MY ACTIVITIES AT BRAMELOUP
Life in the forest is a complete break from life in the city, and a
chance to renew an intimate contact with nature
that is very important
for me. There is
always something to do around the chalet. What I do usually depends
on the weather, the season, the condition of the garden, and priorities
like
dealing with a fallen tree or repairing the road after a heavy rain. The
condition of the soil is important, being
sometimes too wet or dry for digging, weed pulling,
road or trail
work.
I need some
constructive physical activity as a break from the
more mental activity involved in my work,
but could never do exercise for its own sake in a gym. While working
around the
chalet is not quite the seven labours of Hercules, it does force me
to get regular exercise at no expense and in a much more agreeable
environment. I am also trying to use manual tools more often to save
fossil fuel and electricity. I usually alternate some reading or
writing with a few
hours of garden work.
As explained on the page about my efforts to live a sustainable lifestyle,
I try to save the energy and water consumed in washing clothes by
wearing as little as possible when doing dirty work in the garden. I am
easier to wash than any clothing would be, and while working I do not
need clothing for warmth even in mid-winter.
MY SEVEN LABOURS
Firewood
Building a stock of firewood adequate to heat the chalet through the
winter is a year-round activity. I produce
all the wood I need from my own forest. Most of this comes from fallen
trees and branches, or from young trees, mostly fast-growing ash, that
need to be thinned or removed from areas that I want to plant to other
things.
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If there are fallen trees, I cut up the trunks with a handsaw or
chainsaw, haul
the wood up to the chalet, split the logs with either my hydraulic wood
splitter (which my doctor recommended to prevent tendonitis), a
sledgehammer and wedge, or an axe, depending on the kind of wood and
the size of the logs, and stack it in the woodshed to dry.
I found a special handsaw for timber that is almost as fast as a
chainsaw, is easy to carry to less accessible places, and can be
used even in the rain. It is both more ecological, and gives me good
exercise. I have cut up several fallen trees with it.
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Even large oak logs can be cut effectively with a hand saw
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Different kinds of handsaws are useful depending on the circumstance and kind of wood
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Cutting up
trees with a chainsaw. Some trees are too big for a handsaw.
Hauling
logs up to the chalet
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Photos by Nabil Stendardo
The best way to keep warm
Splitting
logs with the hydraulic splitter
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Splitting
logs with an ax or wedge and sledgehammer
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I dig the smaller trees out by the roots, and then cut the
thinner trunks and branches with big shears into the right length for
my stoves.
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Nabil Stendardo sometimes comes to spend a weekend with me at the
chalet. Here he is helping me to cut up small trees for kindling.
To make adequate covered storage for firewood, I first converted the
abandoned truck into a lawnmower garage and woodshed, and then built a
larger woodshed near the chalet. Since
green
wood can take 18 months to dry, I need at least a 2 year wood supply.
Woodshed and tractor-mower garage
converted from an old truck
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New woodshed
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I also stack firewood under the eaves
on both sides of the chalet, where it is accessible even in inclement
weather.
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Wood supply along the side of the chalet
Gardening
I
mostly try just to manage nature in my forest and meadows, with just a
little landscaping around the chalet with things that require
low-maintenance, trying different plants
to see what survives in my local forest ecosystem. Directly outside my
bedroom window is a small garden of Japanese inspiration with stones,
ferns, a dwarf maple, azaleas and some small bamboo. There are also
spring bulbs, tulips and narcissis that I bought, and lilies
transplanted from my forest. Some of the ferns are also local. I am
trying to add more local flowers, like an orchid transplanted from the
middle of the lawn where it would not have survived the traffic and
mowing. For ground cover, I encourage the local ivy and Ajuga with its spikes of blue flowers. Interestingly, Ajuga was the ground cover our landscape architect used in our garden in California when I was a teenager.
Between the balcony and the road I have started two hedgerows, partly
local bushes and partly planted, including boxwood, a few rhododendrons and another
Japanese maple. There are a few trial roses, as well as a wild rose.
I
have started
to make a vegetable garden where I can grow some of
my own food, but this requires
improving the soil. I compost all my organic waste, ashes and garden cuttings (Compost pile, right -->).
When good soil from the forest washes onto the path
to my chalet, I collect it and haul it to my garden. By 2008 a first
section was ready. My first two attempts
at planting seeds were mostly a failure. Only the potatoes, onions
and a few zucchini and string beans
survived until summer. After every rain a hoard of slugs emerges from
the forest and heads for my vegetables, removing everything down to
soil level. I do not want to use poison, and am not at the chalet often
enough
for mechanical elimination (giving them the boot). The other problem
is watering and weeding in
summer since I travel so much. In 2010, I installed a rainwater
collection system on the nearby woodshed, with a 300 litre tank and drip irrigation, to provide some water during
the summer.
Vegetable garden after the first harvest in 2008. Jerusalem artichokes (Topinambour)
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The first year's harvest (2008)
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Vegetable garden at planting, in summer, and rather poor harvest in 2009 due to drought
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2010 vegetable garden; only the potatoes, onions and jerusalem
artichokes came up. The slugs did not give the other vegetables a
chance.
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I am
gradually adding fruit trees at the end of the garden and
alongside the meadows, including several varieties of apple (to
accompany two wild apple trees), pears, apricots, peaches, prunes and
meribelles, and an
almond. Some of the trees are traditional local varieties adapted to
Savoie. Unfortunately the deer like to strip the bark off the young
trees in winter. There is already a big wild cherry tree, but with
small cherries,
probably sprouted from someone's cherrystone. I have tried loganberries
and raspberries without much success. There are wild strawberries (few
but delicious) and the terrible blackberries everywhere, with fruit too
small to
be worth all the problems they cause.
Planting
fruit trees and rhododendrons
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Apart
from
that, I simply try to manage nature, encouraging what I like and
trying to maintain a variety of habitats and landscapes.
In fact, most of my gardening is not planting new things, but the
constant battle against those things I do not want.
Nature always tries to re-establish its supremacy and restore the
original forest, starting with weeds and fast-growing species that
encroach on the
cleared areas. The worst are the wild blackberry brambles of several
kinds which have
tough roots that regenerate, lots of vicious thorns,
and long runners that root
wherever they touch the ground. When I
bought the chalet, the cleared area around it was overgrown with dense
thorny
blackberry thickets, a meter or more high. To reconquer a bit
of garden, I have to remove all the brambles, root them out completely,
and return several times over a couple of years to again root out new
sprouts.
Uprooting
blackberry brambles and burning them
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Then there are the tree seedlings,
mostly ash, that appear every year by the thousands in the
garden and all through the forest.
Smaller ones
can usually be pulled up if the soil is wet, but larger trees have to
be chopped out at the roots. Any broken
stem or stump will grow back more tenaciously than ever. There are just
so many of them that it is impossible to keep up. Most other weeds are
manageable if I take a little time.
Pulling tree seedlings by the hundreds
Removing saplings by uprooting them, cutting the roots as necessary
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The
leaves and small branches I cut up for compost or burning, while the
trunks, if they are large enough, are dried and cut up for firewood.
In May 2009, my Dutch intern, Lieuwe Vinkhuyzen, helped me to
clear a new section of dense trees, brambles and vines beyond the vegetable
garden so that I can eventually plant more fruit trees. He was able to
uproot some quite large trees.
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cleared area in July 2009
Mowing lawns
and meadows
Mowing the lawns around the chalet and the meadows down the hill keeps
the weeds and seedlings back. I have never planted grass, so the lawn is
just whatever survives the cutting. There is a
ring of "lawn" around the chalet,
including the entrance, and a large flat lawn beyond the chalet towards
the truck woodshed and what is becoming the orchard and vegetable
garden. It has a
fire circle in the middle for burning uncomposable garden debris. To
encourage the meadow
wildflowers, I only mow the meadows down the slope and across the road
two or three times a year: in early spring, after
the spring orchids have withered in midsummer but before the autumn
lilies, and again in the fall after all the flowers have bloomed.
When the grass is
high I have to use my old tractor mower, inherited from Martine's house
in Belgium. The rest of the time I maintain the lawn
around the chalet with a push mower,
which is more ecological. After a good mow, everything looks
neat
and tidy. It is the easiest
way to keep part
of the garden civilized.
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Ecological lawn mowing (less greenhouse gas emissions than sheep or goats)
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The old tractor mower, which I use as little as possible
Trail-making
One of my favorite pass-times since I was a teenager is making trails
through the forest. One reason I bought the chalet was because it
had lots of land in the forest for trail-making. There is the long area of sloping
forest beyond the chalet and above the lower pasture, and the steep
canyon between the road and the watercourse of the Bramloup (an
intermittent streamlet in the winter). Since most
of my land slopes steeply, I have had to build trails to
make the different parts accessible, and more trails are planned to reach
every part of it. These also have to be cleared of fallen branches and
leaves, and repaired from time to time. This is
best done when the ground is
damp but not too wet, so that the earth and stones can be consolidated
on the slopes. The
best tool
for this is a US army surplus trenching shovel. My parents gave me one
after WWII dated 1942, and while I had to replace most parts of
it, I used it for 60 years until it finally broke from metal
fatigue in 2007. Fortunately I found a nearly comparable Swiss army
shovel in a military surplus sale. The trails
provide access to firewood, to enjoy the
changing nature in different seasons, to take walks and observe the
wildlife.
Trail
building
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Clearing
a trail in winter
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Road
maintenance
The
last
1 1/2 kilometers of road to my chalet is an unpaved rural path
which should normally be maintained by the local municipality. It was
originally used by the farmer at Signy around the hill a kilometer beyond the chalet to take his milk to the
village. However,
since the path to my chalet crosses the land of three municipalities in
distant villages,
and I am now the only one who lives on it, it is usually neglected. The
village of Frangy did put some gravel down once on a particularly muddy
stretch of the lower path, but the only time a maintenance crew came
all along it was
when they prepared it for a cross-country bicycle race.
They do mow the grass and cut back the bushes along the sides of the
first kilometer once every year or so as part of the highway
maintenance. Nothing is done for the last 400 meters up the slope to my
chalet.
The first kilometer
is more-or-less gravelled track along a maize (corn) field and following the
other side of the fence from the highway bypass. It dips steeply for
the two underpasses under the highway (see Frangy).
Path along
the highway that is the main access to the chalet
Then the path climbs up through
the forest to the chalet, passing a small pasture still used by the
farmer at the top of the hill in Quincy who rents the pastures, and
crossing the middle of my property, running
near to the chalet. The path then continues up to the old farm at
Signy (now blocked by fences), with a
branch going steeply up the hill to the farms and village of Quincy on
the plateau.
Path
up the hill to the chalet
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Lower path with
fallen trees 
The lower path is now prohibited to all motorized trafic,
except for those who need to access their property, but some
motor-bikers and quads still use it. The path is normally reserved for
hikers, horseback riders and trail bikers, and even the occasional
trailbike competition. The path up
the
forest slope is just soil with nothing to stabilize it, so it becomes
muddy and slippery when wet, and erodes rapidly in heavy rain.
I have cleared fallen trees, constructed and maintained drainage
channels to control erosion, and added gravel from a glacial deposit on
my property, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, shovel by shovel. Over time I
have managed to stabilize much of the lower path so that my cars can
use it reasonably safely, although there have been some difficult times
in the early years and recently after a rainstorm when I got stuck on the way up. Each time I have a problem, I make another
improvement. In 2008 the path was blocked four times by fallen trees or large branches.
Collecting
gravel from my little quarry
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Stabilizing
the path with gravel
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The upper
path from the chalet to Signy Farm is blocked at the farm by locked
gates, and the branch up to Quincy is too steep and eroded for most
vehicles. One part runs through a
thick clay deposit kept wet by a spring in winter. In wet weather even
all-terrain vehicles get stuck in the mud. If it stays cold for very
long, the water seeping onto the path forms a thick layer of ice,
making the path impracticable.
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Path up the hill from the chalet goes straight to Signy farm and right up to Quincy. I have installed signs
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Steep path up to Quincy through
muddy clay. I have tried to stabilize the worst sections with stones and rubble. There is a spring in the clay.
Path iced up in the winter from the spring
In early 2008 a very large
tree (70 cm in diameter) fell across the upper path just at the worst spot,
blocking the path completely so even pedestrians could no
longer pass. I first made a detour through the forest for hikers and horses,
until a farmer whose daugher rides horses came and cut out the middle
section, leaving the trunk in the road but making space for horses and
trail bikes to pass. It took over a year to gradually cut up the fallen tree for
firewood. It provided enough wood to heat me for two winters, although the wood was not very good quality.
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Cut up fallen tree
I first cut the log most of the way through with a chain saw, but my
chain saw was too short, so I had to finish cutting with a hand saw and
then pry the sections apart. Fortunately it was not too hard to roll
the disks down the hill to my chalet, as they were too heavy to carry.
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Cutting the log into disks
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Cut up log
Then I had to split the disks with a wedge into pieces small enough for my wood splitter
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In early 2010, another large dead tree fell in the same place, blocking
the road again. I made a little space to get around it, but cutting it
up will be another big project.
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Chalet
maintenance and improvements
When I bought the chalet, it had been trashed and abandoned for several
years. The walls and the roof were still in reasonable condition, and
it had electricity and telephone. I had to completely clean and
redecorate the interior while adding storage space and shelving,
replace most of the broken windows and hardware, upgrade and
add
electrical circuits, rebuild the septic tank, restore the drainage, add
a new pumping system and rebuild the water tank, update the kitchen and
change all the appliances, transform the fireplace into a wood heater
and add supplementary electric heating, convert the bare attic into two
bedrooms, insulate the roof and the whole exterior of the chalet,
reinforce the security, and replace the outside balcony. Many of the
materials used were recycled. In 2008 I completed a switching system
for automatic filling of the water tank, and
replaced the overhead wiring for the water pump with an underground
conduit, so most of what needed to be done has been done, and
the
chalet is now quite comfortable year round. At some point the roofing
may need replacement, but hopefully not for several years. The tile
floor in the living room could also be changed, since some
tiles
are broken, as could the ugly purple bathroom sink, but these are not
urgent. Now I can spend more time on things outside.
Insulating, cementing
and painting the exterior
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Installing
shelves in the chalet
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Building
the new woodshed with wood recycled from an abandoned chalet
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Woodshed
Since the municipal water system is now supplied by a reservoir 20 meters
lower than my chalet, I had to install a pump in the forest down the
hill to pump water up to the storage tank at the top of my property.
This required digging trenches through the forest to lay an underground
conduit and electric cable, as well as a wire up to the tank for a
floating switch. The original overhead wire through the trees failed in
2008 (some animal ate through the insulation and it shorted out), so I
had to finish the last 50 m of trenching to complete the underground
replacement.
Digging
a trench is only half of the work. After the cables are laid, the
trench has to be filled in again, the turf replaced and the earth
packed down with a heavy tool for the purpose.
Packing down the newly filled trench
Rebuilt
water supply, with fiberglass-lined storage tank which I roofed with tiles, control
valves and floating switch in the tank, old water tank where the pump
was originally, and new
water pump down the hill in the forest.
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Managing
the forest/meadow ecosystem
Upper meadow just below the chalet
With over 8,700 square meters of land, I have quite a bit of forest and
meadow to manage. The different parts of the property are quite
different ecologically, with various mixes of forest trees and
interesting wildflowers including different kinds of lilies and
orchids (see the seasonal pages and the page on nature). My goal is to maintain the maximum habitat diversity while
supplying enough wood for my heating needs and eventually producing at
least part of my food. I am trying to time my mowing of the meadows to
prevent the forest from growing back while preserving the right
conditions for the orchids, lilies and other flora. The badgers, foxes,
hares, deer, martens, dormice and other wildlife that I have seen on
the property can presumably take care of themselves, and as a botanist,
I am more interested in the plants anyway. So I observe and intervene
lightly, mostly by removing invasives like the brambles and excess ash
seedlings. My trails give me the access I need to enjoy all the
different areas.
Former dump with 5 cars
One problem that is largely resolved was the steep canyon between my property
and the farm next door, which had been used by the farmer and the
former chalet owner for years as a rubbish dump, including for 5 old
automobiles. I removed more than 50 100-liter bags of rubbish to the
recycling center, including hundreds of bottles. The cars I could only
consolidate in one pile, and then cover them with branches to
disguise them as something natural. I learned something about the
persistence of waste; some fabric and clothing in synthetic fibres that
had been buried for 30 years was still wearable, such as the shorts below.
These shorts were buried in the dump for 30 years
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