walking and carrying things to and from different areas of activity. Things that need to be done regularly like opening the chickens, feeding the pigs and goats and making sure everyone has fresh water need to be near the house to make life easier.

Once that's done though, there's time to be more creative, more exuberant and I like to bring the garden together with little walkways full of shrubs, climbers and flowers and on our daily rounds of caring for the veg plot and the animals, we have the chance to walk through a paradise.

I love growing climbers which can be seen from inside the house and examined closer up as we walk on the terrace. This beautiful Chilean Potato Vine is flowering already and it's fast-growing branches mean that we'll have shade on the terrace this summer.

I've taken about thirty CUTTINGS from this plant and used it to hide the water butts and cover screens and fences in different parts of the garden. The cuttings take easily in water and if you'd like to see how fast it grows then click on THIS link for photos or this one for a SLIDESHOW.

I've never been a Rose person. I always thought that they were sickly inbred creatures who needed a lot of attention but few years ago I started a love affair with a Rose.

I wanted a fast growing shrub to cover the BANK AT THE BACK of the cellar to keep it cooler in the summer. Our gardener friend Andrew suggested the Lady Banks Rose. I had a look at the qualities of this plant - almost evergreen, thorn-less, fast growing, low maintenance and decided to plant one. It has far exceeded my expectations for the job in hand as well as being one of the joys of the Spring garden.

I've taken loads of cuttings from an old cherished Wisteria cutting I brought from the UK and now there are five substantial plants which are in flower at the moment.

We're lucky to have a lot of wood which we use all the time to make pergolas, sheds, screens and before a shed or pergola is up, I've already started getting excited about what I'm going to plant round it.

I make gardens because having beautiful things around to look at and watch changing, to smell and to enjoy - are more important than we think.

Smallholding means that our lives revolve around our land and animals. There are very few opportunities to go out and enjoy new fashions, surprises, culture and beauty, so everything we need to nourish not only our bodies, but also our senses, has to be on site.

All the "gardens" we've made here have been from scratch. Many of them, especially at the new house are still very much work in progress. I like the challenge of gardening on a very low budget and I enjoy taking the time to find interesting bits and pieces - some of them become treasures and some are sentimental. Almost all of them have a history or an association with a person or a place.

We've 100 acres of land, with valleys and woods and water, so there's lots of scope for wild areas and experiments with big projects. Huge plants and invasive species can be accommodated with ease and used in settings where they can enjoy freedom to grow to maturity and provide food, shelter and shade for wildlife.

Nature has taken over in some of our gardens because there's just not enough hours in the day to strim and trim. I used to worry, but now I just look and see what's happened since the last time I visited.

Magical surroundings can be created with seeds and cuttings and the odd delightful purchase of new plants and I can honestly say that I've never regretted planting something beautiful.

The three little pigs are growing fast

2009-04-27T21:55:00.006+01:00

The little pigs we bought a few weeks ago are now enormous and have settled in well to their new home in the big park.

We've got sheep, goats, chickens geese and these are without doubt the easiest animal of all of them!

All pigs need is a good sized park split into two or three different areas which can be rotated. When they've dug up the ground in one of them, move them on to the next one and that helps to reduce their internal parasites. We only worm ours about twice a year.
They need a simple shelter, checking over from time to time for external parasites, for ear cleaning and to keep them friendly and easy to manage.
They love a wallow and at the moment they eat all the brambles we cut for them, tree clippings, weeds, eggs, snails, slugs, and a few heads of corn. In the summer they've loads of vegetable trimmings, courgettes, tomatoes, carrots, cabbages - anything really.

These three are really good fun and are having a great time hunting for worms roots and mice and lounging around in the late spring sunshine.

How to post photos in a forum from Flickr

2009-04-25T15:47:00.002+01:00

People are always asking this question and it's a shame to miss out the fun in a forum if you don't know how to post a photo. I'm no expert but since it's raining today and I've already typed out the text for a thread in Downsizer I thought I may as well change it into a post in my blog in the hope that it's useful to somebody.

How to post photos in a forum from Flickr

Go to Flickr, click on your photos and choose the photo you want

Click on all sizes (that's the spy glass at the top) then choose the size you want.
There are two sets of code under the photo.
The first lot of code is a clickable photo that leads back to the original photo - very useful if you've a site or blog.
The second is the URL that you can use for a forum as long as you use the IMGs outside the photo - that's one of the clickable buttons up at the right in the forum posting box.

Mouse over the box for the kind of code you want and the code should change colour. On your computer click control and c to copy then control and v together to paste the code where you want it.

In some browsers you can also right click the mouse on any photo on the 'net and copy the address of the image. That's the photo URL or address which goes between the set of IMGs and doing it this way makes life very easy.

If you want to follow a tutorial in the France Forum about this subject click on THIS link.

Pyke our new Border Collie herding for the first time

2009-04-23T23:27:00.009+01:00

Pyke our new Border Collie helping us for the first time to get the goats in for shearing, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Shearing has started and Pyke has been helping to bring the goats in three times a day. The last day of shearing he did the job perfectly and we're so pleased that he's enjoying himself.

We've been walking him a lot with the goats since he arrived but keeping an eye on what's happening because it would be a shame if the goats attacked him and he was afraid and put off working with them for life.

The repetition over the past few days has obviously paid off. We've still not managed to get him to concentrate when we want him to but his behaviour has really improved over the past couple of weeks.

We even invited him in to watch what we were doing on the condition that he sat still and didn't stress the goats and he behaved impeccably!

Early evening storm brewing in the potager

2009-04-18T09:12:00.005+01:00

Early evening storm brewing in the potager, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I'd just transferred plants and repotted and watered everything then I noticed those black clouds looming overhead.

The chickens have gone to bed early, the goats are in the shed, the dogs have gone back up to the house. The atmosphere is just magical and I want to savour it right to the last moment.

I hope the rain doesn't batter the Wisteria too much!

This chicken had 17 chicks...

2009-04-14T21:16:00.006+01:00

This chicken had 17 chicks..., originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

....Pyke our new Border Collie ate four of them.

When we got new ducklings, Bonnie one of our Dachshunds killed four of them while we were looking on. Fabrice immediately picked her up by the scruff of the neck and shook her whilst holding a dead duck in his other hand and she never did it again.

Pyke and I have spent a while looking at the hen with her chicks through a wire cage. I thought it was safe to let the hen and her chicks out in the garden in the early evening to let them have a grub about not too far away from the chicken house before it was time for bed. While I was tidying up the garden Pyke disappeared.

I went to look for him and caught him with a chick in his mouth. I screamed at him, grabbed a stick and hit the metal sides of the chicken shed and he ran off and dropped the chick into a bucket. Fabrice came because he heard all the noise and held Pyke while I showed him the dead chick and smacked the hard plastic bucket with a stick and making as much noise as I could, screamed "No" in his face then put his face into the bucket so that he could see the chick again.

Then we ignored him for about 15 minutes and went down to see how the hen and chicks were. When we came back up he was very shamefaced but we had a cuddle and it was forgotten.

We've had 13 chicks for three days now, I'm sure he's understood that the chicks are not to be touched.

When Pyke came at first he was very strange. It took him two weeks before he looked me in the eye. When I tried to talk to him he'd ignore me and even when I held him, he wriggled away turning his head from side to side. He pulled constantly on the lead and didn't come when he's called. He doesn't seem to know any commands apart from sit and give a paw. He bullied our little Dachshund Didi and jumps up on anything he can - including people. We sorted him out about Didi by telling her that she could fight back and she did!

We knee him in the stomach when he jumps, make him sit to have his dinner. We're having to be very strict with him and the poor dog doesn't know what's hit him. He becomes extremely nervous when we speak to him seriously and he's been hit by sticks in the past because he's very wary when you pick one up.

Now, after a month here he's settling down and "smiling" more. He has more stamina because he's getting a lot of exercise and he's starting to look at us and want to be with us. he really enjoys going out and doing the rounds and he's learned a lot of simple things like waiting until a gate is open properly and we've got through before jumping over to push it open. He's not at all motivated by food but by praise and he knows when he's a good dog and understands "No".

About a week ago I had the perfect opportunity to watch Pyke and see how he reacted to Didi protecting her mole from a Cheeky cockerel. You can draw your own conclusions about his behaviour.

I was curious to see what happened after Pyke had settled down on the terrace, so I kept filming...

Commande Prise de Terre

2009-04-14T16:22:00.009+01:00

Ajoute SVP

10 kilo de farine de blé
5 kilo pates spirales
1 bidon d'huile d'olive
5 kilo d'haricots blancs
2 kilo de lentilles
Riz demi-complet
Lait de soja

les personnes oubliés sont André Goulesque, Rauhut Elisabeth, Rauhut Laetitia, Irene

Merci

(Je vais effacer ce messae dé que la commande est passé)

Irene

First Morels (Morilles) 2009

2009-04-12T20:14:00.010+01:00

First Morels (Morilles) 2009, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Morels are really delicious mushrooms and we found our first dozen or so this week. If you're not sure about identifying them, then this site will give you some more information on the potentially dangerous False Morels which don't look at all like Morels when you cut them open.

As always you must be very careful about gathering and eating any mushrooms if you're not absolutely sure exactly what they are.

While we're looking for Morels we also look out for a few Wild leeks or Ail des Bois Allium tricoccum which - with perfect timing - arrive just as our own onions run out.

We had a nice little piece of Deer (Cerf) in the freezer so Fabrice made a lovely main dish fit to honour any hunter gatherer's table :

Entrecôte de Cerf aux Morilles et Pommes de terres.

Spring garden - West of the house

2009-04-09T23:57:00.004+01:00

Spring garden 9 avril 022, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I'm really pleased with this side of the garden this Spring. After the wallflowers have finished flowering there are some little roses to come and I've planted a few Echinacea and Dahlias and some summer annuals. The chickens scratch up the earth so sometimes the annual seeds don't make it but on the other hand I rarely need to weed.

This time last year this bed was just a mass of Periwinkle which was very pretty in the Spring but looked really worn out in the heat of the summer.

I used the Periwinkle because somebody gave me it when we first started building the house and they said it would cover the ground in "No time". They were right - it took me ages to dig out all those invasive roots.

Still, it was nice while it lasted but now the new planting is much more rich and colourful all year round and it's a real pleasure to look out from the kitchen or the terrace and see a more mature setting.

Design on roof tiles

2009-04-06T20:56:00.002+01:00

Design on roof tiles, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Fabrice has almost finished doing the roof on the "L" shaped part of the extension. This diamond shape is a tradition pattern on French roofs and although it's done in new tiles it looks OK.

I'd have preferred to use old tiles really but all the old flat tiles we've looked at are pretty damaged by frost so I suppose it's better to use these because they'll last much longer. I'll make up a mix of goat compost and water and we'll spray the roof once it's finished to give the lichen on the north side a bit of a hand to grow on the tiles and give them an older look.

The rest of this part of the roof will be covered in old canal tiles sitting on top of the existing cover.

We've just had a surprise lamb "thanks" to the Cameroon Ram !

2009-04-03T20:15:00.007+01:00

Surprise lamb crossed with Cameroon Ram, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

His mum is one of ewes from our flock which has just finished lambing.

Unfortunately she was mauled by a dog when she was only a few weeks pregnant and she lost her lamb. We brought her up nearer the house to cut around the wounds and clean them up and it was more convenient for us to keep her up here to dress the sores and make sure that she wasn't bothered by flies.

We put her in the same field as our Cameroon sheep and we didn't think she'd come into season for a while yet because she was in such a sorry state.

Well this little fellow is the result ! He's a first cross we've had with our Cameroons and he is really very pretty with a good strong body and lovely soft curly hair.

Cameroon sheep cast their wool and don't need shearing. They are very hardy and are out in all weathers (by choice) and help us to clean up the land after the Angora goats have been on it. It will be interesting to see what happens to his fleece if we decide to keep him for a while.

Spring daffs with Wisteria ready to bloom and early morning chickens

2009-04-02T13:14:00.002+01:00

Spring daffs with Wisteria ready to bloom and early morning chickens, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

The rhubarb is now uncovered and is doing well and the Globe Artichokes are transplanted.

I liked this view from the top of the potager as I walked back up to the house for a cup of tea early this morning.

Hen with seventeen chicks - this is a record number of chicks for us!

2009-03-29T09:53:00.009+01:00

Hen with 17 chicks, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

We heard cheeping from the hay bales yesterday and found this hen with 17 chicks!
We moved her and her brood to the hen house where they'll be safe from magpies for a while.

We've another hen who has started sitting in the past few days, a large black Marans hen. She's chosen a shotgun powder barrel which is what we offer our hens for egg laying. We get the barrels from a neighbour who works in an armoury and they're an ideal size and shape for some straw, the eggs and the hen. We cut the plastic lids to make a lip to hold the contents in.

When we know the hen's sitting, we move the barrel gently into a big cage inside the chicken shed so that she can be left in peace and not disturbed by the other hens, who often creep in beside a sitting hen to lay.

If we don't control this, the chick inside the egg doesn't get the necessary 21 days to hatch and dies inside the egg. If the hen is a particularly good mother and waits until all her eggs are hatched before moving from her nest, the older chicks go further and further away from her and are very vulnerable. Once the late chick hatches and leaves the nest, he's expected to join in with his older siblings, just can't keep up and often dies.

Yesterday I got a lovely present of a dozen really dark big Marans eggs. I wanted some pure Marans eggs this year because our Marans have been crossed with our last cock George who was a Bramah and of course his offspring don't lay the dark brown eggs which are so pretty.

In this photo you can see the difference between our red hens' eggs - that's the light egg, our cross Bramah/Marans - the spotty egg on the right and the pure Marans egg - a dark chocolate brown. The next time we've a hen who starts sitting I'm going to practice our own form of genetic engineering and swop her eggs for the Marans.

RIP ... Our lovely Border Collie Max

2009-03-24T18:47:00.010+01:00

Our dog Max died this morning.

He was a beautiful faithful dog and a great worker who really earned his keep. I loved him so much and we're going to miss him.

He's not really been himself for about a month, he'd become deaf and it annoyed him and I think when Pyewackett our new Border Collie came he just decided to give up. He had an epileptic fit last night and never recovered properly. Fabrice took him out for a pee early this morning and had to carry him back in.

He died peacefully with Fabrice looking over him. He would have been 14 in October. This is my favourite photo of him taken three years ago in the garden at Bourrou.

Nettie from The France Forum posted this poem for us, and for Max.

Burying a dog

There are various places in which a dog may be buried.
I am thinking now of a Setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as I am aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought.
This Setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam.
And at its proper season, the cherry tree strews petals on the green lawn of his grave.
Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub is an excellent place to bury a dog.
Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavoursome bone, or lifted his head to challenge some strange intruder.
These are good places in life or in death.

Yet, it is a small matter, for if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps.
On a hill where the wind is unrebuked, and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppy hood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture lane where most exhilarating cattle grazed, is all one to the dog, and all one to you.
And nothing is gained, nothing is lost if memory lives.
But, there is one place to bury a dog.

If you bury him in this spot, he will come to you when you call - come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again.
And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel, they shall not growl at him nor resent his coming, for he belongs there. People may laugh at you who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall...who hear no whimper, people who never really had a dog.
Smile at them, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.

The one best place to bury a dog is in the heart of his master.

Bonnie sat outside at Max's grave for two days.

Announcing the arrival of our new Border Collie Mr Pye or Pyke or....

2009-03-09T20:16:00.017+01:00

Announcing the arrival of our new Border Collie Mr Pye !, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

As you'll know if you're a regular reader of our blog, we've been looking for another Border Collie to work with Max. We tried a mating using Max as the sire which didn't work unfortunately, so we've kept looking out for suitable pups, spreading the word that we were still looking.

This dog is from the same bloodlines as Max. He's big boned and long-haired and of course a Blue Merle Border with one brown and one blue eye - which is taking a bit of getting used to! (Correction, I've just discovered he's a Black Merle! More details later...)

His presence is so like Max's that we thought it would be worth a try to train him to work with our sheep and goats. He's almost a year old. His previous owners kept him in an apartment and that just didn't work out so we decided to take him and give him a job.
We've also changed his name to Pyewackett as someone (Who shall remain nameless!) said recently that our animals were all our "familiars".

Pyewackett can be shortened to something easier to use when he's working but we'll wait and see what that turns out to be when we get to know him better.

Overwintering Stevia - this one is doing well but its neighbours look pretty gone

2009-02-23T18:25:00.004+01:00

Overwintering Stevia - this one is doing well but its neighbours look pretty gone, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

I took a lot of cuttings of Stevia last year and gave most of them away. I like giving away cuttings, not only to give other people plants but in the hope that if anything ever happens to mine, some of my friends would be able to give me back cuttings from their plants.

According to everything I've read whilst trying to find out how to save my Stevia over winter, Stevia is extremely difficult to overwinter but I decided to try with five well rooted cuttings. I put them in the little space where I do my knitting next to some French windows to give them enough light and watered them rarely and checked up on them almost daily. I moved the first one to look as though it was struggling into a warmer area but it never recovered. The next one I moved outside as the weather wasn't too cold and it looks as though it's died too. The three remaining plants are still next to the window and I'm hoping that the healthy one will live long enough to be the mother plant for more cuttings for this year.

I haven't thrown the others out because Stevia often regenerates. I had a plant that looked dead last summer but regrew from the base and continued to flourish once it was watered regularly. Perhaps there's a chance that the "dead" plants will regrow once the heat comes back into the air and the days get longer. For the time being I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens to it until I can take a few cuttings and put it outside to grow on in a bigger pot.

New piglets to replace the little one we lost and keep Peggy company.

2009-02-22T11:28:00.000+01:00

New piggies again and a happy helper!, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We bought two little weaners from a local breeder on Friday to keep our Peggy company. We lost her companion, probably to a heart attack poor thing. The new piglets have a bit of Berkshire, a bit of Gloucester Old Spot, a bit of Saddleback and a bit of Gascon in them. :-)

When we brought them home the plan was to put them into a separate park next to Peggy's and let them get to know each other gradually. We've tried to mix adult pigs together before and they fought so badly that we finally had to separate them.

The park wasn't ready when we got back and we had a lot of guests so we decided just to put all of the pigs in together, all go into the park and kept our eyes open for trouble and react accordingly. There was the odd scuffle and bit of fake and not so fake aggression. Peggy has her mouth cut and the little spotty pig had her leg bitten but they settled down to feed quietly and started digging up the ground together, so we left them for a while, coming back to check on them every so often.

There were no more major aggression problems and all three of them slept together (little one on the middle) in the shed and they had a very long lie in on Saturday morning.

Promising new cockerel Feb 2009

2009-02-20T23:52:00.004+01:00

Promising new cockerel Feb 2009, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

He came here as a gift egg and for a bit of genetic engineering, we slipped him under a sitting hen who became his doting mum.

I've been thinking for the past two months that he was a really big hen, then about a week ago I saw him in a new light. :-)

This is his first girlfriend - one of my favourite hens :

I'll be keeping my eye on this cockerel because he's huge and such a lovely colour.

I must be going through my orange phase at the moment. ;-)

Decorating my new bedroom using ochres - work in progress

2009-02-13T23:20:00.009+01:00

Evening light on the ochre painted wall, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

We had a lovely sunny evening yesterday so I took some photos of the progress of my new bedroom with the sun streaming in from the west. One of our pals gave me a hand to move furniture and paint the ceiling and we made quite a lot of progress in just a few hours. The photo above shows the final colour up close. I used a light orange wash then dabbed and rubbed in a bright red then once it was dry dabbed again and rubbed in a very light golden yellow.

This is the new sitting area in the bedroom. It's going to be a nice place to take my computer, make 'phone calls and just sit around talking to pals and pampering myself after I've come out of the bath. (One of my New Year resolutions is to take more care of myself.)

One of the problems with the sitting room-kitchen in our house is that it's a very public place and we get loads of visitors who just walk straight into the kitchen - the way the French do!

This is the evening light streaming in from the little window behind the bed. Grigri is really enjoying the new place he's found for his afternoon snooze.

I've still got a lot of finishing off to do but so far I like the colours as they are and I've started to hang up some of my favourite paintings and fiddle around with lighting.

This sort of thing is great fun compared to all the lifting and carrying we do when we're building and to see a room taking shape is so rewarding. I'll get this room's bathroom sorted out too and that way I've my own private suite. (Ooh la la!)

Needless to say it was lovely weather today and I spent most of it outside planting shrubs and roses. I hope it rains soon to water my roses in and so that I can get on and finish the room.

Lots going on here!

2009-02-11T18:17:00.002+01:00

Some of you may have noticed that there's a new Logo in my links section and that I haven't been around for a while despite my new fast computer.

I've recently become a moderator for The France Forum - a new forum which I can recommend (of course!) to people thinking of moving to France, who have a holiday home in France or who already live in France. As well as the normal rôle of moderating, I'll be adding my own thoughts and experiences on living in France, helping answer questions on French legislation and red tape, smallholding in France and of course all the other subjects which interest me. The forum has been "open for business" now for just ten days and we've attracted a lot of friendly and helpful people. So far, we've 476 members who have made a total of 9230 posts!

I've been so busy catching up with the cyberworld that I've been ignoring my blog and I've broke the promise I made to myself when I started it; that I'd post in it at least once a week. So I'll get back on track I'll do a quick update of what's been happening here at Sourrou.

We've been in contact with Altess' (Max's girlfirend - see post below.) owner and she doesn't know whether her bitch is pregnant or not. She's not gained much weight and she's eating normally but we're still hoping...

Fabrice and I have swopped bedrooms. His is huge and still it was difficult to find a space to walk on with stepping on something suspicious. He's taken mine over and I've cleared his out and started organising the storage space and lighting. I mentioned to a neighbour that I was going to do some decorating and he gave me a box full of Ochres and Oxides that he'd had stored in his barn for years.

I've started to paint the walls and it's taking shape and it's already become Saskia's favourite room. I'll post a few more photographs when I can.

New laptop, television and happy dog in an off grid house

2009-01-13T14:02:00.004+01:00

New laptop, television and happy dog in an off grid house, première mise en ligne par hardworkinghippy.

It's official - Max has a girlfriend....

2009-01-11T17:19:00.007+01:00

Max our Border Collie is a healthy, good-looking and very sensible Border Collie. He works with the goats and sheep, moving them where we want them to go, chasing any who are reluctant to move from an area, helping them to get back on their feet if they're "rigging" or "cast", finding them when they're lost and keeping his eye open for problems.

We're so used to using Max's senses to heighten our own that we couldn't do our work without him. He's now 13 and he's not doing to live forever, so we've been looking for another Border Collie to work with him for a while and to replace him when he goes.

We thought it would be easy to find a Border Collie but very few people here use working dogs, which is a shame. A good dog is not only a good companion, he or she can help in so many ways. Max knows every inch of our land and we both know that if one of us has gone out with Max to check on the animals and he comes home alone then something's not quite right. With a dog like Max you feel a lot more confident that you can do whatever needs to be done and if anything goes wrong, then help is on its way.

This is Altess. (Highness in English!) We visited her last time she had pups with the intention of choosing one of them. Unfortunately, the best of the litter had all been reserved and the remaining pups were lovely but females and because of the dynamics with our other dogs we decided that we want a male. We especially wanted a dog from working stock who has a good temperament and Altess didn't mind at all when we handled her pups.

The same breeder sold us Max and we said that we'd always regretted not mating Max and she suggested we could try a mating with Altess, (Who isn't related.) so she came to stay with us for a few weeks just before Christmas.

I'm proud to say that Max, although totally inexperienced in such matters, was the perfect host and surprisingly, our three other dogs couldn't have been nicer either. Altess and he hit it off from the moment they set eyes on each other and spent a lot of time romping and playing and getting to know each other properly.

All being well, and calculating the normal gestation period for a dog as being 60-65 days Altess's pups should be born in the first week of February. Fingers crossed...

Max and Altess on the sofa, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Happy New Year everyone!

2009-01-03T11:48:00.003+01:00

I've changed internet providers, AOL cut me off the day they got my letter, (How's that for service?) and getting Orange.fr set up took ages. I'm finally wifi connected with a brand new laptop sitting here on my kitchen table typing away when I should be making some bread.

For the first few days without the 'net, I was bad tempered and for the next ten days twitchy and bored - sure signs that I'm an addict. (Hangs head in shame.)

After about three weeks of suffering, I decided to chill out and not think about my cyber world for a while. I've realised that although the internet is really quite amazing, I need more hours than there are in a day to make discoveries, download photos, keep up to date with all my pals and forums, catch up with people I haven't seen for years and that I've been burning the candle at both ends for far too long.

I used the free time I had when I had no internet to do loads of things, have fun with my local pals, I went out more, read more than I usually do and enjoyed myself so much that one of my new year resolutions is from time to time to have 3 or 4 days when I don't touch my computer. I've made other resolutions - probably the very same as yours - but I'll really try to keep this one.

Have a wonderfully happy and healthy 2009!

Experiments with LEDs to get ...l'ambiance parfaite ...

2008-10-22T19:07:00.006+01:00

36 LEDs on an Olivier Wack painting, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We're sorting out loads of things at the moment. The style of the roof and the heating for the extension, our lighting for winter and designing the electricity runs for the extension.

I went on a bit of a spending spree a couple of weeks ago and amongst other things, I bought several 9 and 5 watt 12v compact fluo lightbulbs and these 36 LED units (In the photo above.) which consume under 2watts each. I know I go a bit about lighting but it's nice to have a lovely warm cosy atmosphere in a house, and good lighting can help a lot.

I bought them from a supplier I've found reliable with good prices and fast service, Energie Douce. I'm a bit disappointed with the blue/white colour of the new LEDs but a red or pink shade over the light will it warm up. I often put a bit of red nail varnish on to LEDs (Which stay quite cool normally) but only for outside the house. I wonder if I should take a chance and try some out on the inside ?

There's not a lot of useful light either and I expected that with LEDs, but I'm still experimenting with how I can use them for background lighting.
I've got a few lovely paintings and interesting corners (Like this one with my "magic egg" collection.) which just disappear once we switch on the main lights in the kitchen. It's a big room, 7x6 metres but feels small and needs more light to open it up.

We do use candles a lot and I love them but we don't like going out for a wander outside in the evening leaving the candles on because our two cats love sitting in window sills and they've singed their tails and knocked over quite a few things on their travels.

Candles also need to be bought and stored and you need to spend time every so often cleaning the holders. I "rewick" them with a tiny bit of cotton wool twisted and pushed into the wax in the holder with a knife then I dribble some wax from a candle on to the little wick, light it and it burns away all the accumulated wax around the edges. Once there's a nice dip, I enthusiastically push in a new candle and often end up squirting the wax on to my computer screen...

Unbelievable colours of Autumn

2008-10-20T22:48:00.014+01:00

Unbelievable colours of Autumn, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The colour in the garden and in the woods around our fields is a real joy to behold at the moment. The main colour is from Virginia creeper which can spread where you don't want it but when it's in the trees and on the gloriette and the pergolas, it's glorious.

I planted a Red Oak near the chicken shed three years ago. It's never done well and I thought it was because of the nitrogen rich soil. We had to cut down a nearby Acacia because it was split in a storm and since that's gone the Oak has really recovered and has now become a beautiful young tree which we can see from the terrace.

This jungle is my potager which is still bursting with things to gather, so I'm a bit busy getting things in and stored before the frost comes. The bottom of the garden is protected by trees and a hedge and feels warmer that up at the house. The weather's still glorious and in this photo taken a few day ago it looks like high summer.

The borage is still seeding and growing and almost each rose is producing one or two spectacular flowers.

We've still got green peppers and chillis to get in, peas and beans and the celery I grew in the tent frame is really lovely and there's lots of it. We had some tonight with a rabbit Fabrice shot - the second of the season. We still have courgettes and I grew lots of parsley this year, mostly the tasty Italian kind and it's self-seeding everywhere.

I planted pumpkins for the pigs very late in the season after the potatoes and onions and they're producing big healthy looking pumpkins which I have to keep training to go the way I want them to otherwise they send their roots down into the paths.

This is a lovely time of the year and it is nice to just wander around looking and soaking in the atmosphere and richness and look at some of the things we've done. We've got loads of plans and projects on the go and thankfully, we've a lot more energy than we had last year, so it feels as though we'll make a bit of progress again.

The wood's chopped and under cover near the house and the more delicate plants are being moved nearer and nearer to the back of the house where it's warm and protected. The indoor plants are back indoors and seem to appreciate the comfort. Food's stored and the freezer is filling up again with game and we light the fire most evenings - which is really nice.

Off grid computing

2008-10-13T19:17:00.007+01:00

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much recently is that my six year old laptop has only a few hundred Mo of RAM so it runs out of memory whenever I try to do anything complicated.

Often, I just give up waiting for action and go and get on with something else - not a bad thing really. ;-)

I did buy a bit more memory (The maximum for my machine.) and took my computer apart to plug it in. (Scary stuff!)

That did do the trick for a few weeks but when I'm in forums, answering e-mails and trying to research something amazing that a friend's just told me about, all it needs is for me to visit one site with a bit of background music or a video and everything comes to a standstill.

I like being able to make do and mend but with computers there's only so far I can DIY, so I've bought a brand new laptop with lots more memory and I'm looking forward to getting to know it better once I get all the electrics and the internet connection sorted out.

People often ask us how we manage our internet connection living off-grid. I cleaned up and emptied out my laptop a few days ago (To let me get on the 'net to buy another one!) and the connection seems to be quite stable, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write about how we manage our solar and wind energy to have off-grid computing.

At the moment, we have a very modest 12v renewable energy system which runs on eight 75watt photovoltaic panels and two 75watt Rutland wind generators.

We've bought the panels and wind turbines in stages and decided to keep two separate systems - each one is capable of lighting the whole house, recharge batteries, run small appliances and allows us to get on the internet. Having two systems means that when we can carry out our battery maintenance or add more panels to one system we're never without power. If one system is out of energy we can swop over and at least I'm always sure of being able to send e-mails or recharge torch batteries. I'm pleased to say that neither of the systems of our alternative technology has ever let us down.

My old laptop needs 19v of direct current (DC) and when laptops run off the mains power they need a transformer to change the alternative current to DC. So instead of using an inverter to change DC to AC to DC, I bought some cheap and cheerful DC current converters like the one in the photograph above for about 29€. This little gadget allows me to step up the DC voltage needed by my laptop and means that I don't waste the precious (especially in the winter!) energy taken up by an inverter while it's switched on. This one has been working well (Despite the dust!) for about three years.

My new computer - like many of the bigger machines on the market - needs more power than the 70watt maximum allowed by the small unit above, so I've been looking for another one. I ordered a unit from Nauticom and it should arrive soon.

I also run my modem from a DC-DC converter but for the other appliances like my external hard disc and my printer (Which I rarely use.) I need an inverter which changes 12v DC to 230 AC. This one cost around 150€.

It's best to use the smallest inverter you can to run equipment because the inverter itself uses a lot of energy, so I opted for a little 300watt one which doesn't take up much room on my desk. I use it with a three plug adaptor so that I can plug in several things at the same time and it too has been working perfectly for a few years. The only thing that drives me mad is all the wires everywhere but I suppose if I want to charge cameras mobile 'phones, batteries and get on the 'net, that's something I'll just have to live with.

I'm really looking forward to getting everything sorted out and finally using my new computer. I wanted to post a photo of the beast, but I don't want to take any chances...;-)

Opened the chickens early this morning

2008-09-26T21:54:00.004+01:00

Opened the chickens early this morning, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

The sun was streaming on to the garden and everything was covered with dew - it was just beautiful. This black Marans chicken looked amazing with her red comb glowing in the sun and that long shadow.

No doubt she was waiting to see if I'd brought anything tasty for her.

Ready for the chop

2008-09-26T21:20:00.008+01:00

Ready for the chop, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

At this time of the year I pick my vegetables quickly because they rot easily later in the season and get them eaten or chopped up and cooked as quickly as possible. Now's the time to get everything ready for winter so these vegetables were sterilised to conserve them.

I made five .35 litre and two .75 litre jars from 8 kilos of veg. I reduced the sauce a lot to thicken it, (That way I use fewer jars and there's no point in storing water!) then when I open each jar I rinse it out with some water and add that to the sauce.

The smaller jars are enough for two people and make a quick meal poured on to pasta and sprinkled with cheese or used as a sauce to complement a small amount of left-over meat. The nice thing about having loads of these jars in stock in your cellar is you know they'll taste great, you can feed a lot of people quickly without too much stress and to prepare a good meal all you need to do is heat everything up - this is the nearest we'll ever get to a take-away.

I've posted a lot about conserving food in this way, if you click on the "storing food" link below, you'll see other posts where the process is described in detail.

While I was away on my Permaculture Design Course, somebody cleaned my woodstove with soapy water!!

2008-09-21T22:47:00.007+01:00

While I was away, somebody cleaned my woodstove with soapy water!!, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

In the summer we tend to use the woodstove as a work surface. It gets filled up pretty quickly - as do all the other surfaces in our house.

As we were expecting a lot of visitors this weekend I gave the house a dust and when I cleared all the pots and pans, gardening gloves, scissors and other stuff off the top of the cooker I realised that it had started to go rusty!

Woodstoves are made of cast iron and they need to be kept dry and over the years we've just got into the habit of not putting anything damp or wet on the cooking surface. It doesn't matter when the cooker's lit - the heat soon causes the moisture to evaporate but in the summer the stove is vulnerable unless it's covered and checked regularly or unless everyone is aware that moisture can be a problem for the metal.

When the warmer days come in spring and the stove is on its last few firings, I coat the surface with oil and rub it into the joints and round the handles to protect them.

To start getting the top back to it's former glory I rubbed gently with a bit of wire wool on the areas which were starting to bubble, then scrubbed beeswax into the top and joints. I need to light it soon to make sure the wax seeps into all the joints and the rust doesn't spread. I'll do that while this warmish spell keeps up because I'll have to keep the windows and doors open to get rid of the smoke and smell of the burning wax.

Once the stove's back to normal I'll start dying some yarn, bake a bit of bread, and do some sterilising because I'm just too mean to use gas for those sort of things. I can't wait to get on with it!

We got some new piglets on Saturday!

2008-09-17T19:43:00.002+01:00

The piglets look tiny in here, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I've totally lost control of all this growth

2008-09-12T21:31:00.011+01:00

I've totally lost control of all this growth in the new part of the garden, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Everything's everywhere - and this is just the way I like it!
These are some photos of the new bit of garden I started about two years ago. There are also some photos looking towards the older part of the garden where most of our summer veg is. I've replaced potatoes and onions with marrows for the pigs and I might get a decent crop if the good weather and rain keep up.

My weird jungle garden, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Little red peppers going red, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Brod leaved Sage loves this spot on the raised beds, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

No dig new bit of garden with newly planted Artichokes, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

Building our extension - the progress in September

2008-09-12T10:17:00.008+01:00

Knee-trembling view from the second floor of the extension, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

This is looking east to the pond which we dug for the rainwater from the house. When we've finished building the exterior of the house and using the space as a workshop area, we'll extend the pond and use the clay for covering the straw inside the house.

This is what the extension looks like at the moment. It's very square and chunky and even now I can see that the idea that we had of making something which is big on the inside and looks small from the outside is going to work.

Once this face of the house has it's own terrace and has been clothed in plants and the existing trees around it are underplanted with shrubs the mass of the building will disappear into the undergrowth.

The next important step of the work is tying the top of the building together ready for covering it before winter then making sure that the roof is constructed in exactly the right shape to fit in with the rest of the building - respecting the style of other old farmhouses in the region.

We're been trying for months to find a good roofer to help Fabrice do this part - but here in rural France that's easier said than done of course !

Bags of Angora goat fleece on the terrace

2008-09-11T22:32:00.002+01:00

Bags of fleece on the terrace, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

We'd just sheared a friend's Angoras.

These bags are a constant reminder that we have to get on and do ours while the weather's good....

Damp and drizzly garden update

2008-09-07T09:00:00.029+01:00

Early evening walk, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

I meant to do a posting about the Permaculture course I was on a couple of weeks ago but of course, life's not like that. It took me ages to "reclaim" my kitchen, sort out the garden, catch up with paperwork (Did I ever tell you that I'm Fabrice's secretary?) and just spend time with the animals. We've had loads of visitors and lots of late nights and laughs and spending time on the 'net just hasn't been possible.

I also seem to have lost the knack of taking photos, maybe it's because by the time I feel like getting out my camera the light's gone and this rainy weather hasn't helped a lot either.

One of my delights when I came back was to see how fast the loofahs have grown up the tent frame and when I looked closer I realised I have about eight which are already a good usable size. My plan is to use them as scrubbers for the kitchen and bathrooms instead of buying those spongy things - one less thing we have to buy when we go out shopping ! I can even dye them different colours and if I've enough they'll make lovely presents.

The other thing in the garden which is doing really well is Sweet Peppers. I bought a few plants early in the season and sowed far too many seeds all of which have been keeping us in peppers all summer and there will be enough to do quite a few jars for winter.

The Aubergines are ripe and we've been eating them for a while too, but they really need more heat to produce a second crop - like the tomatoes which are taking too long to ripen, although we usually manage to get a handfull every day for a salad and when there's more I make a meal based on them.

My prettiest Peppers are these black ones which I bought as young plants - they're so shiny and even black and unripe they taste quite sweet.

I also have two bought plants of another very early variety which must have produced at least 40 fruits per plant and they're still growing well. (The photo below was taken in mid-July) I imagine they're both F1 hybrids though and the seeds will be sterile - I must find that out from our neighbour Yan who sells spices on the markets and was kind enough to bring me back these very early plants as soon as he saw them for sale. I really miss my little greenhouse for starting off things - I'll sort something out for next year I hope.

Let's hope it stays fine for a while tomorrow...

Ripe peppers with some replacements planted beside them, originally uploaded by hardworkinghippy.

This is an update to let you see how our Loofahs turned out.

I finally got about 13 decent sized Loofahs and gave some away to friends to let them clean the loofah out themselves - that way they get to keep the seeds.

Cleaning them out takes time and patience. It consists of cutting the ends off the loofah, then wetting it and squeezing it gently to get the fleshy insides out along with the seeds - pushing them gently to the ends until they plop out.

Some people wait until much later in the season when the loofahs are completely dry but I was very impatient and I've still got a few hanging on the vines which I'll experiment with after Christmas.

After they were empty of all the stuff inside them and the seeds were all removed, I washed them well and left them to dry naturally. You can bleach them but I like the natural colour and my septic tank doesn't like bleach!

I dyed a few but I've misplaced the photos and given the ones I dyed away as presents.

I'm very pleased with them and have a few around the house for wiping around the bath and washbasins and scrubbing myself with in the shower and a good few left over to last me for quite some time.

I intended to use them to do the dishes but after a couple of weeks they tend to collect bits of food and rot quite quickly so I think I'll give up on that idea.

Permaculture in France

2008-08-12T09:39:00.024+01:00

In the 80s I discovered Permaculture magazine and I was impressed by how relevant and practical its articles were to my way of thinking so I went on an introductory course and what I learned has influenced me ever since.

In France I've met very few people who have heard of Permaculture. The way we plan our resource consumption, landscape around our house and tend our gardens is just common sense but it's a multi-faceted combination of ideas about everything to do with energy management and difficult to explain quickly to our hundreds of casual visitors without giving them a "label" which they can use to find out more.

"Permaculture" is the best label that I can think of, so I'd like to help spread the concept of Permaculture in France and I've been making contacts (mostly through the French site Brin de Paille run by Pascal Depienne) and finding out more about the Permaculture network here. So far, the movement is in its infancy and there's still a lot of work to be done encouraging people to join the forums, (48 members so far!) exchanging ideas and experience and translating manuals and other documents into French.

Anyone who would like to find out more about Permaculture in France can find more information in THIS link

The Permaculture movement has done a great job of presenting good ideas into courses which are standardised and can be taught all over the world and I need a review of my existing skills, a chance to meet a few new Permaculture people and a bit of time away from the farm.

So, later this week I shall be leaving my garden, goats, sheep, building work and Fabrice behind and indulging myself by doing the 10 day residential, certified Permaculture Design Course led by Steve Read at The Dharma house.

See you when I get back !