The next morning as Dominique and her Wwoofers arrive, Marion is out walking her horse.
Today I offer to join the crew with a pickax in hand to work on the new greenhouse. I have some misgivings as I've also had a rotator cuff surgery that theoretically somewhat limits my ability to do hard labor. I figure if it doesn't work out, I will exchange jobs with someone else.
It isn't easy work, but I manage to work until lunch with only about 2 short stops. Sometimes I sit on the edge of the trench and work. Sometimes I use a shovel or my hands to pick out the larger rocks. There is lots of shale here and sometime I call for Joe to come with the fork which he likes using more than the pickax. I have to say I really am enjoying the job even though I am super tired at the end of the morning.
I find these two big worms as I work in the rocky soil where the greenhouse will be. When I am in Massachusetts in my garden, I aways take worms I find to the compost pile. Why buy red worms to work the compost if there enough of these wild ones!
Here Sandrine and Magda are weeding the onions. What could be more fun!
After lunch it's over for me for the day. I am totally exhausted but count on my innate energy store to return soon. Without even saying goodbye, I go into the caravan and collapse for more than two hours. By the time I come out, Dominique has left with her Wwoofers. Some of our crew continue working. Here Pierlo takes out one of the larger stones. He seems to have the constitution of the Energizer Bunny - never runs down.
Joe is still working at his little plot. What a difference a few hours of teamwork can make! Sandrine is ecstatic to finally be almost ready to have more room for those plants still awaiting transplanting. Plus having a new greenhouse will give her much more space for gardening next year. I think all of us are proud of the results of everyone's hard work.
I tell them how sorry I am to have left after lunch and ask if there isn't a some small job I can do. There are always small things that no one else has time for and though Sandrine tells me not to feel obliged, she does have such a job - sorting through the seed pods of the black radish (a vegetable, according to Sandrine, that is good for the liver). She wants to save the seeds for next year's garden.
She goes to the garden and brings back these branches along with a can in which I can save the seeds. I "park" on the other side of the house looking out into the beautiful 180 degree view that I will soon have to leave. My energy returns as I gingerly remove these tiny seeds and place them carefully into the can.
Another Wwoofer has joined us who has been here during several of his vacations. He first came with his family and then because he loved the work, Theo, now 15 has come a few times and stays with Pierlo's family. After the workday, he, Marion, and Jules have been making a special hidden "clubhouse" in the garden across from the small Wwoofing cabin. I go down to check out their progress. While I'm there, a beautiful blue bug joins us. Perhaps this too is a beetle, but I don't know what kind.
They have partially hidden their work under ferns. On the other side, it looks a little like a bus stop.
I go back and work at my little job until dinner. Before stopping, I fill the can with more pods (on toop of the seeds) and promise that tomorrow, if I have time at Dominique's, I will open more of the tiny pods. The seeds are miniscule and some escape. Yet when I finally finish, there must be at least 1,000 seeds. Sandrine will have plenty for her garden as well as gifts for her gardening friends.
This is the evening that Pierlo finally has the time to check on the leak in the rain water system. I find him climbing in and out of the various tanks and he seems to have found the tube that is leaking.
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