07/03/2024
‘Ugly Pitbulls on broken back mountain? ‘
or ‘Golden eagles soaring over the summit of succes? ‘
When you take on renovating an old barn in rural France into a mushroom farm on a mountain you WILL be tested.
It really is an advantage if you aren’t aware beforehand what you are getting yourself into.
I realise now how most great projects are achieved, because just like us, their visionaries probably did not have the possibility to back up and change their minds about the whole thing…
I don’t want to be arrogant but the construction of the Pyramids in Egypt must have been a piece of cake: because nothing beats the complexity of the building requirements in France .
So being crazy is a huge plus ... I benefit of the fruits of being an ignorant nutcase everyday, above al, l it saves me valuable time to progress faster, as I don’t mind half as much as I should about looking like a Hill Billy when I rush down the mountain with dust, debris an half a century old cobwebs in my hair to go get my children from school.
Being here humbles you, you realise how small you really are and how being healthy is not to be taken for granted.
These mountains are ancient, to them our epic achievements will be over and forgotten in the blink of an eye.
For us, with all our savings invested in a sky high dream on a limited budget, there is no way but forward ...
No room to give into fear, no luxury to be exhausted... there is only hanging on and with each challenge you become the stronger and the wiser, or the poorer and the sorer, and ironically in both cases the more grateful for being here.
Up here it's almost as if you have to win the respect of the building and the land it stands on.
You soon understand you don't own an old hamlet, you only have the honour to be the next in line to be its care taker. Pretty much is like marrying an aged pyromaniac beauty queen .
You soon discover it’s in worse shape than it seemed when you were looking at it with lovy dovy eyes, it keeps on finding new ways for you to spend money on it , and it is extremely resourceful on handing you all kinds of dirty work to do while it sparks little disasters behind your back.
But it remains gorgeous in your eyes no matter what.
In this specific ‘grange’ in which we envision the mushroom farm,
we had to battle against the bare rock which forms the uneven foundation of the building. We found ourselves drilling away a few cm's at a time for over 3 months . Demonstrating sheer will power each day as some days it honestly felt that nor the jack hammer, nor its bigger brother mounted on the excavating machine were much more efficient at the job than a teaspoon would have been.
We have learnt so much … especially about human anatomy: as you are aching in places you didn't even know you have muscles nor ligaments .
The most sobering experience is having to resort to hand work despite all the modern machinery we know is out there. Either because of budgetary or practical reasons. Good thing we had never laid a concrete floor before in our lives, and didn’t fully grasp what it meant in terms of labour when the factory refused to send a driver up here to come pour the concrete for us…
As a woman in my early forties, I didn't know what hard work and tenacity was before I came here, but when I look into the mirror now, I’m less impressed with Rocky’s biceps than I used to be.
Starting off as city folks in another country speaking a broken form of French, our story shows you don't have to know a whole lot, if you have a dream of a different life, go for it !
You only need to resemble a pit bull, not necessarily look like one, but you have to set your teeth into your project, and blindly trust that you will prevail one way or another. The line between genius and lunacy is a very thin one, and at this given moment it could still tilt both ways for us.
But suddenly, the old barn was satisfied with the amount of sweat, blood and tears we had sacrificed in its name and softened its stone allowing it to be broken out and carried away. Just in time, as we were starting to doubt if it would go biblical on us and demand our first born son … but it yielded midst gorgeous scenery and decided to bless our purpose after all.
In our worn out mind's eye, probably impaired by radon gas, we could see the spirits of the Farmers who had built this place in the late 1800’s with their bare hands , spitting a ghostly to***co spit in the sand, just missing our shoes and nod a short French nod as a salute of acceptance…
Felt as if we had earned our red, white and blue stripes and from that point on things sped up.
Yet this is no time to rest on our success ... both the hardest and the best is yet to come.
We haven't made it yet. We haven’t landed yet. The stress is still on the rise, our faith pushed even further beyond our boundaries and the doubt increases as the budget wears thin... Will the mountain grant us prosperity here?
Never become too cocky, you might drive up and down that mountain everyday, but always recognise its greater and stronger than you, a little snow, and unexpected storm is all it takes to put you in your place or even wipe you out of its way.
And remember nothing you accomplished, you did here by yourself. Without our neighbours being experienced and willing to share and help us out, without the good will of the local people and town council, without the support of family and all the helping hands we had blistered and roughened it would not have been possible.
We got this far and we have beaten the odds so many times. We continue to believe that if no task is below you, everything is figure-outable and if you remain flexible: The top is within reach .
Living midst the mountains for 2 years, I know the summit always seems closer than it is.
But once you stand up there, in awe of the beauty and magnitude of nature, looking down and realising how frail and tiny civilisation is you realise it’s all about the journey … and that success lies not in reaching the top, but in not having lost your car keys whilst up there.
