Where iz this going???

I would rather look first at where was it before man got his hands on it. The wall is no higher than the substrate of our field. By rights it isn't even to ground level yet. Natural erosion and the action of mans agriculture has caused what was once topsoil, to slide down hill. The yard at the north side of the field was further degraded scraped down to the rock. That is the site for the wall in the picture. I tried to envisage how the land was before the village was built. My naive Idea that to be heading towards a state of grace the loss of the ecological infrastructure would need to be compensated for, hence my phrase reverse spillage. Our site is the bottom end of a ridge of schist, the thin end of the wedge. There is not a lot of mineral left. the active layer is now in the process of being improved. We will be at it years from now no doubt. On our arrival five years ago the seasonal deluge of rain caused the surface water to leave the land too fast with little time to penetrate to the aquifer below ground. The construction of the building in the yard serves two main purposes. It will provide a resistant porous barrier that will slow down the out flow of rain water to the ditches and streams.. Within the "block" of the stone barrier will be space a degree of modest traditional comfort and utility, workshop space play space. At present we dwell in a modernised building that has been rationalised to the point where the economics of maintaining it is not sustainable; We bought it, it is our problem. We did it with our eyes open. The building is "sick". I was shocked to discover that it was "upgraded" from once being a stable then a store room for potatoes, to a government approved standard. Happen that is an issue needing to be addressed at some future date. To overcome the negative effect the building has on our health , our economy and our overall comfort, we are creating a route away from a solely cash dependent life style. "The future was way back then, if it exists at all ," sez I. Beyond the watchtowers gaze and the dominant influence of vested commercial interest. It may be regarded as a grandiose plan, we don't think so, to regard our work here as a key to our own liberation and salvation.
Salvation from what? How about bills? It's a start. We are designing our future lives around the idea that we will have less capital expenditure less waste and a greater degree of creative freedom , a foreseeable end to the burden of modern wage slavery.
As the land the base of our terrestrial support, improves,towards a stable permanent culture, so too will our prosperity increase. Granted our little cottage has all "mod cons". It is a modern confidence trick for sure. It presents us with the dilemna of never being in control of our finances. We use the water from a system that seems to encourage waste. The Heating when we arrived was solely electric, nuclear powered air burners, drying the throat distributing dust by convection , the heaters all have fans. They don't heat the stone of the old house,as soon as we turned the heat down the air immediately chilled. Space heaters don't heat buildings. We don't have control of the weather so we are likely to be unable to predict in our household budgetting just how much money we would need when the electricity bill comes in. The cost per unit increases beyond the ability to pay without the sacrifice of other essential needs.The price rises are unpredictable, but we are contractually bound to pay. Our wood stove obviates the need for electric heating bills.The french government sponsors 50% of the stove price encouraging the use of renewable resources.
The floors in the cottage were once wood . A good insulator, comfortable to the naked foot they are now concrete. After a working lifetime suffering the damage caused by being forced to stand on concrete floors in industrial units as well as the city streets, one needs the comfort of at least neutral ambient temperature . We don't demand underfloor central heating, not the modern concept at any rate.
We cut the wood for the stove in advance of our needs, more than a two year reserve. We grow the wood , manage it for our future utility. As time goes by we will plant more. The floor timbers for the yard space are recycled posts from an old barn.. We are determined to consolidate our domestic resources and economic utilities, bring everything that is our life support back in,to our home domain. The little money we earn is put towards tools and materials that would empower us further. We don't want to go abroad nor anywhere else for our holidays. I want to be at home. I want to work at home. Live at home without the constraint of our familial energy being exploited for undue capital gain by entrepreneurs.
In this modernised building the shower room and the w.c. closet have a ventilation fan, so too the kitchen. It is permanently on. We have no choice, minimum or maximum. Moving air is important for health but we put ourselves in unecessary hardship working away from home to pay the energy bill.
We have been led by the nose for centuries in the wrong direction. The working man aspires to gain the perceived luxury of the historic master's unearned choice. Privilege borne of slavery."Disposable" incomes seduced to be squandered on the decadent facade of riches.
Our biggest outgoing at present is water. Not at all to our liking.We are gardeners, if we are to spend good money on water it would be justifiable to keep our potager alive.
The water that goes through the toilet and kitchen is pumped through a waste system(an electric pump), the solids settle and a contractor then must be paid to remove it. The overflow is channeled into the ditch nearby.. It is inevitable that we will establish a dry compost toilet in the field. Most of our working time is spent in the garden. We use no products that would be harmful to soil or once degraded and recycled would be harmful to our health. The solid waste then becomes a profitable utility, food for our crops. At present it is a continual source of expenditure. Until we can make a well in the field we will be dependent on water from the tap. Sad to say it isn't practical in our location to collect the water for use in the garden. We are separated from the field by a public road, the amount of work needed to carry saved waste water to the top of the garden is prohibitive in both time and human effort. Our aim is to stop wasting it so we will use the water clean.
Our contruction still looks like an interesting pile of rubble in most of the photo images. Rest assured progress is ongoing.
This years schedule should see the building of an interior wall to the circular enclosure. Lime mortar matrix holding millstone grit and schist rock from one angle, the outside of a soil retaining wall. Soil levels growing with each season. From another perspective the wall is the exterior of roundhouse . A working bothie.
The work in hand has been slow in getting moving. The heavy stuff always is. Once materials are brought to the gate all is then moved into position manually. For the garden to regenerate we must keep the tractor out. So we do.
The holding tank for the waste solids is contained in the ground above our construction. It is vulnerable, prone to being broken if the ground ,at present a poor piece of "lawn",is subjected to heavy weight or impact. Wasted space barely worth looking at. In the fullness of time I hope we may build a wooden platform that will fly over the space . I had to move rock to the top of the hill for want of a more convenient place to avoid the weight of rock from destroying the tank. I now have to bring a lot of it back to complete the round retaining wall. Our manorial pile is destined to be upwardly mobile. Progress is going somewhere,it is not to be wasted in the excesses of the commercial pleasure domes. If I have to sing dance party and fall on my back it is more economical to do it at home. We don't do a lot of falling down as it happens. No need to stupify to forget the drudge of weekly wage slavery.
At present there is a path around the building work to make wheel barrow accessible. Once the walls are complete I foresee the space (to the left in the picture ) being filled with soil, levelled to the height of the oak posts .and the purple stone slab beside the young walnut tree. True ground level. It's uphill all the way, no time off for good behaviour. Not something I can feel good about rushing at. I'll plod on.
The basic ground work is near done, It'll get easier.
Yep, progress is going somewhere. Home is where it starts and finishes. If all folk can do is gawp at the screen I will try and give them something worth gawping at. Watch this space.