In this blog we meet the current Wwoofing crew working with Dominique and her husband Patrick. The two crews work together, sometime's at Pierlo's and others at Dominique's. Sometimes each crew works at "home" alone. There is a "loose" schedule established, but it is also a flexible one as the weather changes what can be done on any particular day. On very rainy days, certain jobs cannot be done at Dominique's house as the work there is quite far behind in schedule since the house was started much later. If it is too wet, workers can't go up on the "chantier" as it would be too slippery, thus, too dangerous.
Below is the picture of the new area to hang tools that Ana started organizing yesterday. Now everything will be stored on two shelves and both "walls" just inside the entrance to the house.
Here the other crew from Dominique's has arrived. Dominique is the woman in the center of the picture. Left to right - ? actually lives in Tarbes and comes to help out occasionally. Annelise has been working for a year now as a "professional" Wwoofer. That is to say, she tired of her desk job and decided to make Wwoofing (for now) her "lifestyle." She has done many jobs but seems to like being on a chantier for building straw houses. She doesn't know how long she will stay with Dominque's family but she immediately seems to settle in nicely. Surely it must be wonderful for Pierlo and Dominique when Wwoofers have already had some experience building straw houses.
We discuss the options for the various jobs and I choose gardening this time. Both children help for a while and here is one of the creatures they find living in among the veggies.
Joe and Annelise are hoeing the celery.
In a break from hoeing the potatoes, I take some picture that are most likely almost repeats of others I have already taken, but the view is so gorgeous, I can't help myself. As it turns out, after the first few days it will be cloudy most of the rest of the time I spend here. The lighting on this occasion was very good. Notice all the different shades of green. I especially like the underside of the raspberry plants on the right of the picture.
In the one below, you can see far away beyond the valley as well as a little closer where they are haying. This one would have been a scene I would have liked to draw had I had more time.
Here is one of the solitary jobs. is cutting some brush in the area where the horse that will become part of the horse paddock.
Annelise helps Marion and me string an electric wire between where the donkeys and the horse will be. This is the area that Marion and I cleaned yesterday. We have to take down the fence that was there and put the steaks in different places. The fence goes all the way down past the caravan. It is probably the hottest day I had while working at Pierlo's.
Here I catch Ana again as she continues putting up tools on the boards that have been hung over the straw bales that create the insolation for all the walls of the house. As mentioned earlier, it is this straw that will keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter. But, as the construction is built, there must be no moisture trapped inside, so hard to calculate as there are often storms during any given summer day. I still can't imagine how any straw house can be built and not trap some moisture as the weather varies so much.
As Pierlo's house is more advanced, work in the attic has reached the finishing stage and Pierlo found that the finish he had used had some small cracks. So here Dominique and Joe are mixing different proportions of sand, water, homemade glue (water and flour) and some with a commercial kind of glue to see which of about 12 samples is the best to use (won't crack). Of course these samples must dry a few days to actually conclude the test. Nothing is easy in this kind of construction.
Here we stop for lunch. Ana thought it would be good to have some places in the sun and some in the shade. So she set the table where that would be the case. Later we kidded her as it turned out she was one of those who decided it was all too hot to sit in the sun! I'm under the straw hat (a gift from my Mexican friend, Cuca) as far from the sun as possible.
And here is another of the creatures in the garden who stayed in the salad. You can see this snail hid in some of the wild herbs. Get out the garlic and lemon and we can have "escargots!" Actually I'm not sure if this little fellow is a baby or if he's just not the right kind of snail to put on the dinner table.
At some point, Joe is seen making a repair to a broken trowel.
After the first couple of days of being here, the outdoor solar shower got a hole in it and Pierlo decided it was time to move the shower stall inside the house next to the temporary kitchen area. So he assembled some good "walls" from the chantier and here he is thinking just how he wants this temporary shower to be. There are so many things to do and he is often called upon to check up on the workers, especially those of us who are new at everything. Actually, with the eventual work load at Dominique's house, the shower never did get built, but we found other ways to get off some of the daily dirt.
The next step was to get the base for the shower which did get bought before I left but not installed.
The workday is over and Dominique's crew has left for home. Here Joe sets the table on the other side of the house for our dinner of soup and salad.
Even late in the afternoon there is not only light but sun. At this point in the summer the sun sets around 9:30 at night! Dinner is usually at 8:00, sometimes as late as 9:00 at night. This again is the Wwoofing "cottage" that is much cooler than my caravan. You will note that the finish on the outside is still rough. Not so the main house which when finished will have a very smooth finish.
Tune in to Wednesday's blog!
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