Snow, scorpions and a sad farewell to Jamico

This last week has probably been the strangest week of all, and not really because it was our last week. At the weekend we went up to the ruins at Paracois (on La Fargassa land about a 30 minute walk from the main house) – something that we had planned to do since our first day but we had not quite got round to. The ruins are actually four tumbled down houses owned by the people at La Fargassa, but while they are interesting to look at, it is more the views from them that is worth the steep climb – beautiful.

Roc de San Salvadore

The Mediterranean sea

The next day we went up to the Col D’Ares on the French/Spanish border and saw some even more spectacular scenes. I have to say that it was REALLY cold, so we didn’t stay long, but think we managed to put one cold foot at least in Spain!

View over to France from Col D’Ares.

Monday was quite exciting because we woke up to snow. It kept snowing for most of the morning which Tegan was bemused and excited about in equal proportions - it took her a while to stop calling it smoke and work out that it was called snow. Normal work sort of ground to a halt as most of the outside work wasn’t possible, although we did get assigned a slightly bizarre task. This involved uprooting senacia plants (I have no real idea how you actually spell this) from the side of the road. These are wild flowers that are not native to France and apparently kill donkeys and other animals that eat them. I have to say that we had mixed feelings about the effectiveness of this job – if they are wild and sowing themselves all over the place then picking them by hand felt like a bit of a loosing battle. But, we enjoyed wombling about in the snow and Tegan seemed to be having a great time.

Chillin’ out by the road side

The way back……….

We got back to La Fargassa for a cup of hot coffee in the kitchen only to find that a scorpion had joined us too. I think it had come in to warm it’s toes out of the snow, but it wasn’t long before it found itself in a jar being carefully escorted off the premises. We had heard of scorpions in France and I don’t think they are all that dangerous, but can give a nasty sting so on that basis we felt that it needed a different venue to hibernate.

Andy carried on doing more senacia picking the next day while I was on chutney making duty – one more thing that I had never done before and meant that I was snuggy and warm in the kitchen. It did seem as though our warm weather had indeed deserted us at last and frosts started to become common. It was, we think this cold weather that led to the sad demise of Jamico, one of La Fargassa's old and much loved horses. He normally had the run of the place, but because of some reshuffling of four legged brown things (horses and donkeys – about 6 I think) who were ordinarily housed (or stabled, fielded – can you tell I am not an equestrian?!) in a different location he had to share his small stable with them. It was not really clear what happened but Jamico appeared to have spent a night not inside but outside of his stable and was in a very cold state the next morning. One of the WWOOFERS tried to get him to come down the hill from his stable into a warmer spot and somehow he couldn’t really muster the strength to cope with the hill and fell down it. The vet pronounced that “il est mort” and once the news had sunk in, we all started to prepare for a horse cremation. I have to say that I am not a keen horse lover, but it was really sad to see such a lovely animal die.

This event seemed to tinge the rest of the week with a sort of melancholie air, although we still carried on with the usual stuff. As usual we cleaned the living space and kitchen ready for baking day on Friday and took part in the pummelling of dough, mixing of ingredients and generally making a fantastic mess! Tegan was particularly helpful in this department (the mess making), although also enjoyed the sweeping and cleaning beforehand, especially where water was involved……..

I am not entirely sure how we actually managed to leave La Fargassa as we had so much stuff to pack up, and had been here for 5 weeks (the longest WWOOF yet) and customarily had spread ourselves everywhere. We did finally manage it though and said our farewells to the remaining team members (also due to leave to go to their respective places for Christmas). Andy and I had many discussions in this last week about our experiences of what we had learnt, and about the positives and negatives of this and other WWOOFS. Living in a community environment had definitely provoked some interesting thoughts on all kinds of levels about things such as “how hippy are we"?” – not very it seems compared to some of the people we have met! And on the way people embrace alternative lifestyles and the contradictions that many people show. There were many examples of this, a simple one being a clash of economics versus the environment where we were asked to collect holly to sell at the market before the birds ate all the berries as as this was one of their last remaining food sources for the winter! Or the method of bringing your child up where you basically let them do what they want to “find their own limits”. This seems only to apply to the proponent of this idea and their own child and not visiting toddlers when they start to pull Christmas tree decorations off the tree and then its “no don’t do that”! A lot of time we had no answers for our questions, and at least once we ended up wondering about the shape of a Pringle instead – a much more down to earth issue!

We drove from La Fargassa to the outskirts of Toulouse and stayed the night in a cheap hotel next to a shopping centre. Talk about jolt back to reality! We are now at my grandparents house in the Lot et Garonne for a bit of a rest and a Christmas break and as far as possible avoiding the seasonal crazyness. Tegan though has learnt about “Teggie presents” so it won’t be long before she picks up on what a mad time of year December has become!  

More raspberries and getting close to Christmas

We have realised that the time has come for us to start thinking about packing up again as we now have only one week left at La Fargassa before we leave to go to the Lot et Garonne for our Christmas break. The other WWOOFERS are starting to leave too or at least get themselves in the zone – two of them have been making some amazing Christmas presents out of wood. It is so amazing to see how things can be created from bits of log. We too have been inspired, but artistic talents with wood are a bit of an untried and untested area for us, so no one get your hopes up just yet!

The cold weather is starting to kick in, in the shape of a couple of frosty mornings, but amazingly we still manage to get hot sunshine between the hours of 11.15 and 3pm (we all wait for the sun to come up over the hill and are sad to see it go, so we all know the times quite well!). Still sitting round the campfire at nights, although I think my bum now needs a hat as it gets so cold!

The work this week has been quite varied, Andy has finished the work on corking the house, and we have almost finished our raspberries. Part of this has involved rerouting the irrigation system which has been quite interesting and we felt pleased with the results. We have also been doing some more pruning and are now uprooting some tenacious stinging nettles around the edges. This activity actually revealed a small nest that one of the chickens had made (outside the coup) with three eggs in it- all very exciting. Thinking of chickens, we also had a chicken cremation (this is a farm full of veggies by the way) as Delores the chicken went off to that chicken place in the sky earlier in the week.  Most of the chickens seem to have names including Houdini (no prizes for guessing why!) and Penguin (not a clue on that one!).

We actually weren’t around for said chicken funeral as we have been backwards and forwards to the garage trying to sort the car out. We have a new exhaust pipe and a back wheel bearing and now know that the drive shaft is also a bit ill. French car vocab slowly improving, car slowly deteriorating……………..

Tegan is all well and happy and excited by the fact that there is now a Christmas tree in the gite for her to pull the baubles off. This is often met by great cries of “NOOOOO” from the two 8 year old kids here who decorated it so carefully. She is actually more excited by the fact that the digger (once at the top of the drive way) is now down by the house so she can see it every day, and say “hello digger”. She is making great headway in blasting to bits any gender stereotyping at a young age and is very excited by all things mechanical. You’d never guess she is the daughter of an engineer….

Beautifully pruned raspberries!

Tegan helping with to dig a hole for the irrigation pipe

Pausing to play

Saving the lettuces and looking at the moon

We are now at the end of the third week of our La Fargassa experience and there is talk of winter in the air. Amazingly we have reached the first week of December before anyone has really had to consider the fact that there is in fact a fourth season in the year! Apparently this has been an unusually long summer and normally winter has arrived by now, but it seems we have been lucky. The full moon this week has brought on lots of comments about people doing crazy things, although I can’t say that I have seen that many. We have had some really clear nights though and some lovely views of the moon and stars.

The moon from La Fargassa (yes, I know you have all seen a moon before!)

We have stopped eating outside in the evenings now, although still eat outside at lunch time, and there are still a few of us that are by the fire outside at night. We have also spent a few nights inside by the fire in the gite where most WWOOFERS are sleeping as it is definitely more cosy. There is just something about a campfire thought that makes us want to stay outside as long as possible in the evenings before we have to say goodbye to the experience for this year. It won’t be long though, and we have had to move back in from the Pigstye and into the gite again as it is a lot warmer. The pigsyte was more self contained and meant that Tegan could be as noisy as she liked in the mornings. Now however, we have to try to encourage her to keep a bit quiet in the mornings as there is a meditation session that happens each day in the gite. Tegan in her friendly way walked through the meditation session the other day saying “morning [every]body” and “ssshhh” (very loudly) – I have to admit I struggled not to laugh!

Following the theme of winter preparations this week we have been making cold frames from thick pieces of plastic to cover the lettuces. We have transplanted loads of lettuces and built some arches out of hose pipe to help them stand up. I think Andy was enjoying thinking about the best way to engineer some supports for the plastic and making some sturdy arches. I have to say that lettuce in the winter is not the main thing that I want to eat, but salad is very popular here, so lots of lettuces are needed. Andy has also been continuing with the corking of the house down the road and I have tried to help a bit. Tegan had been compliant to varying degrees to me and Andy doing this together while she stayed with Catherine (the wife of the bloke Andy is doing the work for) and her kids, one of whom is a similar age to Tegan. She has mostly though not been that keen and seems to like being outdoors with us more than ever which is hard when outside the house is a bit like a building site, so we have had limited success with my involvement in this work. I have had quite a few chances to practice my French though with this family who are lovely and seem to cope with my constant mistakes.

The house dressed in cork

Tegan is still loving life and despite having a bit of a cold seems to be full of energy and getting more and more confident each day. She knows the names of all the other WWOOFERS now and makes sure she says hello to them all at least 10 times a day! We spent last weekend pottering around and doing things in town, followed by a short walk to a nearby village on Sunday. we even managed a picnic on the way! She also helps us cook sometimes, as each of the WWOOFERS take turns to cook so we have to be quite creative when it comes to team Ware making food. She is pretty good though and we feel so lucky that we have such an adaptable daughter. 

Picnicking on a rock!

Helene and Tegan having a bit of a lie in

Tegan “helping” to cook.

We now have 2 weeks left before we leave here for the Lot et Garonne back to the Grandparents for Christmas. Have to admit we are looking forward to some home comforts. Our time here has flown by though and it will be quite sad to say goodbye. We are still unsure exactly where we will be in the new year, but watch this space!