Message from the Universe ;)

In January in France, the Epiphany is seriously celebrated. Although the Epiphany is on January 6th, we eat the traditional "King cake" with the neighbors, at the City Hall, with all the associations we participate in, at work, .... the list can be long when you are "famous", like us, ha ha!

There are 2 ways to present this cake: the King Cake is a brioche-like cake topped with candied sugar and candied fruit. The second one is called "Galette des Rois" and it is a puff pastry filled with a sweet almond cream where a small figurine is hidden. The person who gets the figurine becomes the king or the queen and gets a crown!

Due to various food allergies, I never eat those cakes BUT I always take my share back home for Mike. He usually likes them and surely can use the extra calories ;)

This year, the funniest thing happened. Mike got the figurine and it was .... an EXCAVATOR!

So I guess the Universe has talked to us, we can start building our new home!!!

Mike is planning to start demolishing the current garage on the building plot before summer comes and then start digging the foundations. As soon as the new garage is done, the plan is to move all Mike's tools from his temporary shop in the third house to the new garage. And guess what? That third house will get a face lift!

This is the actual plane facade:

This is what Mike envisioned (see drawing). There will be a proper entrance at the front of the building. On the first story, there will be balconies on both sides, dressed with wood trellises allowing light to come into the rooms but giving privacy as well. All the wood beams are in great shape, they will add nice features to the overall look.

This third house was probably a barn at one point (let's say in the 1800's), we will bring it back to its "original" state. The Mayor is really enthusiast with all our projects.

Garden:

The winter months were used to prune and cut trees and bushes. Call it maintenance.

The planting beds should have been prepared in autumn but since I have not done the work on time (being a bit lazy), I had to do it in January. I use the no dig method, I cover the ground (and weeds) with cardboard, I add a layer of matured compost and then straw. The nature does the rest. The rain wets the cardboard which feeds the worms and enrich the soil. The weeds have less chance to grow because kept in the dark and already, I am able to plant in a soft and well aired out ground.

I have started many seedlings : about 12 tomato varieties, various beans (fresh and dried), beets, herbs, flowers, etc. Until end of May, I will be busy seeding, re-potting and planting.

The herb garden needs a lot of weeding and I use the opportunity to plant new perennial vegetables like celery, leeks, rucula, chive, sorrel, ... Those vegetables are quite handy because they come up every year by themselves. The thing is that those vegetables are smaller then the usual ones found in the supermarkets and cannot really replace the annual ones unless you dedicate them a large portion of the garden.

The potatoes have been placed on top of a aired out piece of ground. I then covered the whole plot with matured compost and straw. As the plants will grow, I will add dirt instead of "earthing" each row which will be less heavy work. At the end, the whole plot will be covered with about 20-30 cm of earth/nourishing compost. Next to providing us a good crop (I hope), it will enrich the soil naturally.

Compost

Twice a year, I turn the compost heap and this was done last weekend. Turning it into a new place allows air to de-compact the heap and improve the composting process. The heap was well balanced, was not smelling rotten at all, was warmer in the middle where the most of the composting process was taking place.

Turning, involves putting a layer of the already developedau compost back on top. The worms will slowly find their way back down exploring all those new layers. In a couple of months, that heap will be reduced in size by half.

A place to chill:

Soon, I will be preparing the small green house for the tomato plants allowing our long green house to rest for 1 season.

I have stored my hammock there, using this quiet place to rest one in a while. This is heaven ;)

Chickens:

For the coming 2 months I am babysitting 10 hens making the count of the group to 29 (including 2 roosters). This new situation increases our daily production of eggs giving small revenues.

When I am working in the garden, I am never alone as you can see ;)

Bees:

This winter, I lost 3 of our beehives. There are various possible reasons but the fact remained that I had no hive left to start the season and I was ready to skip a year UNTIL a colleague nicely offered me one of his smaller hives. And sure enough, I said YES. Starting again with just one hive suits me fine at the moment because it does not take to much of my time but still allows me to enjoy working with bees. All and all, a good thing. Honey production will be smaller for sure but I still have enough supply of honey to bridge a year or two, so no worry there.

Our house is getting a lifting:

Mike has made brand new window shutters, nicely painted with a traditional green from the region.

Each of the window frames have been scraped repaired and painted.

This freshens up the whole front of our house.

Mike gets a kick out of strangers giving him the thumbs up while passing in front of our house: that feels good!

Now it is my turn to dress up the house with colorful flowers, pots or planters, to add a welcoming feel when arriving in Aulon.

We are keeping up with the good work, advancing slowly but surely, enjoying every step of the way and making "La Peyrère" the place we want it to become.

I am publishing this blog on our Wedding Anniversary, 19 years ago ;)