rox
Veteran Member
Many of you have been following along on 2 threads in the Related Topics Forum concerning our olive oil from Provence France.
Eddie Walker asked me to post pictures of our stone wall repair so I thought I would post them over here in Rural Living as this seemed the most appropriate forum for that.
Three years ago we we had what is called a 500 year flood and several, but not all, of our dry laid stone walls collapsed. These walls have been standing since at least 1822 as that is the date that is chiseled into the Stone Bories. Bories are shepherd huts, the shepherds grazed their sheep in the mountains in the summer and then drove them down south and over wintered in our specific area, not all over southern France, but just in this small geographic area. We have 3 good Bories on our property and 3 caved in ruined Bories. A large part of our property is terraced in dry laid stone walls. The stones here are soft and you can break them with a good swing of the hammer.
This repair job was going to be a lot of money, and boy did we search to find the right people to repair. We had one quote for 100,000 Euros, no way could we afford that. Finding people with this exact skill set wasn't easy but through our back neighbor we found Ahmed. Ahmed is from Tunisia and spends about 6 months a year in our city of Salon de Provence and 6 months a year back in Tunisia with his wife. He's really talented as you will see in the attached pictures. He worked 44 work days on the wall I am posting pics on. He worked all the month of May, not June as it was Ramadan, then all of July and so far in August. We pay him 120 Euros a day cash, so far this year we have spent 5,280 Euros to have this one wall repaired, but it was one of our biggest walls. We have one yet to go that is much bigger than this one. He has been working on our walls for 2 years, 3 to 4 months a year and his first year he worked 6 days a week. He got a lot done that first year. He would gladly keep working longer per year but we can't afford to pay him to work that many hours in one year, we stretch it out over the years to keep our expenses down. I figure he has another 2 years to go and then we will have repaired all the walls. Insurance doesn't cover this by the way.
I took the pictures starting from the view of the Borie and wall from our balcony, and then closer in and closer in. In one picture I took the view so that you could see the terrace above, how the wall is broken down. He will work on that wall next year. Ahmed is a quiet man, he doesn't drive so Nico has to pick him up every morning and take him back at the end of the day. For lunch Nico always brings him a cold soft drink and at the end of the day when he gives him a ride home another cold sot drink. Ahmed's daughter, who he is extremely proud of, is a lawyer in Tunisia and she continues here studies to learn how to become a Judge. She has studied in France, Germany and Switzerland. I'm certain almost everything he makes he gives to his daughter, it seems like she gets scholarships but he says she has to pay her transportation and living expenses. He is so PROUD of his daughter, especially when he says she is going to be a JUDGE. People are the same the world over, we always want our children to do better than we did.
Our neighbor Claude has a mini excavator and he digs dirt and dumps it in the 3PH wagon at the back of Nico's Tractor and then Nico dumps the dirt in the terrace above so Ahmed doesn't have to throw the dirt from below. We all help each other here. Claude said his water is getting low, we haven't had a lot of rain. When that happens we run a hose from our house up the hill to Claude and give him water until the dry spell is over. He is in his 70's so no doubt he figures if he can avoid having to dig down deeper in his well, and just every few years get water form us that saves him a lot of money. We have a very deep well, I think close to 400 ft, and a very powerful pump of 380 Volts to pump that irrigation water up our hillsides. We also let him park his motor home in front of our barn as the back road to get to his house is to narrow. He can do it, but man when he does he is awfully close to the drop off edges of the road. We have plenty of space, plenty of land, it doesn't cost us anything to let him park his motor home on our property, and when we need help he is always there for us. I am going to post a picture of our Basil Plants over in the other Forum, Related Topics, as that is more to do with our olive farming and olive oil operation.
In the 4th Picture his repair job stops where you see the grass growing on the ground, that gives you an idea of length of the project.
Eddie Walker asked me to post pictures of our stone wall repair so I thought I would post them over here in Rural Living as this seemed the most appropriate forum for that.
Three years ago we we had what is called a 500 year flood and several, but not all, of our dry laid stone walls collapsed. These walls have been standing since at least 1822 as that is the date that is chiseled into the Stone Bories. Bories are shepherd huts, the shepherds grazed their sheep in the mountains in the summer and then drove them down south and over wintered in our specific area, not all over southern France, but just in this small geographic area. We have 3 good Bories on our property and 3 caved in ruined Bories. A large part of our property is terraced in dry laid stone walls. The stones here are soft and you can break them with a good swing of the hammer.
This repair job was going to be a lot of money, and boy did we search to find the right people to repair. We had one quote for 100,000 Euros, no way could we afford that. Finding people with this exact skill set wasn't easy but through our back neighbor we found Ahmed. Ahmed is from Tunisia and spends about 6 months a year in our city of Salon de Provence and 6 months a year back in Tunisia with his wife. He's really talented as you will see in the attached pictures. He worked 44 work days on the wall I am posting pics on. He worked all the month of May, not June as it was Ramadan, then all of July and so far in August. We pay him 120 Euros a day cash, so far this year we have spent 5,280 Euros to have this one wall repaired, but it was one of our biggest walls. We have one yet to go that is much bigger than this one. He has been working on our walls for 2 years, 3 to 4 months a year and his first year he worked 6 days a week. He got a lot done that first year. He would gladly keep working longer per year but we can't afford to pay him to work that many hours in one year, we stretch it out over the years to keep our expenses down. I figure he has another 2 years to go and then we will have repaired all the walls. Insurance doesn't cover this by the way.
I took the pictures starting from the view of the Borie and wall from our balcony, and then closer in and closer in. In one picture I took the view so that you could see the terrace above, how the wall is broken down. He will work on that wall next year. Ahmed is a quiet man, he doesn't drive so Nico has to pick him up every morning and take him back at the end of the day. For lunch Nico always brings him a cold soft drink and at the end of the day when he gives him a ride home another cold sot drink. Ahmed's daughter, who he is extremely proud of, is a lawyer in Tunisia and she continues here studies to learn how to become a Judge. She has studied in France, Germany and Switzerland. I'm certain almost everything he makes he gives to his daughter, it seems like she gets scholarships but he says she has to pay her transportation and living expenses. He is so PROUD of his daughter, especially when he says she is going to be a JUDGE. People are the same the world over, we always want our children to do better than we did.
Our neighbor Claude has a mini excavator and he digs dirt and dumps it in the 3PH wagon at the back of Nico's Tractor and then Nico dumps the dirt in the terrace above so Ahmed doesn't have to throw the dirt from below. We all help each other here. Claude said his water is getting low, we haven't had a lot of rain. When that happens we run a hose from our house up the hill to Claude and give him water until the dry spell is over. He is in his 70's so no doubt he figures if he can avoid having to dig down deeper in his well, and just every few years get water form us that saves him a lot of money. We have a very deep well, I think close to 400 ft, and a very powerful pump of 380 Volts to pump that irrigation water up our hillsides. We also let him park his motor home in front of our barn as the back road to get to his house is to narrow. He can do it, but man when he does he is awfully close to the drop off edges of the road. We have plenty of space, plenty of land, it doesn't cost us anything to let him park his motor home on our property, and when we need help he is always there for us. I am going to post a picture of our Basil Plants over in the other Forum, Related Topics, as that is more to do with our olive farming and olive oil operation.
In the 4th Picture his repair job stops where you see the grass growing on the ground, that gives you an idea of length of the project.
