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Tuesday 11 December 2012
Photos
Laying the Corner Stones
Hey, have not posted for a couple of weeks so i thought i would bring you up to speed.
So we adopted a Kitten (8 weeks Male) which had been abandoned which we named Susan, and a Puppy (Female 10 months old) which we Re-named Nelly and they have been taking up a lot of our time.
Work on the house is coming along we have plasterboarded one room and the others are nearly completed too. All wiring is done upstairs too, easy peasy (had a good reference aid Thanks Dad x).
Had our winter supply of logs delivered too, they are keeping us nice and toasty and we have been cooking on top of the stove too, so lots of yummy stews!
We have had a few sunny days so managed to get out in the garden to build a couple of raised beds and carted the previous land owners compost heap and filled them up along with some leaves to mulch too. We have also planted our first food item, some store bought garlic that was running shoots so we thought there is no harm in trying to grow them.
We have been doing a lot of thinking and reading about what we want to do with the field, and have decided to go with a Food Forest. Basically a Food Forest is a Food Production area that mimics the natural Eco-system of a young forest and everything grown in it is useful to us or to the other plants. We wanted our food production to be as chemically free as possible so opted for this tried and tested method (they have been using Food Forests in tropical zones for hundreds of years). It also produces a lot more food than conventional methods as you are growing on more than one layer, so you have Fruit Trees in the canopy, then fruit shrubs underneath, then ground cover crops as well as root tubers and vines. So on the land that we have we should be able to produce abundantly and with minimal inputs as once its up and running the cycles of the plants create their own rich soil. So not only are we not stripping the nutrients out we are adding to them.
We are still very much in the planning stages of this project, as their are a lot of aspects to cover but we are hoping by next winter we will be ready to plant our fruit trees. In the mean time we have got lots of things to do in preparation and have started to lay out our main paths through the forest, so we can mulch the areas that are not paths and also plant willow around the edges of our property to act as a windbreak.
Thanks for reading and we will update you again soon.
Luke and Cloe xx
So we adopted a Kitten (8 weeks Male) which had been abandoned which we named Susan, and a Puppy (Female 10 months old) which we Re-named Nelly and they have been taking up a lot of our time.
Work on the house is coming along we have plasterboarded one room and the others are nearly completed too. All wiring is done upstairs too, easy peasy (had a good reference aid Thanks Dad x).
Had our winter supply of logs delivered too, they are keeping us nice and toasty and we have been cooking on top of the stove too, so lots of yummy stews!
We have had a few sunny days so managed to get out in the garden to build a couple of raised beds and carted the previous land owners compost heap and filled them up along with some leaves to mulch too. We have also planted our first food item, some store bought garlic that was running shoots so we thought there is no harm in trying to grow them.
We have been doing a lot of thinking and reading about what we want to do with the field, and have decided to go with a Food Forest. Basically a Food Forest is a Food Production area that mimics the natural Eco-system of a young forest and everything grown in it is useful to us or to the other plants. We wanted our food production to be as chemically free as possible so opted for this tried and tested method (they have been using Food Forests in tropical zones for hundreds of years). It also produces a lot more food than conventional methods as you are growing on more than one layer, so you have Fruit Trees in the canopy, then fruit shrubs underneath, then ground cover crops as well as root tubers and vines. So on the land that we have we should be able to produce abundantly and with minimal inputs as once its up and running the cycles of the plants create their own rich soil. So not only are we not stripping the nutrients out we are adding to them.
We are still very much in the planning stages of this project, as their are a lot of aspects to cover but we are hoping by next winter we will be ready to plant our fruit trees. In the mean time we have got lots of things to do in preparation and have started to lay out our main paths through the forest, so we can mulch the areas that are not paths and also plant willow around the edges of our property to act as a windbreak.
Thanks for reading and we will update you again soon.
Luke and Cloe xx
Friday 9 November 2012
Where we are at now
Okay so some insulation up in the roof.... next job was to get the stud walls up. We decided to go with the metal studs instead of 4 by 2s and we were glad we did! The ease of putting these things up is incredible not to mention about half the price of wood! So by now the house is really taking shape!
After getting my head around the french electrical regulations the job was really easy! In my opinion its better than the UK ring mains.
In between these jobs we have been clearing some of our land and deciding where we want to put different things, that we will be talking about in the future such as veg plots, chicken coops, geodesic dome greenhouses and my new experimental love Aquaponics! I am not a doomsday prepper or anything like that i just have a real passion for growing my own food and my wife enjoys eating it!
So where are we at right now well we are in the process of working on one room in the house to get it insulated and plasterboarded (drywall) up before the winter really sets in. As at the moment we have our caravan in the barn and sharing it with our 9 month old puppy Nelly.
After getting my head around the french electrical regulations the job was really easy! In my opinion its better than the UK ring mains.
In between these jobs we have been clearing some of our land and deciding where we want to put different things, that we will be talking about in the future such as veg plots, chicken coops, geodesic dome greenhouses and my new experimental love Aquaponics! I am not a doomsday prepper or anything like that i just have a real passion for growing my own food and my wife enjoys eating it!
So where are we at right now well we are in the process of working on one room in the house to get it insulated and plasterboarded (drywall) up before the winter really sets in. As at the moment we have our caravan in the barn and sharing it with our 9 month old puppy Nelly.
Monday 5 November 2012
First few jobs done
Okay so we bought the House and the sale went through a bit late but it did happen... things as we are learning do not happen when they are suppose to in France .. everything takes a bit of time. Our house because of the land attached had to go to an agricultural body just in case any of the local farmers wanted to buy the land and luckily for us nobody else wanted it.
So we started clearing the land immediately around the house mainly so we could access it! Bit of a jungle so to speak...
So after clearing we put some windows in and replaced some of the tiles on the roof to make it weather tight and started with the insulation... what a mind field! So after many hours of online research we settled on a layer of foil backed bubble wrap to keep the heat out in the summer and 10 cm of fiberglass... trying to keep all the beams exposed we plaster boarded (drywall) in between the eaves. I will post some photos of the roof space soon...
So we started clearing the land immediately around the house mainly so we could access it! Bit of a jungle so to speak...
So after clearing we put some windows in and replaced some of the tiles on the roof to make it weather tight and started with the insulation... what a mind field! So after many hours of online research we settled on a layer of foil backed bubble wrap to keep the heat out in the summer and 10 cm of fiberglass... trying to keep all the beams exposed we plaster boarded (drywall) in between the eaves. I will post some photos of the roof space soon...
Sunday 4 November 2012
Part one
So where do i start, its been an interesting year for my Wife and I... for one thing we became just that and tied the knot in April, we decided to leave our jobs and take an extended honeymoon. So started to travel round France in a Camper-van. On route we both came to a decision that we did not want to return to the UK. We glanced upon a run down cottage with a couple of outbuilding and a barn with a couple of acres... it was really cheap as it needed a complete overhaul so we bought it and set about making our dream of becoming self reliant. After months of waiting the sale finally went through at the beginning of September and we got the keys to our new home! Well we would have had keys if there where any doors...
We have now started work on the house to make it habitable i will post some photos of our progress and tell you of our ups and downs along the way. I hope you enjoy this Blog and it may inspire you to follow your dreams even if sometimes it is a leap into the darkness.
We have now started work on the house to make it habitable i will post some photos of our progress and tell you of our ups and downs along the way. I hope you enjoy this Blog and it may inspire you to follow your dreams even if sometimes it is a leap into the darkness.
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