A tale of earth, iron, and concrete

A brief look back at the upheavals that have taken place over the last two weeks in Miramon.

On Monday 11 May, a backhoe loader burst onto our overgrown meadow, where we had placed a few bamboo markers. In a matter of hours, through the frightening magic of the diesel engine, two platforms were created, separated by a small embankment, and an access path to the site was gravelled. We discovered the colours of Miramon’s clay (one yellow-green, the other orange) as well as those of the many pebbles hidden within. It was quite impressive – and heartbreaking to inflict this on the meadow. But how could we avoid this upheaval if we didn’t want to dig an even bigger hole to bury a very expensive (concrete) cistern right next to the house?
At the foot of the embankment, a trench was also dug to accommodate what kept us busy the following week: a retaining structure that will sit beneath the crawl space of our house, protecting our future rainwater harvesting tank, a vegetable store, and a composting container for the house’s compost toilets.

The following week, with the invaluable help of Yan, our guide, Arthur, his trainee, and Valentin, our carpenter, we marked out the retaining wall, then prepared the reinforcement for the reinforced concrete footing, which two huge lorries (a concrete mixer and a pump) came to help us pour… once we’d managed to convince them to drive down our track! The promise of being able to pull them up the slope with the help of tractors belonging to two local farmers will play a crucial role. Then, over a few days under the blazing sun, we learned the delicate art of building a breeze block wall using a spirit level and plumb line, preparing mortar and concrete mixes, and form-working the posts. Manon, a volunteer from the Twiza network, lent us a hand.

All that remains is to finish the return walls, cut barbicans, and lay a drain at the foot of the wall, amongst other things... but before that, we’ll need to drive in our acacia stakes! Which won’t be long now. The digger had a go with one of them during the earthworks, but couldn’t drive it in far enough and has to come back with two backhoes instead of one. To be continued.

We apologised to our oak trees for bringing so much cement and metal onto this little patch of land... But this is the last time (we promise!), and the rest of the work will be much more gentle on this land.