When Chris was 20 years old, he realized that he had never eaten a single thing that he knew where it came from. At 22, he helped start an organic vegetable farm outside of Olympia, WA. Three years later, for family reasons, he moved back to the Carolinas, and soon thereafter, moved to Earthaven Ecovillage, a 320 acre intentional community outside of Black Mountain, NC, with a dream of one day clearing his own farm field. He will be sharing a presentation about a small 12 x12 Microhut that he designed and built of the wood that came from the field he helped to clear.

The death of animals on the farm is not generally something that given much thought or notice. Animals are raised and sacrificed for our means, pets come and go. It’s simply a fact of life. That is the way things are, and the way they always will be… But in this case, there was something more than just the loss of life – in this case just the lives of a few chickens – It was the loss of an ideal.

I arrived at Jeanine’s house this weekend, so happy that I had finally found some chickens of my own, eager to show her the photos of my new girls. Shortly after I arrived, the phone rang, Jeanine answered, and after a short conversation she hung up. She looked at me and said simply: “All the chickens are dead.” She shrugged and turned towards the kitchen and as she walked away I heard her say “and I had just finished making their breakfast…” I walked to the chicken yard to find Jean-François waiting. He was just standing looking a little bewildered and shaking his head in disbelief. All twelve chickens had been killed- some animal; a fox or a dog perhaps, had gotten into the henhouse that night and one by one had killed them all… the bodies were scattered about the yard, lifeless and deplumed. “Une massacre” was all Jean-François had to say.

Marc, Inspecting the Damage

Such is life. The chickens were gone for sure, all twelve accounted for, lined up in the grass… There was not sadness in their deaths- only regret that there would be no more eggs. Disappointment that their bodies would go to no use in the kitchen. But mostly- Sorrow for Jeanine. She tried not to show it, but I could see the look of heartbreak in her eyes. She feigned a smile and remarked, “C’est comme ça.” I looked about the yard which I had come to know so well over the years- when I would stop by for un goûter or a café. If Jeanine was not at home when I knocked, I always knew where to find her, in the chicken yard, calling “Cocotte” and tending to her troupe. Standing there that morning, I mourned not for the loss of life that death brought to the chickens (for it could as well have been a man’s knife than a beast); I mourned for Jeanine. I loathed the silence, and I wondered how could it be: la Mamie without her flock following and pecking behind?

Shutters Opened

Here’s the new chicken coop, made from recuperated palette wood- Even the nails were recuperated! Total cost: about 3 euros for brackets and screws… It’s traditional acadian-french style with clapboard siding and trim. The roof is angled to the south so that the sun does not make the interior too hot, and is equipped with a rain water recuperator… This will be the home of ecologically conscious chickens! Inside we have some comfy hay (certified bio from our field), and nice perchoirs for sleepy chickens at night time… now just have to find some lovely inhabitants. Can’t wait for eggs!

By the way, see Any resemblance?

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is a series of short films that explore the idea of home; what makes them, how they represent us, why we need them.

Produced and directed by Ben Wu and David Usui,
of Lost & Found Films (lostfoundfilms.com).

I had been stumbling down the little hill on the side of the house for long enough and I decided it was time to finally put in some stairs down to the garden. Of course the old fence had to go as well, and when the fence was gone it was clear the whole rock wall needed to be rebuilt. One thing led to another and a simple project turned into a few days of hard work! After two days of hauling boulders around, I could hardly move! Then it was time to break down some palettes to turn them into a reclaimed wood fence to finish the deal… Yeah Anika, I finally used the wood you and Josie broke last year!

Now back to digging… Planting tomorrow!

So, the weather had been typical Creusois spring time (lots of rain and gray skies), but there has been some sun here and there… Plus the upside of all the rain is that everything is so GREEN. Spring is definitely here…

I have already started cleaning the yard and garden, broke ground on the first of the large vegetable gardens we have planned for this summer, and we should have a few feathered friends joining us in the next few weeks… So If you are planning a visit this year, start looking forward to lots of fresh vegetables and fresh eggs…

Come visit!

We picked up the door way back in the middle of September. Odette told me there was an old door that the now deceased neighbor had long ago given to her now deceased husband that she had always thought would look great on the house. I didn’t expect much, but we went over to rummage in the barn and found this beautiful old door, made by hand of solid oak. The years had made their mark, but nothing a fresh coat of Le Vignaud Blue couldn’t fix.

Lena and Clint both spent some time sanding off the old paint, and Clint also started painting the bars during his visit. Later, I ended up stripping the old paint off the door completely, when I realized no amount of sanding would ever get the ten or so layers out of all the cracks. I also shortened the frame, adding a small window above, and shortened the door itself a few centimeters for it to fit. Hanging the door was a little difficult, as I had to hand the whole frame with the door attached since the beams in the kitchen are too low to lift the door from the hinges once it’s in place. The fit was perfect- just a few millimeters on top and botton, it passed perfectly between the beams and the floor! No more terrible scratching noise (if you ever opened the old door, you have that sound etched in your mind forever!) when you open it! Then, a few coats of paint later, and some new hardware and it looks and feels like new… I may have shocked the neighbors a bit with the ultra-blue look, but the change it brought to the house was incredible. The new door along with the new roof, totally changed the house from what it looked like just two months earlier.

Gallery:

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Yup, count ‘em- that’s almost SIX WEEKS of roofing, and you get to enjoy it all in a matter of seconds from the convenience of your home. I know everyone has been waiting for months for this! The thing is, when you live in a house with no electricity, encoding video, editing photos, and Facebook status updates happily fade away into non-existence. You’ve all been rewarded for waiting so long though with a very in-depth and media-rich experience brought to you by the kind folks at Le Vignaud Productions.

In the Begining

Now What??

Lena and I began pulling tiles down back in mid-September, the day after our visitors from Germany had left. I had originally estimated we may be able to finish the project in about three weeks, tackling it in three smaller sections, so about one week per 4m section… It took much longer than I had expected, but luckily we were blessed with beautiful fall weather all throughout October. The first few days went relatively smoothly: Tearing down the vines that had covered the roof, taking down the old tiles, and removing the old battens and rafters. It wasn’t until we made it to the point that we actually had to start building the new roof that we bagan to run into problems.

First of all, the outside wall had a taken on a bit of water damage from where the vines had been- they had worked their way in between the tiles and allowed water to seep into the lime mortar which makes it very unstable. So the walls had to be re-built with fresh mortar along the eves and gables. Second obstacle: The house is more than 100 years old which obviously means it was built long before the earth had a clearly measurable gravity field. Of course, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the perfect ‘level’ anyway. In the end, the most practical solution (that didn’t involve actually moving the oak beams) was to simply level each individual rafter with small wood spacers between the rafter and the beam. This made the whole process of installing the rafters much more laborious and slow, but in the end the roof line looks much better for it!

'Chien-assis' Window Structure

Next up: The construction of our very special and totally ‘custom designed’ Chien-assis windows. First of all, I had very limited tools available. Therefore, these windows had to be constructed using a variety of highly advanced carpentry methods. That is, I had to build them by hand, with my trusty hand saw and a protractor. Second of all, I am not a roofer. I had no idea how this was supposed to work, much less how to make them both structurally sound and watertight! I had to take what was only a vague idea in my head, put it down on paper, and then proceed to design and build it having to overcome many obstacles as I came to them. I would venture to say that the addition of the two small windows added easily two to three weeks to the total project- Firstly in the physical construction of the window frames and underlying structure, secondly in flashing and waterproofing, and finally in literally hours spent cutting tiles to fit both the windows and the underlying vallies. If it wasn’t for these tiny windows, we could have easily finished in just three weeks. Was it worth it? Who knows…

Lena, wearing her safety glasses after cutting tiles

Lena was with me to help during the first two weeks of the roofing project, and I am happy to say she passed the test! Even the neighbors were impressed how hard she worked, on the roof laying rafters, from the ground cutting tiles, and up and down the latter carrying tiles. Unfortunately, Lena decided she wanted to graduate instead of helping me finish the roof, and so had to head back to Germany leaving me to cope with the last two-thirds of our new project all on my own! If it wasn’t already hard enough, I can assure you, it was certainly MUCH harder to build a roof completely alone. I now had to climb up and down the ladder at least 7,000 extra times per day, not to mention there are just some things that are not practical with only two hands!

Placing the First Tiles

Once I was finally able to get past the first dormer window, things moved a bit quicker though- Section two took only half the time as section one even though it was larger; I saved a lot of time since it was a straight shot all the way across until window number two got in the way on the other side! That’s not to say it was without problems though: After we uncovered the old roof and had a look at the beams underneath, I found a very large rotted section which was also infested with ‘capricorn’ beetle larvae. These guys aren’t as bad as termites, but they had definitely managed to eat away a huge hole in the central structure of my roof over the past 50 years or so… I lost another three days removing the old rotted wood and replacing the damaged section with a new beam and then reinforced with concrete and stone.

I had managed to lay all the underlying structure for the second section by the time Clint arrived. He then helped me to put up the tiles for this middle section and then take down the tiles for the last section before he left and I was once again on my own. Section three was the most complicated of all: I was once again alone, and had not only another window to install and work around, but also the chimney, as well as the final edge of the roof wich required a lot of tile cutting to make everything fall into place correctly. This is when I really started to lose it- the weeks of sleeplessness and 10-hour workdays up and down the latter hundreds of time had certainly taken its toll. It was an uphill fight to not throw myself off the roof towards the end, I wanted it to be over so badly! I turned 27 on October 24th on my roof, during a 12-hour day pushing so hard to finish. I worked that night until I couldn’t see, but due to inclement weather conditions the next few days, the final tile was not laid until the 29th.

Finished. Finally Finished.

That night, I was surprised to be invited to the neighbors’ house where everyone had gathered to celebrate. After a few whiskeys, the last few weeks of non-stop work seemed to fade away and all I remembered was that I finally had a roof over my head. The finished roof made me truly appreciate for the first time the full potential of the house- It allowed me to look at in in a whole new way, and realize the beauty in this little building that I had missed before. It was an incredible amount of work, but in the end I am very satisfied with the results. For the first time, I feel like I can respectably call this old pile of stones a house… I can look forward to what it can become, and look back on all the work that got us here.

Slideshow:

(click images for larger view)

• In the Begining

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• There's a Hole in the Roof

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• Lena Broke the Roof

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• Now What??

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• Lena Nailing the First Chevron

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• Chevrons and a Little Window

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• Section 1: Structure: Complete

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• View From the Attic

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• Insulation and Lattes

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• Lattes, Ready for Tiles

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• Safety First

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• Lena Placing the First Tiles

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• One Square Meter

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• Section One Complete

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• Looking Good!

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• Capricorn Larvae

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• Rot Damage

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• Rot Damage Repaired

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• Weathering the Storm

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• Construction Site

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• Section Two Ready for Tiles

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• Tiles Going Up

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• Mortar on the Ridge Caps

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• Cutting Tiles

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• Action Shot on the Ridge-Line

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• Glorious Ridge-line View

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• Clint's Last Day

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• Approaching Storm

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• Last Section

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• Chevrons Section Three

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• Tiles Going Up, Getting Close Now!

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• Almost There...

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• Finished. Finally Finished.

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• Beautiful New Roof

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• Inside the Attic, Ready for Cielings

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• Beautiful New Roof, Beautiful Fall Weather

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Konrad under one of the giant stones at Les Pierres Jaumetres

Les Verrines’ youngest member gets his spotlight! Konrad came to visit with his mom Anika and his friend Josie for ten days and helped with a few projects, swam, ate gummy bears, and played. Konrad even got his “Petit Chevalier” certificate in his young knight training course.

Konrad, Petit Chevalier

Group portrait in front of La Chapelle du Mas St. Jean

Konrad also loves to dance. He starts to break out some really special moves about a minute in:

[See post to watch Flash video]

Thanks for visiting, Konrad! Bring your friends again next summer! Thanks Anika for some great photos… =)

Konrad, Anika, and Josie had just just shown up to spend a few days kickin’ back and enjoying the French countryside. I didn’t wait long to put them to work cleaning one of the last of the ‘big messes’ that had been bothering me since we arrived!

Anika Shoveling Coal

A little background: The ‘house’ (if you can call it that?) was actually not a house originally… You could say it was a sort of a stable… where pigs lived. Okay, it was a pigsty to be exact. So, in the the front of the house is a small front yard which at one time is where the pigs ran around, and were fed. Along side the wall is a long, narrow feeding-trough made of giant granite stones sunk into the ground. Over the years this was filled with all manner of rubbish, plastic, rusted metal, a TV antenna, a mountain of rotten wood, and enough coal to fire a locomotive from Cannes to Caen. It didn’t take long for the expert crew to clear out all the mess, tear up the soil, uproot the nettles and briars, and turn a trash pile into our first garden at the new house…

Konrad and Lena planting Lettuce

It’s not much, but it’s certainly better than a pile of rotting wood covered in trash! We were able to plant a few flowers, and our master gardener Konrad set to work sewing our first crop- a batch of Lettuce. It was his first time planting lettuce, and when we told him he could actually eat it later, he was less than impressed. He tasted a leaf and said, “It tastes like grass!” before heading off to find more snails!

Every year in the summer, the gardens are full of plenty of fresh vegetables of all kinds- Even though we had no garden of our own this year, the neighbors are always happy to help out and ensure that we get our daily ration of veggies. Perhaps the most prolific of all is the lowly courgette (zucchini)… They come in all shapes and sizes, for all tastes and purposes. Throughout the whole summer, there are courgettes all over the village and they grow so fast, no one can possibly eat them all. Needless to say, we went through a LOT of courgettes over this summer and have had to literally invent new ways to eat them- Courgette bread, courgette jam, courgette clafoutis, courgette soup, courgette gratin, and the list goes on!

This year’s prize for the biggest courgette EVER goes to Sebastian who brought me this giant- just in time for our new visitors’ arrival! Lucky them. It took five people at least three meals to eat this whole monster!

Lena, Ready for Action

Although this post is titled ‘First Things First’ it’s important to note that we had already done quite a lot of work to make it to this point! This was already our third trip to the ‘new’ house- twice last year, just CLEANING, killing the ivy growing up the walls, cutting down the mess of vines and brambles in the yard. This time around we had already been back for over a month- Once again cutting down all the mess that had grown up while we were gone, making our weekly trips to the Déchèterie with loads of trash, stripping the old yellow wallpaper from the walls and doing drywall, and various other projects.

But- First things first, we needed a toilet! We also needed a shower… So I set about to build a Dry Composting Toilet system and an outdoor solar shower. Of course, the ol’ bucket system just wouldn’t cut it. I wanted something that would not only be functional, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective, but also something that would look nice and pass even the most discriminating of tastes. I broke out the woodworking kit and got to work building a toilet that one might even describe as… beautiful?

Composting Toilet

The toilet concept is actually very simple: Human wastes are combined with a cover material, such as chopped straw or sawdust. We use sawdust since it is readily available, and seems to be ideal in terms of a fresh, pleasant smell as well as being a superb compost additive. When the toilet container is full, it’s emptied in the outdoor compost bin for composting. The compost materials and any pathogens are broken down through thermophilic composting, and after one year the compost is actually safe to use in the garden or around the yard. The composting toilet system uses, NO WATER, is very environmentally friendly (goodbye dirty septic tanks!), and is, one might even say: A pleasure to use. Seriously, I love it.

I also built a Solar Composting Shower setup to use during the warm summer months. This was fairly simple, just a hole in the ground filled with straw, which acts as compost, on top of which sits the shower structure. The straw under the shower acts as a filter for the soap and oil residues, which are then broken down over time through thermophilic composting. Thanks, nature! The view from the shower is great, looking out over the meadow and the woods beyond, and after a hot, sweaty day of work it’s just about perfect. After a month with nothing but bowls of water to dump over the head it definitely felt like luxury living!

In Front of La Chapelle du Mont St. Jean with the Renault

This was a BIG deal. I have never, NEVER in my life, spent this much money at once… Especially on something I can’t use to make photographs!

These weren’t just any tiles, either.

The story goes: Once upon a time, there was a Chateau. This chateau was built a very long time ago in a town called Jarnages. So long ago actually, that the roof had begun to fall apart! So, the French government stepped in and put up a lot of money to put a beautiful new roof on the Chateau. And of course, a chateau certainly can’t be clothed with just any old tiles! NO, a chateau must have special tiles, approved by the bureaucratic powers-that-be to conform to standards of beauty appropriate for preserving the heritage and patrimony of France! But of couse… France being France, only half of the roof of the beautiful chateau was ever finished, while the owner awaiting his FEMA check to complete the other half. (In the mean time, a certain American came along who needed some very special tiles for his own chateau. And he wasn’t going to wait for government bail-outs…)

It was a big decision. Lena and I debated about for at least a month before finally deciding to go for it. It was a lot of money. How would we even move seven tons of tiles from Jarnages to the house? Not to mention, someone would have to put them on the roof…

Luckily, Alexandre kindly offered to undertake the massive job of getting the tiles home. This made the decision a little easier knowing that he was willing to take on the biggest obstacle in terms of physically getting the tiles to the house. We woke early that morning and rushed to the bank to make some financial arrangements before meeting him on his farm in time for lunch. We ate quickly and then set off to Jarnages, about 45km away, by tractor… pulling a 20-ton hay trailer behind.

Once we arrived at our destination (at 45km/h maximum), loading the tiles went fairly smoothly. Then we began the long journey home with seven tons of tiles behind the tractor. I followed in the truck so that I could watch in case anything were to go wrong (though Alexandre never told me what I was supposed to do if something did happen). After a small problem with my tire, and an exhausting drive home, we reached the village and created quite a commotion with all the neighbors when they saw our little convoy pull up. Alexandre’s father had met us at the house with a second tractor equipped with a fork to unload the palettes from the trailer and deliver them to the yard. We almost had to abandon the project and leave the palettes along the road-side when it seemed like the tractor wouldn’t fit through the space between the buildings to make it into the front yard. Luckily though, our friendly neighbor Guy showed up to save the day- He works in shipping and logistics, so technically he qualifies as a trained professional. He helped guide the tractor through the tight space (minus the side-view mirrors), which passed with only centimeters on each side!

At the end of the day, thanks to Alexandre’s excellent tractor-driving skills (certainly not anyone could have done it!) all the tiles made it in one piece… I was too nervous to even watch through the whole ordeal and after an afternoon of watching thousands of euros hover in the air waiting to crash down and smash into little pieces, my nerves were shot! Once again, Guy had just the solution- A nice apéritif with a double shot of whisky to calm the nerves to finish off a long day.

For some inspiration of what’s to come:

Chateau de Jarnages

Sunflowers in Creuse

Jason and Jeanine

Admittedly, the house was in pretty wicked shape when we got back- It’s been over a year since anyone has been inside, or cut the grass! This was what we were greeted by when we drove up… Not exactly the prettiest sight, but it’s more or less what I had expected. Looks like we’ll be spending the next few weeks chopping, and cutting, and burning- before we’ll even be able to begin the real work!

Listing # BLZ119
Price €149,900
Approx. Sq. Meters: 102
Bed/Bath: 2 / 1
Approx. Acreage: 3.29
-Nature’s beauty and end of the road privacy makes this 2/1 cottage with detached woodshed and three caves a special part of this enchanted forest. A dream great room to spend many happy moments, a patio area surrounded by stone wall and wooded privacy. Summer cottage or year round home, you choose. A sense of comfort and warmth will capture you as you enter this home – be prepared to enjoy!

Virtual Tour

Features:

STYLE: 1 Story Cottage/Bungalow
EXTERIOR FINISH: Stone
STORAGE: 3 Cave Storage Cellars
FLOORS: Ceramic Tile, Vinyl, Cement
ROOF: Vintage Ceramic Tile
HEATING: Wood Fire
WATER: Natural Spring
SEWER: Septic
YEAR BUILT: 1917
INTERIOR FEATURES: Master Bedroom, Furnished Kitchen, Finished Ceiling Beams, Split BR Plan, Water Heater
EXTERIOR FEATURES: Stone, Large Garden, Workshop, Woodshed
APPLIANCES: Gas Oven/Range, Oil Lamp, Candles
LOT DESCRIPTION: Long Range View, Rolling, Trees, Winter View, Wooded and Prairie Land with Large Vegetable Garden

Local Map

View Les Verrines in a larger map

When one time’s just not enough…

Winter gray and falling rain, we’ll see summer come again,
Darkness falls and seasons change (gonna happen every time).

Lena and I head back to La Creuse to start fresh… As if I hadn’t learned my lesson the first time around. March, 2010.

Intimacy with another country is ripened by pleasures but also by loneliness and error. It is nurtured through long wet winters as well as radiant days.

–Shirley Hazzard, Italian Hours

Le Vignaud, 2 November 2008

It’s been quite a while since I have had the time to write or share any photos on the website- things have been busy over the past few months. Needless to say, I have plenty of stories and photos to share! I should have regular internet access coming soon, so expect to have some new updates on the way…

. . . . .

One year has passed since I drove from Germany in a rickety old Renault truck, bound for my tiny village in France. It has been a wonderful ride- I have made life-long friends, followed a longstanding dream, overcome many obstacles, and fallen to others. But through all the cold, the rain, the sunshine, the good food, the up and the downs, I wouldn’t trade a day of the last year for anything else.

I could never imagined that when I first walked into Le Vignaud over seven years ago (!) that I would one day come back to experience it in the way that I now know it. I know every footpath, many trees, the fields, and the lake better than any others in any other place in the world. This little village has become my home more than any other place has ever been. The people here have become more than friends, they have a permanent part of my family. They have helped me in ways that I could never have hoped for or expected. It’s a hard feeling to describe…

There have likely been as many hard times here as good ones. Many cold, lonely nights. Lots of worries, lots of aggravations, lots of heart break. But along with all of those difficulties have been many wonderful sunny afternoons, picnics in the clover patch that we planted back in February, the satisfaction of completing many wonderful projects. All these experiences combine to form somewhat of a strange void in my memory and in my heart. There is so much emotion and mixed feelings, it can be hard to come to terms one way or another with what I have experienced here.

One thing I do know for sure, is that this past year had changed me in so many ways. I have learned and grown so much, and I am happy to see those changes. This experience will stick with me for the rest of my life, and as I have mentioned before, I hope that it is also something that has changed the lives of others as well. I have been told many times by the people here that I have made a positive impact on this little community. That is a start. But also I hope that I have at the very least provided some new questions for myself and for everyone else who has followed along; even if the answers are still vague.

This is my home… And no matter where life’s winds will blow me from here, the seeds have been planted. It will always be a part of me. The land, the people, and the lessons will follow me where ever my feet may take me next. Every time I go away, I miss this place. When I return I take a deep breath and bask in the familiar feelings and memories. My feet feel sure beneath me here; the ground they tread is welcoming…

Breathes there the man, with soul dead…
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
From wandering on a foreign strand!

–Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Thank you once again to EVERYONE who has taken part in this experience. For better or worse, you have all been an incredibly important part of making it happen. I hold no regrets.

Thank you,
Jason

Le Vignaud, 2 November 2009

Jason’s decision set off a series of events and adventures in my own life, which most recently took to me to the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada. Burning Man was my own experience, but I still paid homage to its origin in my life.

On the base of the Man

One of the first things I did after arriving to Burning Man was walk over to the giant wooden effigy and leave my mark in Le Vignaud Blue. Nearly a week later, after the Man was just a pile of burning and smoldering ashes I threw in a 200 year old piece of oak, taken from an old roof beam in Le Vignaud.

At first I wasn’t sure why I put this memorial at the Man instead of the Temple. I think it’s because although Jason’s role in Le Vignaud may soon be at an end, the village itself and the few people living there will keep on truckin’. And who knows, maybe being burned with the Man as a symbol of rebirth will prove to be a bit of good luck for the little commune.