Our first WWOOF stop in Offwiller, Alsace: Straw-bale construction, organic gardening and lots of playing (3 July to 20 July, 2014)

After an initial cycling ride of over 900km, we reached our first destination, a WWOOF host in Offwiller, Alsace.  Alsace, with its complicated history (it switched hands between France and Germany 4 times between 1870 and 1949), distinctive culture and identity, and beautiful landscapes, made a great setting for our first stay...

THE PEOPLE:

Our WWOOF hosts consisted of a married couple (Parisian/Moroccan) and their 4 kids of 14, 12, 9 and 6 years old.  This meant a crowded house, but also lots of playfriends for Bodhi...

Katy with 6 y.o. Samir.

fun in the street.

Bodhi and 9 y.o. Amina.

the boys gettin' down in the kitchen.

14 y.o. Nawel takes Bo for a stroll.

pick-up game of footie in Offwiller.

siesta means ukelele and farm books.

we gave a mini-concert for the family; this was the scene afterwards.

Jeff and Bo on a village walkabout.

Amina and Bodhi made great pals.

Daddy and Bo watching...

...World Cup football.  Streamed on the internet and projected on the family room wall. 

Mammy and Bo out for a spin.

Pictured with a local family.  Bruno, seen on the left, is a lifetime resident of Offwiller.  He did a welding repair on Katy's bicycle and told us lots of local lore, mostly involving Second World War American-German battles right above the village and also of former Nazi presence in the village.   Amongst themselves the locals speak Elsassisch, a dialect of German, and identify more with being Alsatian than with either France or Germany.

Oh boy!  A big moment for Bodhi, as tractors just might be his favorite thing in the world at this point.

Bruno, who was especially thrilled to have an American staying in his village, brought around a whole crate of fresh plums for us.

... tonight we're having crepes for dinner.  Amina prepares the batter, whilst 12 y.o. Karim cooks the crepes...

Bodhi shares a laugh with the father, Mamed.

playing in the park in the neighbouring village of Rothbach.

all ready for a walk in the woods on Katy's Birthday.

Samir hits the forest trails.

quite an adventure crew here!

on Katy's birthday (19 July) the temperatures reached 36 degrees!  We headed to the nearby town of Ingwiller where there is a public pool...

... and cooled off.

the birthday girl having a cold beer in Ingwiller.

Nawel baked a chocolate cake for Katy and we celebrated back at the house.

THE PLACE:

Offwiller sits at the edge of a great forest expanse and above the surrounding farmlands.  For us, this meant no end of walks and explorations on foot.

Offwiller, as seem from this rooftop perspective, is quite a  magical place.

Bo sure loves it.

Alsatians like things neat and ordered, like these immaculate and ingenious free-standing firewood stacks.

Offwiller is chock full of old half-timbered houses like this one.

this is nearly right out the front door.  

several doors down.

the stunning homes make for great exploring around the village...

....as Bodhi would agree.

seen from a distance, the garden on the left in the mid-ground belongs to our hosts.  The fields just beyond are the source of all the straw bales in their construction project (see below).

Daddy and Bo chatting with a local.

The Great Garden Breastfeed.

Bo splashes around in the public fountain at the foot of the Protestant church 

Bo says: "clothing optional!"

the placenames betray Germanic roots to this region.

the street we are staying on, Rue de l'Eglise, ends at the forest not 75 meters from the front door...

... which makes for perfect hiking after work in the afternoons.

... some half-timbered gems seen in Rothbach...

looking back on Offwiller.  A serenely-sited village.

Jeff and Bo play around in late afternoon sun...

THE WORK:

Our hosts, Odile and Mamed, purchased this house 11 years previously and decided to perform a large addition using wood framing and straw-bale insulation.  We basically split our time working on the construction project and working in their garden plots.

you can make out the cob finish on the addition (upper back right).

the project seen from the street.  The addition (seen straight back where the scaffolding stands, and bearing the cob finish) was previously an old barn, which they tore out and are replacing with two levels and 5-6 rooms.  Straw bale construction dates back to the 1870's in Nebraska, USA.  

Jeff does cob finishing on the interior straw-packed walls and Bo gets in on the work.

the technique involves coaxing and massaging successive layers of cob onto the straw bales, which seals and protects the straw.

the straw is covered with a thickness of 5cm of cob, which creates a very thick and supremely-insulating wall.  Cool in summer, warm in winter.

Katy wets the straw before applying the first layer of cob, to increase adhesion.

\Bo runs about a room that previous WWOOFERs nearly completed.

After pushing toy trucks around, this may be his second favorite activity.

Jeff mixing up a fresh batch of cob.  The cob is composed of: clay, grass, straw, and water.

the cob, in buckets and waiting for application.

The other half of the work we did was organic gardening in the family's two nearby plots...

This is Offwiller's community garden area, where all villagers are welcome to maintain plots.

Bo helps Katy till the old bean patch.

Katy and Odile at work in the cabbage patch.

these two are up to no good: gobbling down all the fresh snap peas.

Jeff waters recent melon transplants.

who let this guy in the garden?

exploring the tomato patch.

Bo plays with an ear of wheat.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE REGION:

The Northern Vosges region, where Offwiller is located, is well-known in France for having a very well-developed trail system.  We took advantage of this every chance we got, as well as grabbing the bikes and stretching our legs out on the quiet country roads that criss-cross the region.

let loose in the forest...

on a day-hike in the forest above Offwiller.

Katy helps Bo along...

and he's got it!  Bo's first true hiking experience: following unaided the forest trails.  Age: 13 months, 3 weeks.   A momentous occasion, making his long-distance walking parents very proud.

the whole area also lends itself to great cycling.

a motif in this region: spectacularly-planted old wagons and carts.  This one in Lichtenberg, just a few kms from Offwiller.

a bit of Alsatian history.  This photo is from a Lichtenberg village fair in 1938.

who's that running about?

Lichtenberg is fantastically-situated...

Jeff seated outside the 500 y.o. Lichtenberg castle walls, waiting to photograph...

a Peregrine Falcon chick being fed!  nesting high up in the castle walls.

On day rides Jeff takes a break from the double-wide Cougar beast and pulls Bodhi around.

deserted forest roads make for great cycling.

Bo, out for the count.

striking farmhouse.

Alsace is famous for its storks, now plentiful after a successful reintroduction program dating back to the 1970's.

late afternoon rural scene.

the nearby villages of Schillersdorf and Menschausen make for some good exploration...

hawk on a haybale.

Katy cruises in late-afternoon light.

That's Bodhi tickling his Daddy with fern leaves.

hiking through great woods near Rothbach.

Bo having a look about...

and ending up at his favorite spot in the world.

just wanted to make sure you are who you say you are, mister.