erkundungsgaenge

four funerals and a baptism

At the end of january another elder neighbour of the portail died. Marie, who lived with her son and daughter in law, who are themselves retired farmers and very good neighbours. Max, the son is very shaken up since his mother died.
Since we decided to buy the portail, the immediate neighbours, an elder couple both died, Gaby's father died in november and now Marie died. Another elder woman that lived alone had a serious accident and will not come back to live in her house. It was high time that we arrived because the place is getting empty.
The paradoxical situation is that we would really like to live closer to the farm than now and there are all these empty houses (and there are more house that are empty that are weekend or vacation houses and the owners rarely show up).

first market

We have done a few markets, but last saturday we started doing market as a regular thing. The place is a little town called St Germain du bois. It was rotten. February is not the busiest time at market anyway, but it was cold and it rained between 9 and 11 o'clock. All the salespeople looked more or less depressed. But it will take a while to get people to know that we are there. It might also take a while until we have a fixed placement, always on the same spot.
I had a few customers, sold at least some veg. Luckily I also had bread from our baker. An extra thing that attracts customers. And frankly his bread looks more attractive than my veg at this time of the year.

AMAP

On a eu notre premiere reunion AMAP (association pour le maintien d'un agriculture paysanne) hier soir. Il y avaient 15 personnes et ca c'est bien passe. Le plupart de gens ne connaissait pas le system AMAP mais tous le monde etait tres interesse. Cette reunion etait principalement pour informer et voir si il y a suffisement des gens interesse. Maintenant on a encore quelque mois pour definir le conditions d'engagement. En mai j'aimera commencer a faire des paniers de legumes.

Nachwuchs

Das Lämmerfoto ist von gestern, im Moment werden fast jeden Tag Lämmer geboren und Yan kehrt fast jede Nacht ein-zweimal zum Stall zurück um nach dem Rechten zu sehen.
Das Foto von Adele ist von letztem Jahr, die Ziegen werden im März bis Mai kleine bekommen, unter der Bedingung, dass der Bock wirklich seine Arbeit tut. Wir sind uns nicht ganz sicher.

Raymond

Raymond, Gaby's father died on All Saints day. He has been in hospital for a week or so and Gaby did not expect him to come home again. He seems to take it relatively well. We will miss the cheerful old man, always smiling, always smoking. The funeral though was the worst funeral that I ever went to. My parents called the church in Chapelle Voland Beerdigungskirche - funeral church, funerals is all that ever happens here. No regular service, no marriages or baptisms, only funerals for an aging population. A neighboor gave a short summary of Raymonds life (born at this date, went to this school, went to war, took over parents farm, etc). We could have said something more personal, just after this year that we have known Raymond. Since the french buy flowers for toissant for their deceised relatives, the cemetery was completely covered in flowers. Note the wooden cross. That is Raymond' s grave.

Gemuesekiste

Meine Gemuesekiste im Oktober. Mittlerweile habe ich 10 Kunden, die jede Woche eine Kiste abholen. Ich hoffe, dass ich noch genug Gemuese habe um fast bis Weihnachten Kisten zu fuellen und nicht immer das gleiche reinzutun...