We started by doing a couple of circuits on local roads to get our fitness up and condition our leg muscles for the longer journeys we had planned. We explored a seven kilometre circular route with a few hill in it and even got our dog Moss to run along with us on a couple of occasions. A week later we tried out the trip to Aigurand a twenty kilometre roundtrip for the first time on a Friday morning, this is our local market town with a supermarket and hardware store as well the Friday morning produce market and the Café we visit JJ’s Bar. We can catch up with neighbours and buy some locally produced vegetables, fruit and plants. We now do this trip most Fridays and sometime one other day in the week if we need anything from the shops in the town.

Prior to Moss’s death we had purchased a small bike trailer so Moss could come to the market with us, and now we have Jazz our border collie puppy who is far too young to do much running alongside us we make good use of the trailer. Jazz still gets to do some running on quieter roads to build up his strength and give our legs some respite on the steeper hills. We have managed to get to most of our local sightseeing attractions on our bikes, the lake a twenty kilometre round trip, Crozant a twenty eight kilometre round trip plus a five kilometre walk by the river when we get there, Fresseline an eighteen kilometre round trip with a very hilly return journey, but worth every revolution of the pedals for the scenery along the way.

December 2003 to Friday 6^th April 2012

I am writing this for two reasons one to celebrate the memory of Moss and two to warn anyone who does not already know the dangers ticks hold for our animal friends.

Moss came to us as a reject from a neighbouring farm in mid Wales; he had been kept back as best of litter from a champion mother but developed fear for the sheep he was supposed to control and preferred to chase sticks rather than sheep. This made him perfect for us; we were surrounded by sheep and wanted a dog that would not bother them.

Moss turned out to be much more than perfect he became a best friend always around with Fiona or I depending on which one was working quietly and more actively. Ever ready for the next adventure or activity he preferred to be with us or near us even if that meant sitting in the car rather than be left at home, which we did only when we had no other choice.

I know we will not be the only ones who have fond memories of Moss as he has shared his love and loyalty with many of our friends, visitors and volunteers. Many thank you letters we have received after visitor have gone home included a mention of Moss and his eagerness to fetch sticks or any object you could throw for him. Moss would play fetch until he had worn out your arm and then find someone else whose arm could still manage to throw him something to fetch.

Today as I write this it’s just 8 days since Moss died and it’s the first day I have felt I could write about him without being overcome with the loss of such a great friend. He is now buried in view of our back window in the middle of our biggest field with an oak tree planted by his head to remind us his boundless energy and love as he is taken up by a tree which reflects the size of his heart.

So to the warning Moss died of a blood parasite called Babesia it’s transmitted by ticks from dog to dog, in just four days Moss went from fit and active to dead. Despite the best efforts of our vet who gave him drugs to kill the parasite and a drip to help build his blood volume and antibiotics to take care of potential subsidiary infections Moss give way to the infestation around 7:30am on the Friday morning. Our lack of knowledge of the existence of this parasite undoubtedly contributed to the parasites ability to take Moss’s life.

Above Moss just a week before he died picture taken by Alun.

I just want to share this post to let some dear friends know their hard work did not go to waste; Julie and Alun came to us in March 2011 for five days of volunteering and became instant friends. We just fitted each other like hands in gloves they came to work and we needed the help, but we also share many of life’s important values in common at the same time as being very different in many ways. Later in 2011 they came back for a longer visit and again worked for us as volunteers these exchanges have become so important to Fiona and I it’s hard to describe how valuable good volunteers are to us and our life style. Julie decided to come back again in September 2011 to take our Permaculture Design Certificate course, and Alun came along and volunteered helping us out with the catering for the course, their presence on the course was a rewarding one for us and the students who attended along with Julie, Alun contributed to a varied and interesting diet as well as becoming the resident guitarist for the last night of the course which is of course a celebration of the two weeks learning and sharing. Julie shared her insights during the course and wrote a poem to contribute to the party.

Now in 2012 they had come back for two weeks to finish off their leave quota for the year, they came geared up for two weeks hard work from dawn to dusk most days, together we have laid the entire hedge which runs along our front boundary with the public road measuring about 180 meters. During the process Julie asked when the pigs would be aloud out from the shed which has been their winter quarters. I explained they could be put out once we finished laying the hedge past their summer quarters; Julie was now on a mission to break the pigs out of their winter prison. The two weeks passed quickly and we laid the hedge along its complete length two of the pigs were moved to their summer house all be it reluctantly a third refused to cooperate and is still sadly in captivity condemned to a short life in her shed  before the  freezer callers for her.

We never got round to the final stage of the release process while Julie and Alun where here, they left this morning for their trip back to the UK and the grindstone of work a day for pay. So Fiona and I set to task and connected the electric fence up and tested it before the final release of the pigs on to open ground

Above in the film you can see the pig just five minutes after we opened the gate to let them out, they initially explored the small area to find its limits and had their first introduction to electric fences a couple of thousand watt shocks a piece and they have found the limit to their new domain, resided to the limit they seek to explore what the new home extension has to offer them and discover their nature as if they always knew what god gave them that funny looking nose for.

Many thanks to Alun and Julie for all your hard work, Love Steve & Fiona

A double edged sword, this is a scenario we have been  through before a few times now we have a well advertised web site a broad  spectrum of friends so many people know where we are and what we do. On  occasion people who for some reason or other need to get rid of live stock somehow  end up in touch with us, this time round it was through a friend of a friend of  a friend, the message was that someone had to leave their smallholding and  wanted all her livestock re-homing free to anyone who can collect. Fiona and I responded  interested in the sow with piglets and a trio of gees. There were 8 goats, 3  sheep, 3 adult pigs and 5 piglets, 8 chickens, 3 ducks and 3 gees all in little  more space than a large garden and no money to buy feed for the animals. We  agreed to take all of the animals accept the goats which we are not set up for,  goats eat small trees and jump meter high fences easily so they just don’t fit  in to our system. However we agreed to help find a home for the goats with someone  else, we put an ad on TotalFrance.com and found a home for all of them within  two days.

We visited the site on the Tuesday and provided some much  needed straw for bedding and a couple of sacks of urgently needed feed for the  pigs. We arranged to return on Friday to kill the two adult male pigs for pork,  which was distributed among friends’ theirs and ours. While ringing around acquaintances  for homes for the goats we also agreed to let someone else have the sheep which  we did not need, this left us with a trio of Chinese gees, a trio of Muscovy  ducks, 8 Maran chickens some copper and some cuckoo with cocks and hens in both  colours and the sow with five piglets at foot.

The sow pictured below is very underweight having been  underfed and feeding five hungry piglets herself. The nourishment needed buy a  sow due to give birth is nearly twice that of her maintenance ration, a typical  maintenance ration for an adult pig is 3 kilos of high protein food, so by the  time the sow is due, she should be fed around 5 to 6 kilos of high quality food.  Maintaining this ration will still see a sow lose weight over the first few  weeks after giving birth unless you give her even more food each week typically  around half a kilo more per day, a sow who gives you a large litter will need  perhaps and extra kilo per day each week until you separate the piglets from  her. The reality is she won’t eat all this food herself after 3 or 4 days the  piglets will start to eat some of the food themselves by the time the piglets  are three weeks old they will be able to eat as much as half of the food they  need as solids, this gives the mother some relief from having to provide them  all their needs. An underfed sow will not share her food but she will give the  piglets all the milk she can make from the rations she gets and she will also  give her own body mass over to milk production, the result will be an unhealthy  emaciated sow who could eventually die from her efforts. The sow is now back at our place in our barn being fed as  much food as her and the piglets are able to consume in a day and plenty of  fresh water is being made available too. In the spring they will all be put  outside in a concrete pigsty with ¼ acre paddock to root around in and fed plenty  of grain and comfrey until they gain enough weight to make good pork and bacon.

The hens have been put in with our Maran cockerel and the  rest of his brood and the cockerels are housed separately for now. They are in  good shape and the hens have settled enough to keep laying eggs for us.

The 3 Chinese geese and the 3 Muscovy ducks are in an  outside house built in the middle of our orchard which has plenty of grass left  after the sheep have been moved on in their normal rotation around our growing  number of paddocks. The geese will have gained enough weight by spring to get  them laying and hopefully sitting on their own eggs to hatch them and bring  them on in time for nice fat geese ready for Christmas 2012.

So what’s the second edge of the sword then? Well having  reduced our livestock levels and planed to have a pig free winter reducing our need  for winter feed and the inevitable cost, we are now flush with stock again. Free  animals are never free from some kind of cost, feed, medication, vets and  housing all cost money and the time, morning feeding time just rose by 10 minutes  or so and an evening trip across the fields to lock up the ducks and geese will  become another evening chore which has to be done every knight come rain or  snow.

You can see we have cleared our way in to the base of the hedge cutting down the brambles and digging up the suckers from the blackthorn.  Suckering blackthorn is a problem which needs yearly attention, but as in all things permaculture the problem is the solution; for another problem. Laying our hedges and establishing new fences is all a part of our overall system and all the new fences are to be planted to hedges, this means we need new hedge plants which would cost us a small fortune, but by digging up the suckering blackthorn we can then plant them in to the new fence lines and they will become the future hedge we want; solving one problem with another problem.

Left you can see both the suckering blackthorn before its starts growing for this year, and then below a replanted sucker six weeks after it was moved to its new home. we have mulched the ground to preserve the moisture for the plant and surpress the plants around it to reduce competition. blow you can see what the hedge looks like after laying has been done.

In the photo above you can see to the left the hedge after its been laid and to the right along the fence line we have staked the brush wood from trimming the hedge, this is to protect the newly replanted suckers from the sheep who will graze the paddock next door. Below you can see the whole of the new paddock and its newly laid hedge, in the centre of the paddock you can see a small oak tree protected from browsing by the sheep with three posts and some old chicken wire. The tree will eventually offer shade and late autumn food by way of kilos of acorns year after year without further inputs.

Below you can see the hedge starting to re-grow six weeks after the original work was done.

Below is a picture of the cutting and re-growth of the laid hawthorn you can see that the base is re-growing and also the part cut tree is still growing. This will lead to a denser barrier to contain the stock and a lower hedge offering more forage at stock level, this increases the diversity of the stock diet and offer them the opportunity to self medicate on the more useful hedge plants.

Next you can see a small sapling ash tree planted in the corner of the new paddock, this will offer shade and fodder for sheep and cattle well in to the future.

Next you can see the contrasting difference the laid hedge makes, closer to you can see the light hitting the ground in the paddock next door, but further away the hedge is still yet to be laid and the shade of the trees is still several meter in to the paddock, this was taken around 11am.

So to conclude  laying hedges serves several functions in our design improving the barrier containing stock, improving access for the stock to quality forage and plant medication, improving habitat for wildlife and improving the light penetration for neighbouring land.

I start plates from seasoned stock, that is 30mm planks which have been either air dried or kiln dried to around 12% humidity or lower, by this time the wood is relatively stable. I say relatively because the act of turning or simply cutting the wood will release stresses which grow in to the timber and are exaggerated by the drying process.  Turning anything will release this stress and the item turned will change shape, in some items this is hardly discernable but in others it can be obvious and it can spoil the look of a piece which has received hours of a craftsman’s time. To avoid this issue or at least reduce its effect to the least possible impact I never turn bowls platters or plates from solid timer to finished item in one process. I usually rough turn everything first, this involves mounting blanks and turning it to a basic but over sized shape similar to that of the final shape required.

The photo below shows the back of a 305mm diameter walnut plate which has been rough turned,note the recess which is turned in the centre for later remounting.

The next photo shows the front of the plates, notice the round spigot in the centre this allows me to remount the plate so I can re-turn the back to the final shape and size.

Here the photo shows the stack of rough turned plates the gaps between the plates are over sized in this photo due to the spigot left in the centre of dished section, once finished the stack will be a little smaller.

The final plate will be 300mm in diameter and about 10mm thick they are presently about 12mm thick. The final shape will also be a little different the dish will be deeper and the wide rim will have a detail turned in to the final design. These plates will be left for at least a month in the house where it is warm and dry were they will change shape a little. Once re-turned and finished they will be more stable and durable and will give service to their owners for many years to come.

I will post another article next month when I finish turning the plates and apply an oil finish to protect the plates for daily use.

We started the week with spindle turning, in the morning getting to grips with rough turning square sections in to cylinders and then moving on to cutting beads and coves on the cylinders. In the afternoon we moved on to making the legs and a seat for a milking stool, this gets students working on the discipline of reproducing spindles with the same pattern.

Tuesday we moved on to bowl turning which Walter mastered well, finishing his bowl buy the end of the day.

Wednesday we covered box making I demonstrate this process from beginning to end and then let the student loose with a chosen piece of exotic wood.

Thursday we worked on hollow forms this always demands a higher level of skill but after three days of practice Walter rosé to the challenge.

Friday Walter chose to add the advanced skill of hand cut barley twists to his skill set and ended the day with yet another nicely finished piece

Although It’s been a slow process due to other work taking priority and money being diverted to finishing the house, but having used the space as a workshop regardless some things have been done before, but the installation of windows in what where just opening or old door ways has made the workshop much more inviting to work in.

Firstly the windows allow much more natural light in to the workshop with the removal of doors, so I am less dependent on artificial light and the use of electricity.  The installation of windows in small openings meant for air ventilation when animals where over wintered in the barn means the workshop is now warmer and less draughty, and I get an occasional glimpse of the outside world when I am working. Previously the openings were just blocked with boards to reduce the draughts.

I still have other work to do on the workshop before I am finished getting in good shape but I have a commission to finish, so for now it’s back to using the workshop as it is again.

 More on the commission in my next post!

I dropped Erin and her mother off at the railway station in Chateauroux for them to continue their travels and decided to make the most of the journey to look in a garden centre there. We don’t usually travel that far (100 Kilometre round trip) without good reason, and the purchase of a single item is not good reason. So anyway I have made the trip and now I am capitalising on that investment of time and fuel, the garden centres in larger towns usually stock a wider range of trees than our local garden centres. This garden centre was no exception, there were a great deal more varieties that I was used to seeing, and one in particulate a Kaki or as we know a Persimmon tree.

A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family (Ebenaceae). The word Diospyros means “the fruit of the gods” in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant. These trees are not common and the fruit has lost favor in Europe but is much sort after in Asia. I have to admit I have never eaten one myself until after we purchased our tree, we can purchase a kilo of apples for the price of one persimmon, so it’s an extravagance we do without. Having purchased the tree on the recommendation of a book I have been reading I thought it was time to have a taste, and was not disappointed, they are the same size as a peach but with a firm smooth skin more like a plum. My first impression was of eating a large grape as the skin gives way the juices start to flow its very sweat with a subtle flavor just like a good desert grape. The description fruit of the gods is very apt, I would more likely say manor from heaven but the general meaning is the same. The anticipation of such fruit from our own land is already building as I write, of course it’s probably going to be a couple of years before we actually get fruit from it.

We tend not to allow newly planted trees to fruit in the first year or so after planting, we pluck of the flowers the first year as soon as they show up so the tree can concentrate on establishing itself. The second year we decide based on the size and vigor of the tree, if its branches are thick and solid enough to hold fruit we may let it flower and fruit. We keep an eye on a tree for its first fruiting season and may well selectively take young fruit off from each branch so a single branch does not have too much weight to carry. These tactics help us keep more of our young trees alive and healthy although we get less fruit in the early years now that we have been here six years we are starting to see the benefit of those early years of sacrifice and self control.

The persimmon tree has been planted in pride of place at the centre of our herb garden for many reasons, firstly Erin’s design group had a hand in the design of the herb garden and some members of the group later helped construct and plant the garden. The herb garden is close to the house in what we call zone one so it will receive regular attention and it’s a well sheltered spot out of strong winds and early morning  hot sun. Keeping out of the early morning hot sun avoids plants being thawed out too quickly on frosty spring mornings. The plethora of strong aromatic herbs at the feet of the tree will help naturally keep it pest free, and for the more determined pests the herbs will attract pest predators. This concentration on placement of plants and other beneficial relationships we can build in to the design of our land is an important part of Permaculture and an important part of our lives and the way we live.