Arbeid maakt vrienden… Work makes friends

And what a great day it was! Ria, Chris and I were joined by Martin, Sonia, Gjergj and Sophie – all different backgrounds, but a shared passion for growing things, the outdoor life, getting things done together with good conversations and great food!

Unloading woodchips from Theo's trailer

I realised as the work got underway, directed by Ria, that synchronicity had again been at play. One of the vital ingredients of our tree-planting exercise was large quantities of wood chips. It just so happened that another friend of Ria’s had moved house a few weeks previously, and as part of that exercise, she had had to dismantle about 50 metres worth of brushwood barriers. She hired a chipper and turned it into three large trailers full of wood chips that Ria and Chris hauled over to Ransberg and deposited at the bottom of the swales. They were perfectly placed to serve for the tree-planting.

Digging the holes - Gjergj (a beast with a spade!), Ria and Sonia

We were really lucky with the weather and conditions, too. If we had done this work in the summer, the ground would have been rock hard. In any normal December, it would have been either boggy or frozen. But we had had no rain for a month, until the last two days, so the ground was quite soft to dig, and the temperature was quite mild, so our extremities didn’t get too cold, but we still felt really happy when Chris showed up at 12.30 with a thermos of tea and a tin of freshly-baked spekuloos biscuits (because it’s Sinterklaas…).

Tea break

The procedure was: dig a hole, put in three fistfuls of compost, place the shrub, fill in the hole with soil, add a layer of wood chips, a layer of cardboard and another layer of woodchips.

There was lots of to-ing and fro-ing with wheelbarrows to feed the production line with compost and wood chips, lots of exercise for unaccustomed abdominal muscles, lots of standing around leaning on spades and pitchforks, having deep and involved conversations about life, the universe and everything. There was time for stories, laughter, friendship and concentrated work, a leisurely and delicious lunch (much of it grown on the land), rustled up by Chris – always a memorable part of our work days.

We even had time to do some other odd jobs around the land after lunch, before the rain drove us indoors for tea, apple tart, a look round the house and a closing circle. Gratitude to Sophie, Sonia, Gjergj and Martin for so generously giving of your time, energy and love.

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Open day on Sunday 4 December 2011

Friends of Dorpsstraat 136

Open day on Sunday 4 December from 10.30-17.00

Dear friends

The time has come at last for us to plant the coppicing shrubs around the perimeter of our land. We cordially invite you to join us for a day of fresh air, good company, meaningful work and conversation and… Chris’s cooking!!

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We plan to start at around 10.30 and put in a few hours of work before lunch, then continue outdoors until about 16.00-17.00.

Our task will be to plant 50-60 little bushes along the sides of the property. This will involve digging the holes, adding some compost, putting cardboard around the base and topping with a layer of woodchips. And there are plenty of other jobs to do…

What to bring:

• warm working clothes
• stout outdoor shoes/boots (and warm socks!)
• working gloves if you have them (we can provide some!)
• a spade, if you have one!

Where to come: Dorpsstraat 136, 3470 Ransberg

We are looking forward to welcoming you and having a good time together.

With love

Helen, Ria & Chris

No Brainer

I met Helen and Ria at a workshop called Embody (Y)our Calling.

The workshop was hosted by Ria Baeck (Vitis-tct) and Mary –Alice  Arthur. (Get Soaring)

After the workshop I was no longer the same person, I had changed.  It had been a profound experience. And I had made some new friends.  Helen and her daughter Anna invited me for lunch and that’s how my involvement with the Dorpsstraat  project began.

I had quit my day job and was putting all my energy into storytelling, I had recently given a workshop on storytelling in Brussels was organizing storytelling evenings .

When I saw the house that Helen had bought to renovate and got an idea of what Helen and Ria wanted to do with it I became interested.  The idea appealed to me to be part of a project whose aim is to create an environment in harmony. Ria had already cultivated a substantial and happy garden but much work still needed to be done on the house. I could see that my skills as a carpenter could be put to good use in a way that would share the same ideals as Helen and Ria. It was easy, if Helen and Ria were willing, I gladly wanted to be part of this team. And yes, they were willing.

Recently I attended a workshop called “Circle Intensive” organized by Ria Baeck which was hosted by Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea (PeerSpirit). The people they brought together, their experience and generosity gave me a deeper understanding of what it means to host a circle and the practice of speaking clearly and listening attentively. By attending the workshop I was inspired by the people around me and gained insights on how to improve my hosting of “Storytelling Circles”

Next week I continue putting a new floor in the attic and on Tuesday we have a meeting with the architect Herwig Van Soom.  I look forward to hosting a storytelling workshop for the Imagination Club in Brussels towards the end of October.

Warmest regards,

Martin

http://www.peerspirit.com/circle-training.html

http://www.getsoaring.com/

http://www.vitis-tct.be/site/Main/HomePage

Requiem for a walnut tree

While the drama was unfolding in Flanders, I was attending a wedding in Chaudfontaine, near Liège. The storm passed us by – literally: it raged on the other side of the wall from the small enclosed space in the Chateau des Thermes where we were engaged in sacred ceremony. I didn’t learn about the impact of the storm until the following morning. It was reading Ria’s post that I learned of the passing of the younger of our two walnut trees.

My strongest root anchor is broken...

But I’d been busy with trees already on the day of the storm. Outside the chateau were some huge trees. An enormous plane tree called me to visit it. There’s no other way of saying it. It drew me toward it, as strongly as if it had been beckoning, seeking communion. So I went, put my hands on its trunk, allowed it to rebalance my aura, and just felt its life force within me. As I turned to leave it some 10 minutes later, I found a perfectly straight stick, with a knot half way up on one side, lying on the ground at my feet. I knew it was a gift to me – and I knew it was intended as a talking stick. On my last day at Chaudfontaine – the day after the storm – it was the copper beech that called me. And again, as I turned to leave it, there at my feet… another perfect talking stick, almost identical in shape. Spooky.

That was when it struck me: I had never entered into relationship with the individual trees on the land in Ransberg. Doh!!!

Today when I arrived in Ransberg, Ria dispatched me directly down to the orchard to commune with the walnut tree and find out what it wanted from us. It was astounding how clearly I could receive its communication. The question was: should we try to stand it back up again? It was so clearly still alive. But the answer was unequivocal. “My strongest root anchor is broken. I cannot stay upright any longer. I shall live long enough to deliver you my harvest of nuts. Then I want you to take me into the house. Let me live with you inside in forms you can use. Learn to fashion beautiful objects from even my smallest branches – spoons and statues that echo my forms.” It also occurred to me that this big, big being was dying, here on our land. And it was asking us to accompany it during its passing. “Think of me as I am dying. Come and visit me, lay your hands upon my trunk and open yourself up to commune with my life force. Let me teach you what I know about being a tree. Let me become part of your spirit and part of your life force so that my passing can serve the world.“

Thank God for tall and fearless men!

And so we shall.

And there was more to do. It seemed as if half the orchard’s apples were lying on the ground, and all must be processed if we weren’t to lose half the crop. With Geert and Katrin both visiting today, we found ourselves numerous enough to chop and juice the apples in a few hours of deep and pleasant conversation in the semi-tropical heat, with the old-time Flemish dance music wafting to us from the neighbours. Geert even legged up the ladder to fix the tiles on the workhouse roof. Thank God for tall and fearless men!

Many hands making light work of the storm-fallen apples

and then a storm…

We were not sure it was coming our way… the wind became stronger and the local fruit farmers started ‘shooting’ at the storm. But to no avail. It started raining and we went inside. Suddenly it was almost totally dark, at 6pm! Normally it is that dark at 10pm or 9.30pm. And then the hell broke loose!

We are accustomed to have some drips of rain in the summer kitchen, because that’s the piece of the house that will be demolished anyway; but now! !!! The wind came straigth from the nord, hitting the house full on in the back. The rain was streaming from the roofs, not even going through the gutters were we have them! Suddenly it was dripping everywhere and the water was blown underneath the door, soon the whole floor full of water…

After the storm settled down and we had cleaned up the mess inside we went to have a look outside…

a broken roof tile from the workshop

This is were the title should have been!

one dead branch fallen off

vegetable nicely combed by the wind and rain

this should be corn standing upright...

the roof for the tomatoes...

who trew these apples?

worst of all, one of our nut trees was laid down!

the good thing: our heart-shaped pond was filled for the first time!

More pictures to find here. And we do have electricity, but still no running water?!? One more reason to make sure we harvest lots of rainwater in the future!

Some abundance

the bouquet of this morning

the bouquet from a few days ago

cosmos and bee - I think

unfolding

tomatoes who came there by themselves, we didn't plant them, they came out of the compost

A few more pictures here.

Divine Country

Over, at the online community of Powers of Place, I received this beautful story via Raffi, an online friend. He speaks about Eiwor Backlund, who started a cafe in a rural area… Eiwor is in Sweden, and the cafe is called Divine Country. We might take some inspiration for the future for our own project, and make a ‘neighborhood that matters’.
 
Here is her story:
The story about Divine Country is that I wanted to go back and live in the 
area where I was born, in the countryside. And suddenly last spring there 
was a house for sale, an old store where I myself had been many times, 
buying food for my grandmother and my mother. I used to ride my bicycle
 there and I remember exactly where the shelf with the candies was. 
I had an idea of creating a meeting place where people could talk about what 
matters to them and also heal old wounds, get new ideas and create something 
together. One part in this was to have cooking classes and do handicraft 
like knitting and weaving and maybe some carpentry. The name came from
 somewhere out of the blue, can’t remember how, but I did get clues that I 
pulled together and there it was. The journalist who came to write about the
 opening in the local paper actually noted that the countryside was divine 
and that I had angels in my store and all around it. The house is at a
 crossroads and if you don’t turn your steering wheel when you drive by you
 will run into the front door. The garden behind the house is a sacred oasis
 (at least the feeling of it, it is more wild field than garden), even though 
there is some traffic here it is never disturbing. There are huge oak trees
 and a hedge around it and someone said that it is as if there was a bubble 
around the house and the garden to guard it from the outside world. He who 
said so is a mechanic and I never thought he would even feel such things but
 he said that when he was standing on the road he felt lost but when he was 
standing in the garden there was such a wonderful feeling of coming home,
 safe and secure. 



So I started on that path and to get people interested I also opened an 
American style gift store. But in a little while that gift store got in the
 way of the meeting place and I lost focus. In June I went back to the first
 idea again and opened a café over the summer. I also had what I call
 dialogue cafés or salons, during the Spring. I invited a person who talked
 about something interesting and we then discussed it over some nice food and
 coffee. There was not many people to start with but the last times in May we
 had about 15 participants which is as much as I can take in the store. I
 have now made a schedule for the Autumn, with a café every second or third
 week. People who come here get an introduction into some topic, most of them
 has to do with connection to your spirit, and then we talk. There is always 
something a little bit more luxurious to eat and of course coffee and tea. 

Many people have come during the summer to get the Autumn schedule so the 
interest is growing. I have also started to change the things in the store,
 there will still be a small part of the café filled with gifts, mostly
 angels and other things people use to connect to Spirit. I find that people 
are searching for spiritual growth and want guidance for how they can manage 
their lives in this time that seems so chaotic. 


By the way, a salon is what they had in France after dinner, when the men 
went for a smoke the women gathered for coffee in the salon. There they
 discussed things that were important to them, such as politics and childcare
 and the neighbours relationships. A salon requires an interesting topic,
 something nice to eat and drink and a mirror with a golden frame.

Using what’s already there

Not ones to waste an opportunity, Ria and Chrisje have been extracting the great digested compost from the bottom of the compost heap and picking out all the plastic, metal, broken glass, chicken bones and other rubbish that had accumulated there over the years. This they have deposited on a bed of cardboard underneath the retaining wall that separates the kitchen garden from the orchard. And bingo: a new planting bed!

Creating a new bed from old compost

The chicken tractor is another example of the principle of upcycling waste into useful artifacts.

Chicken tractor

Eco-Loo

The last example (for now) is the eco-loo – not quite finished yet, but the only thing we’ve had to bring in from outside was the nails! The wood all came from the demolished outhouse, and the circular saw was left lying around at the King’s Mill by some workmen after a previous job…

 

Beauty

This is a cross-posting from my (Ria’s) regular blog, but it has its place here too.

An idea occurred to me Sunday, working in the garden the whole weekend, I’m not growing vegetables, I’m cleaning this piece of land that I am currently stewarding and I’m doing my best to grow a good and healthy soil. On top of that I’m trying to create beauty along the way; and I am enjoying it all tremendously!

What follows is a little video of one of the many TED-talks, of which I am a fan. The Beauty of Pollination! Beauty indeed!!!
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Delays explained

It’s been a while since I posted anything here, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy! Chrisje has now moved her gear over from the King’s Mill and the sleeping space has been rearranged to accommodate her furniture. It looks splendid, and there’s even a little niche for me, now!

Incorporating Chrisje's gear in the workshop

Ria and Chrisje have been turboing the garden – I won’t even begin to list the flowers and vegetables they have planted (I’ll write about the new beds in the next post).

View of the kitchen garden

We are already harvesting strawberries, that are netted to protect them from the birds. Even the strawberries planted in the dry clay down on the dike between us and the neighbours are bearing fruit.

The chickens, it would appear, have taken a break from laying eggs – we’re not quite sure what that’s about, but they still want to get out of their enclosure at all costs…

Eco-loo rising

I have just returned from 10 days in Greece, on the beautiful land of our sister place, Axladitsa-Avatakia, where I participated in a 6-day programme called Apprenticing to the Earth. While I was there, I fell in love with an eco-loo, and was therefore utterly delighted to see such a construction rising at the bottom of the vegetable garden. Ria’s son Toon promised to build her one for her birthday, and began making good on the promise last week. With the help of a circular saw borrowed from the King’s Mill, we’ve been sawing planks recovered from the demolition of the outhouse, and the loo is progressing fast. Next challenge, fixing on the doors – both also rescued from the threat of retirement after doing duty elsewhere…

The new baby

Yesterday we went on a jaunt to Pieraerts, purveyor of fine farm machinery in Kortenaken, just round the corner, to buy a girl-sized chainsaw and the requisite safety clothing. We are now the proud owners of a STIHL MS 211C 35cm baby that Chrisje can’t wait to get her hands on. We won’t have the protective gear until next week, though, so she’ll have to wait – but the days of the remaining jungle at the front of the house are NUMBERED!

We were assisted in our chainsaw quest by our friend Martin Jugmans, a man of many hats who has quite some experience in the building trade. After our excursion, we sat down with the architect’s plans and Martin, bless him, threw us straight into the groan zone by suggesting that we would be much better off if we just demolished the house and started afresh, building with timber frames and strawbales. That induced rather a long silence, during which I, for one, underwent a fundamental shift in my thinking about how to approach the renovation of the house.

We have been wondering, ever since we arrived here, why the pace of progress on the house has been so much slower than our progress in the garden. While in Greece, I drew a tarot card to gain some insight into this delay – the two of swords reversed. Suggesting I’d been using my intuition wrongly. I realise I’ve been rather afraid to think of making any radical changes to the place – lack of experience being a large part of my timidity. Yet here was Martin, urging free thinking with great confidence.

The secret lay in looking at the core challenges already identified with the architect, and then letting rip with our imagination in how to solve them. We eventually came up with the idea of simply demolishing all the outbuildings – including the barn/pigsty complex and the workshop/outhouses, and building in their place with straw bales. Having the living room where the workshop is now, and relegating the utilities into the dark core of the house gives us permanent relationship to the garden. Having the storage and toolshed area where the pigsty/cowshed is, and widening the access through to the back means we can also dig an underground rain water cystern large enough to meet our needs while we are at it. We can carry on living in the house while building the straw bale construction out back, and that could happen quite quickly, once the foundation is laid.

Martin, who was to be seen leaning in ever more as we three girls got more excited and engaged – has offered to help us draw up some plans for this new vision. We know that our architect, with his boundless goodwill, is rather stretched with his current workload after a bout of ill health earlier in the year, and would probably be delighted to step back and play a more supervisory role if we can manage more design work on our own. This feels very right to us – having friendly support from someone with both experience and connections in the area will make all the difference.

We’ll be meeting the architect on Wednesday evening – I’ll keep you posted about what happens!