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I have decided I am a slow learner...... After 17 years of being told by my parents to read the questions properly at school, followed by 3 years being told by the lecturers at university to read the questions, there was a short interval when no-one told me very much of anything. Now, I am 24 years into telling my own children to read everything properly. So how is it possible that I missed the important information about the new bins we are having in our commune which require a card and a yearly payment. Quelle horreur!  So I was sitting outside this morning, Sunday, eating my breakfast listening to the merry trickle of cars stopping at our commual bins from all over the commune to fill them up with their own household rubbish. And I was struck by the quandry of moaning about bin abuse to the powers that be, and then being told that it would be so much better with bins that we pay for, as then there can be no bin abuse. What to do???? I am resigned to their bad system where everyone has to get into cars to drive with their rubbish to the 4 points that we have allotted to us in our nearly 36 square kilometre surface area. I shake my head and sigh in vain, not sure which planet they are trying to save with this thought process.  Leftovers Franklin Farm style ;) To amuse ourselves once a month, Alice and I go to the supermarket to buy those things that are more difficult to find at the market, where we do the bulk of our shopping. Sauntering down the "Bio" or "organic" aisle which has been getting larger and larger over the years we reflected on the amout of packaging and where all these things had come from on the planet.... quite a lot of air miles were there, not that the rest of the aisles were much better. It is ironic to think that in an effort by people to reduce the weight of their rubbish per bin collection they are more likely to purchase plastic wrappers as both tins and cardboard weigh more. See you all soon Helenx
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After receiving our latest electricity bill to discover that some more streamlining would be needed to save a significantly larger amount of money, we had an historic moment in our family. Probably something worthy of a celebratory bottle of champagne as during Gavins and my life together, spanning some 30 years now, this would be the first time we have ever purchased....... a brand new fridge! My reasoning behind the decision was it would be a more efficient fridge which would mean we could turn off 2 older fridges and a small freezer. Wow, it is all shiny inside with a really fabulous layout which means I can stand up bottles, and best of all it has an internal wine rack and a cheese drawer. All the essentials for a happy life in France.  Unfortunately some people obviously do not appreciate their lives in France quite as much. The other day when Gavin was out at one of the fields we use for the sheep down by the river he came across the place where a group of people had been having a party during the previous week. As you can see they were a tidy minded group leaving the area as they found it (heavy sarcasm). So "leave only footprints" was not a motto by which they lived. Which brings me neatly round to the bin issue and the increase in popularity of charging for bin rubbish. I am not a fan as we already live in an area where quite frankly there is very little rubbish produced by the locals, and all our communal bins are filled by fly tippers. So with a charge on rubbish I imagine the fly tippers are just going to dump in the forest or in the fields and hedgerows next to the roads, which the residents of the commune will end up having to pay for in their taxes as it will become the communes responsiblity to clear it up. So in the long run all the isolated folk in the countryside will end up having to pay twice for rubbish clearing. If you want people to do things keep it simple and either cheap or free, and the thing will be done. Make it complicated and charge, then people will find a quick free alternative at the expense of someone else. In our other efforts to economise on plastic waste this year we have bought a sodastream for fizzy water rather than buy it in plastic bottles. What a difference that has made to the amount of trips to the bin every week during the summer. However our commune has stopped handing out recycling bags for the bins and we are now supposed to put our rubbish loose into the large communal bins. Great! One would have thought........but........our large bins have holes in the bottom for drainage so all the small pieces of plastic fall out of the bottom, and on a windy day when the bin lorry picks up the bins to empty them into the back of the lorry all the light weight recycling rubbish blows over the road. So after all the bin mornings we have to pick up all the rubbish that lands in the little stream next to the bin, put the rubbish back in the bin, and hope for a non windy day next bin day.
I often wonder who makes up all this legislation, whether they live in a vacuum sealed cube, do they actually eat, have they ever been shopping, do they know what a bin looks like? So many thoughts, so much blog material. See you all soon Helenx It has been a busy July full of new arrivals, (and no I don't mean babies) interesting weather and learning curves on grass management and sheep.  In the above picture is our new friend. Turns out she is quite keen to herd sheep and chickens and is currently learning to fit in with her new routine and her new housemates. I don't think that our Border Collies are too uncomfortble with the new dog in the house. There have been a few squabbles about whose bone is whose and also who gets to sleep on whose feet in the living room, other than that they are currently having an afternoon snooze in the calm, coolness of a Sunday afternoon in July. The new method of rapid, rotational grazing in smaller area of ground using more sheep has worked amazingly well during the dry, hot weather. An area of land where we had been able to keep 100 sheep for 120 days last year, we have had 220 sheep on grass for 100 days. So almost double the production from the same grass no assistance from anything other than sheep eating grass. This year also included 2 exceptionally warm periods in our grazing time when grass growth rates are halted. Not even any supplements from grain or hay required to keep the sheep in condition. The increase in insect life digesting all the manure left behind by the sheep has been phenomenal so after about 2 weeks there is no manure left on the surface. This means that improvement of soil through grazing leads to more insect life, therefore more soil life which brings more bird life and other wildlife onto a property. An increase in organic matter in soil from manure also slows down water run-off into the river system as soil with high organic matter is more absorbent. Where poor soil is found on the farm then the manure takes longer to degrade and in fact in some places is still visible even now that we have taken the sheep away. Fortunately this is not found in many places on this farm and with some hard work and good management it should improve year on year.  To the left where they are grazing. To the right back to an area that has already been grazed. The photo above shows that even with no rainfall the grass will regrow if the soil has good capacity to hold moisture from higher organic matter.  Crayfish wandering back to the river having a go at Patrick on the way past At the market the other day in Riberac I was joined on my box by a dragonfly. I felt very honored that it had chosen me to sit with. The lavender in our garden has provided a much needed source of food for many insects. And I am happy to say that our Campsis Grandiflora hosts quite a swarm of bees. I have noticed an increase in bird life around our house this year, and saw a Hoopoe for the first time in our garden. As they say every little thing you can do can create a little magic in your garden and local environment. Have a lovely cooler week see you soon Helenx   Hello there lovely people Today we dug up our first tiny batch of potatoes that we have ever grown in France. So easy to grow and the most beautiful soil has been left afterwards full of wriggly worms and burrowing beetles. There should be enough to do a couple of meals. For us it was more about the fun of growing than the ability to plant for a years worth of food, which would take a significant amount of effort and thus suck the fun out of the exercise. I have also managed to do a small batch of cherry chutney and some cherry jam to fill the preserves cupboard. I was the lucky recipient of a jar of apricot jam and a jar of marmalade this weekend as well. The delights of being a market trader are plentiful. The weather has been a little warm over the last few days so Gavin and Patrick have been madly running around with water to keep all the animals happy. Even having most of the flock down by the river with a natural air conditioning system did not help very much when they drank a record amount of 1500 litres of water in one day more than triple their usual amount. There had been no dew that morning. Just so that the boys did not feel they had nothing to do during the "canicule" we had a load of stone delivered for the driveway which has transformed the look of the farm yard but also provided some rugged terrain for some of our smaller animal life.  In my attempts to control the rampant population of mosquitos taking over our house I am rescuing spiders from the shower and bath to work their magic up in the ceiling crevices and will be planting dragonfly attracting flowers as I have read they are also large consumers of the little beasties. At least this year I know I am not the only flesh being devoured by them as the quantity and voracity of the mosquito was a point of discusion whilst setting up at Saturdays market. The mornings even at 5o'clock have been extremely warm but the marigolds and the lavender are looking fabulous. I have had to assist the lavender a little as after the chicken sat on it and then the tempete blew on it it has rather fallen over. No matter, I still have my bees of various varieties and also the hummingbird hawkmoths visiting. We have noticed this year an increase in bird noise around the front of the house. The reason for that I am not sure it could be the fact that the soil has more insect activity, or maybe the birds like to eat mosquitos too and are trying to lend a hand with insect population control. Below is the local farmer making hay in the weird sea mist we have had over the last couple of days during the morning quite a relief from the intense heat of the afternoon. See you all soon Helenx  Gavin went on holiday into the mountains by Carcassone a couple of weeks ago to have a Masterclass with Joel Salatin. To put that in a context that you lovely folks would understand. Its like you going to see your most favourite rock band/classical pianist in the whole wide world. Communication in the french farming community is worse than useless, so he was lucky enough to be there with only 17 other people. Thus, it was a bit like you listening to your favourite music, live in your back garden and then having a beer with them afterwards. Suffice it to say he was very happy, inspired to do more and fully refreshed on his return. I don't think I would be that far from the truth if I said that Joel Salatin is probably one of the most famous farmers in the world at this moment. Gavin solidified his knowledge about building soil through regenerative farming practices using, intensive, rotational, grazing techniques. Things he has been studying through the internet for the past 4 years and dabbling in for the last 15 in France. And pottering about on the edges of for his years in Zimbabwe before that. I read Joels blog after he had visited France and was sad. Although I know that soil erosion is a massive problem, and I know that land management and farming practices are not always good, there is nothing like hearing it from the horses mouth to make you reflect again on the world around you. He commented on the bare soil in the vineyards and how on much of the steep slopes the soil has been washed away and we are down to subsoils (the bit below topsoil). Joel said he was told by his host that France was "not the same all over", and that is possibly true..... But, I do a lot of driving and I know that Joel is right. I have passed more bare fields washing and blowing away in the wind that I care to mention. There are more rocks on the top of some fields than there is soil. Cultivations are done running up and down the slope assisting with water erosion. I have not seen a no-till field (a field that is planted directly with no cultivation or soil disturbance) I have never seen in this area a field with a cover crop (a crop grown for the protection and enrichment of the soil) which is then directly planted with the new crop. On the up side, I have recently seen cover crops with a couple of farmers though they have then been ploughed in. Better than nothing, though not the best. Considering all these farming techniques have been taught since the 80's it amazes me that so few people follow them....... Gavin has just explained why..... Apparently, I am from the hippy crackpot course at The Royal Agricultural College and none of the above was taken very seriously by the other "proper" farming courses. Ah well 30 years on, I now know. What some of you may not know is that soil is the best way to store carbon from the atmosphere and thus help slow/change/prevent climate change. How to change behaviour in a community of aging, conservative, often single people, who have little or no help, work long hours and have a lot of debt and instability in their lives, I don't know. I do know that criticising, hounding and abusing them is not the way forward. I always wanted to change the world, maybe thats why I did the "hippy, crackpot course". Is it time for some baby steps? So you lovely people don't tarmac your driveway, plant some chrysanthemums and marigolds in your vegetable garden, pull out fewer weeds, otherwise known as plants growing in the wrong place, interplant your veggie garden with other plants that grow at different rates and heights and strive for protection rather than neatness in your own space. If you have a gite or a guest house tell your guests that they are living in an environmentally healthy place where you protect the wild flora and fauna to help save the planet.
See you all soon Helenx  Control Weird sounding title I know but since when did we start defining ourselves by our food choices? Peer pressure? Instagram? Advertising? False news? Bad information? Health reasons? Moral reasons? I have decided I am addicted to reading articles about food and diet and lifestyle choices. I do not read them for enjoyment I think mainly I read them to see how irritated they are going to make me. And without fail they do.  Happy omnivores The other day I read "A long read" in "The Guardian" about some food guru with no nutritional training who had discovered that everything she had been eulogising about and had sold masses of books to her fans about, was in fact making her quite ill to the point at which she had to change her diet. The poor women then suffered abuse from her followers because she had sold them a lie blah, blah etc. Irritating because she was not trained and had no understanding of a balanced diet. Irritating also because the abusers had no idea about the aforementioned things either. Irritating also that instead of support and love from her followers she was turned on, chewed up and spat out by them. Is it the world we live in at the moment where we just leap from one extreme to the other trying to almost avoid the middle ground, where solutions can be fashioned. Looking always for the extremist view. The place where we are led by people and companies with too much power and influence. Are we really as sheep like as I had thought. And if that is the case, why?...... I turn on the terrestrial telly and struggle to find anything interesting to watch. There appears to be a sea of reality TV shows with fake people or extreme people peddling their lifestyles be it from super poverty or super rich. Or programmes about dead people, or people who are about to be dead, or people finding out about why people became dead. Or competitive shows about who can cook, paint, dance or sew the best. Or quiz shows which I never watch as I am now so detached from British culture I never know the answers to the questions anyway. Watch French telly I hear you say. Yes I could, and occassionally do, but there are equally bad programmes on French telly, and I now know many French people who do not even have a telly in their houses. The problems in society are not just in the English speaking world they are everywhere.  Udder blanket ;) All those vegan/vegetarians I know are probably thinking "Ignore her she is just trying to improve her meat sales". So yes maybe I am. Or maybe I am fed up with hearing from my farming neighbours who try to rear their livestock in ethically conscious conditions, about how the price of their produce is falling because it is no longer popular to eat meat, and they are having to think about shutting shop after generations of farming and selling locally. Maybe it irritates me that the same people who tell me that eating meat is bad for the planet don't know enough about the cycles that are present in the environment and to keep a fully functioning ecosystem you have to maintain every part of it, from the meat bit, to the plant bit, to the soil bit, to the air bit, to the sunlight bit and the water bit.  Rotational grazing Simply put soil is made from broken down animal and vegetable matter. You cannot have one without the other. To rebuild the soil which is being rapidly eroded worldwide you must have the two things working together to have the correct mineral balances to sustain life. Somehow the education system is failing the planet by missing out teaching the basics in life, which should be taught at an early age while all these young supple minds are ready to absorb and understand and not be influenced by buzz words, soundbites and instagram. When big school age children are saying on national radio that the only way to save the planet is through veganism, we have a problem folks. If that argument can be backed by buying nutritionally balanced food, year round from producers within walking distance, who have grown everything in a sustainable fashion, then great I will applaud them, but will still not stop being an omnivore and will not stop rearing ethically produced meat. Does anybody watch Ben Fogle and his people in the wild programme? I remember one episode that has stuck with me when he visited a woman in the US who taught people about how to live a stone age lifestyle. The food stuff that she was able to store during the winter to sustain her energy levels was animal fat that she had hunted and processed. What did she use to keep warm, animal skin, as do so many nomadic tribesfolk worldwide. I hang on to the fact that at the markets in sleepyville where I hope to live out the rest of my days, I am surrounded by people who have not lost touch with the reality of life. How conected they are to the seaons and the earth around them. How many of them eat what is in seaon all year round. Food is the one of the fudimental requirements of life it is not something that should be used to define you, should not be something that should be used to control and psyche up the masses.  Harmony Don't misunderstand me. I am an advocate for sustainably grown local produce. Wherever and whenever possible it is our earth wide duty to stop looking for the cheapest or the most followed. Use less, eat less, make less waste. It is the way forward. But through using everything we have available to us harmoniously.
Isolating, isolation and extremism does not happiness, a circle or a cycle make. See you all soon. Helenx  Menesplet- fishing cows It is the last day of March the clocks have gone forward an hour so everyone is grumpy, and the sun thankfully, is shinning to endeavour to conteract the disturbed sleep pattern. I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when I have to persuade Number 3 to get out of bed at what would have been 5.30am last week. I very much dislike this change of hour and am extremely happy that the European parliament has voted to stop this during 2021. I also sincerely hope that we get to stay with the winter time clock as it seems a better fit for my own body clock. We will soon be starting our big lambing session so I guess I had better cut Gavins hair. Usually by the end of lambing he looks like a mad professor but on observation he is already at that stage so by the end of April it will be more like the wild man of Borneo! Seeing as a hat his favourite accessory I doubt anyone else has noticed though.  An afternoon in the butchery The month ahead is looking to be fairly crammed with activity as the orders are already coming in for Easter lamb. Patrick will be winging his way home at the begining of May and I have discovered that communicating over a 9 hour time zone does not allow for fluidity in keeping up with gossip so on his return home there will be a talking fest at our house I imagine. It looks like my big girl will not be able to come home until the summer holidays as she has too many exams to work for. On the up side of having so few children at home for the up and coming Easter holidays is that I will be able to eat a lot more chocolate eggs myself.  Ghost We finally got our 2 kittens sterilised at the vet and we now have a stable population of 8 cats. The 2 little ones, Ghost and Spectre, have settled back into shed life after their traumatic trip to the vet and are back to their safe no touchy distance of 2 meters. Between all 8 cats they manage to consume 3 lamb and 1 large pig fifth quarter every week. It is a good job we are butcher-farmers otherwise we could never afford to sustain them all.  Low carb meal-pork chops and veggies The markets are busying up with the sunshine and people I have not seen for a couple of months are returning from sunnier climes in Spain, and I note bringing the Swallows with them. It was a very happy smiley market weekend. In fact on the whole the beginning of this year has been fairly up beat despite worldwide politics. I put it down to good food, good company, making the effort to get out and about and meet some new people and positive thinking. See you all very soon Helen   What an extremely warm week it is proving to be and what a delight for the sheep to have a few days to sunbathe before the inevitable and needed break for rain and cooler days again. I am currently sitting with the window open in an effort to boost my vitamin "D" levels so I am strong and healthy for the year of change or not change to come. Honestly talk about living in limbo land. I have decided action is the cure for over thinking and depression. And having sourced an excellent new translator we are powering through the tardy paperwork hoping to keep Le Préfet happy with The Franklin Family. We have received some ominous lists of paper required and after reading them I usually put the paper down for a day, and then read it again the following day. It is quite amazing how a little reflection can make things seem less challenging.Then calmly (I can hear my children laughing at my use of the word calmly ;) ) I proceed with the most dificult longwinded item, then an easy one to make me feel better. Thus we are nearly prepared for the first interview in the family on Monday. Yay or not yay, depending on which member of the family you are.  My Dad was "a thinker", or that's what he used to call himself when he fell asleep on his garden chair. "Are you asleep Dad?" "No, I am just thinking". When you tried to rescue his glass of beer or red wine from his hand his fist would clench around the glass to signal his thinking state. I always thought thinking was a waste of time making you prone to inaction and blue days, and frequently warn my sister against its dangers. However, in recent years with the degradation of the environment, the politics or maybe my age,?, I find myself chopping meat in the butchery having a thinking session. Whoa! Fortunately I have managed to not sever any arteries in the process as the mind wandering off could cause a knife to wander too.  Many people have challenged me environmentally, intellectually, politically and spiritually and occassionally I have had to bite my tongue to avoid a difficult situation, but after some gentle reflection I return to the same conclusions with regard to my opinions on my time on this planet. If you can live your life and leave it environmentally, intellectually, politically and spiritually better than you started then you are doing allright. I am reading a book at the moment which I did not initially enjoy. It is full of people who have broadened their minds through discussion, sharing and reading, and more discussion, sharing, changing and reading. These characters are from all walks of life and are together under trying circumstances and make it through to the other side as whole people with good energy to bring to life. It is a pity that the bulk of power currently is held by people who appear to be unwilling to learn through sharing and discussion and do not appear to be people who are remotely interested in leaving anything behind of any lasting value for anyone. This is not meant to be a miserable blog it is meant to uplift you, to think, and then do, preferably with other people to bring about change big or small to help leave something behind of which you are proud. Big smiles to everyone Helenx P.S Below our latest catch ;) What a cutie!  Barn Kitten ready for the vet to sterilise  Our most fluffy cat has been very unimpressed with current climatic events and takes her punishment of being captured and dried in a towel with the usual amount of cat enthusiasm. This is what my face really looks likes when I have to fold up my market umbrella after a wet market day, which have been decidedly frequent since the beginning of the year, but we have persevered and on the whole people turn out to make their purchases come rain or.... well, in fact..... rain ;) It is however a beautiful sunny day today, and although Sunday does not include any selling product time for me, I have successfully dried some washing outside on the line. All is good. There has been a bit of an explosion of animals on our little farm and Gavin has a lot of running around to do after all of our new young stock. Our early lambs of which there are a number of twins, are continuing to arrive, not thick and fast more a slow trickle, which actually suits us at this time of year when so many hours in already short days are being consumed by wood carting and fire tending. We have had some goat kids as well to swell the numbers, and we are now waiting to see if the grass will start to grow. There is some evidence of its arrival. With more to come as there will be a slight increase in temperature which after all the rain is often a good sign for grass growth. We could certainly do with some early grazing as the season last year was really not good. Talking of population explosions, 10 days ago we had 35 pigs and this week I think we have 56. Hmmm I think pigs are actually just rabbits in disguise. Who knew!  As you can imagine all the big children have returned to their various study locations and we 3 are back in the swing of term time and general day to day stuff again, however I am trying to inspire myself to make some progress with organising our home environment so that we can put things away and then find them again, which would be a novelty for us. Anyone who knows where we live and how much Gavin is a collector of anything that looks like it might be useful will be laughing hysterically, and I can feel it all the way down the internet fibres. I may need to let Gavin in on my secret plan for him and me, although he may start to come out in hives at the thought of throwing something away ;) wish me luck. So for all you European readers here is a photo of my mother-in-laws vegetable garden in Zimbabwe this week with her 14 feet ish or 4.2metre ish tall maize....The rake in the foreground is a standard garden rake. :o  Now it is February we can all start listening out for the returning cranes and also the returning delivery runs that we do around and about.
See you all soon come rain or shine. Helenx  Good morning everyone and a Happy New Year to all. We are nearly ready to face 2019 and all it has to throw at us. Funny that because as it is already upon us we don't actually get a choice in the matter so onward and upward... To begin with the most important things in life. Food. We cooked our ham just before Christmas and having a suspicion about how the food menu would deteriorate into a lusciously delectable menu of full flavoured food items, I decided to opt for a lighter Christmas Eve lunch. The ham, cooked finnish style, not sure if it was what the Finns intended, but it was delicious. So Berkshire ham roasted in the oven. It was soft and succulent more like a cross between pulled pork and corned beef I suppose. I made a ham and leek pie a few days later with the remaining meat, which I forgot to photograph, which was also epic according to the rest of the family. Btw there are a lot of leeks in a ham and leek pie. My frying pan was nearly not large enough. The down side for me was that during Christmas I had a rather nasty cold so my taste buds were a little under the weather for much of our eating spree. So I figure that if I could taste anything, then the flavour really must have been wonderful. The children have been catching up with hugs and licks from the dogs, and our new cat, "Tiggy" brought in from the barn, finally, and spayed is slowly becoming a more friendly house cat. Only another three to go and we should be in control of our feral cat population. The other three are not coming inside though, the barn is plenty big enough and the 5 we already have inside will probably get a little grumpy with the lack of seating. So what have we been up to since Christmas other than eating more delicious food, sleeping rather alot and squeezing as many minutes into the day of being with the children before they all disappear off again to pursue their own studies ..... as little as possible would be the response. However, as you can imagine some jobs are unavoidable, like the end of year books that have to be made ready for the accountant who needs to start us on our data inputting towards the end of January. And the yearly clean down of the butchery which always takes longer than I think it should. I have completed, to the best of my ability, the books. The butchery takes a little more enthusiasm as it is jolly cold in there and also quite dark as one of the lights has decided to cease to function. I await the arrival of the person that fixes stuff, unfortunately I have only just reminded said person, who is a little preoccupied with sheep and fencing. The latter is always a challenge in the freezing weather. Our bedroom was seven degrees when I woke up this morning and I think my sinuses had/have frozen as I had/have the most abominable headache. So I am currently hiding in front of the fire pretending to be busy blogging. It is however a beautiful day outside and I will have to go and fill the barrow with wood eventually. We have had a few lambs chez nous enough to keep Gavin entertained, and yesterday we were outside collecting wood and generally tidying the field edge for the next sheep move. The dogs as always in attendance, looking for an excuse to run and make a lot of noise...just like children really ;) Trying to take a selfie with an over enthusiatic, licky dog is always a challenge. I was lucky enough to avoid a full facial though.
The big news is that I have finally sent off my dossier for "une demande de naturalisation" and we are in the throws of adding more paperwork to the childrens dosiers. We met some lovely local Gendarmes who came to see if the children were who they said they were and are likely to see them again in the near future as they like to acquaint themselves with local businesses and asisst with security. Nice to know. The upside of a gret deal of paperwork is coming into contact with more people within the community the downside is that Canon are making a fortune out of us with regard to ink cartridges, not to mention the trees donation to our endeavours. We will be back at the markets next weekend the 18th and 19th January and normal service for delivery runs will resume in February. The Franklin Family wishes you all a happy and trouble free 2019 Helen |
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August 2025
Helen FranklinI am farming sheep and goats on the Dordogne/Gironde border with my husband and our 3 children. We have an on farm butchery and sell our meat direct to the public via the markets and delivery points in our local area |
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